Wat a start to this world cup..GO SPAIN !!

my bet is on SPAIN..and yesterday they put on the most impressive display in this world cup, after the first round of group matches were over.Ukaine would have never thought that they were so vulnerable. Credit must be given to spanish goal machines. And not to forget more than half the time the team was playing without RAUL, who is hailed as best spanish player of all time.Couldnt possibly give a better start to this world cup.4-0 is the best score in world cup thus far. way to go !!!

The team played with 4-3-3 formation, definitly with a mind set to thrash the ukranian side with frontman as schevchenko, a recent addition to chelsea in one of the highest paid deals ever. in my opinion ukraine was the toughest opponent for them in the group rounds, and they dealt with them in style, needless to say, complete domination in all forms of the game.

starting 11 were
GK: Iker Casillas
DL: Mariano Pernia; DC: Pablo Ibanez; DC: Carles Puyol; DR: Sergio Ramos
MC: Xavi; MC: Xabi Alonso; MC: Marcos Senna
FW: Luis Garcia; FW: David Villa; FW: Fernando Torres

not to forget they had raul, reyes, del horno, lopez, fabregas on bench. so pretty decent team on paper, and i feel that they were the only ones to liquidise their full potential. though there were a lot of missed chances, but wat the fuck, you cant convert every move in a goal.

ukranian defence was never given a chance to rest, with all three spanish forwards starting their journey towards ticking the scoreboard, right from kick off. i missed the first few minutes, damn bangalore traffic and my office too :(. and to make matter worse, it was raining, which obviously screwed up the reception. anyways, first attempt was a fierce blow from senna in 12th minute,which the ukranian goalkeeper diverted over the bar. briiliant save !!

and the next attempt brought the first mark on the score card in 13th min. it was a perfect corner from xavi, which alonso managed to deflect towards goal. he made it look so simple. though shovkovsky( ukranian goalkeeper) managed to touch the ball with his hand, he couldnt do much then to helplessly staring at the ball getting netted.

soon after, another blow to ukranian defence came in form of powerful free kick from villa, who was in tremendous form yesterday and thoughout the season. this 25 yards stunner from villa took a major deviation from a ukranian defender, thus wasting shovkovsky's effort to stop the ball from getting netted. so at the end of 18 minutes spain were leading 2-0. then ukraine never came back into the match, and spanish domination continued until the end. there were a lot of nice moves made by senna in midfield. though i didnt see much of action from pernia's side, he is a player to look for this season.

spaniards were oozing with confidence during half time and ukranians were frustated. and it was in this time that one of thr defenders comitted a blunder in penalty region. the result, a red card and a penalty kick. not many miss it, and so wouldnt the man in form, villa who scored his second goal of the match. not that spain needed it, but they had 3-0 lead with tht penalty kick .and to worsen the conditions, ukranians had to play with 10 men then on.

later senna found the net from 20 yards but it was disallowed because Sergio Ramos had clattered into a ukranian defender.

but the goal of the day was yet to come from torres. puyol gave an absolutly elegant header, which torres picked on the run and this resulted in a brilliant goal, a perfect example of what they call clinical finishing. and here completed spain its 4-0 run over ukraine, completely thrashing their opponent.

not that it was just a game of forwards, but defence was tight, and puyol did a wonderful job in checking shevchenko. and also, for the class of the players he belongs to, his team was under par and that cost ukraine dearly. although the ukranians tried something in first half,in the next they realised the game was far from their reach.

but one of the most impressive things about the spanish gameplay was thr passing. they managed to slip the ball through tight positions and have really mastered one touch gaming, though it is not preffered in european football in which they rely more on long passes. but however spaniards form a league of thr own.thr defense seemed quite composed with the presence of puyol, ramos and pablo.

all in all, an incredible start for the european powerhouse. and who knows this might well end thr poor record in world cup. amen !! thr next game is with tunisia on 19th. i hope the goal margin will be even higher on this one.

p.s. data picked up from various news sites.

Labels: Lord's review, Soccer, Sports, Yaaaaayyyyyyyyyy