Spain Underachieve Again

June 16, 2010

The same people that are shocked by Spain’s loss to Switzerland should take their share of responsibility. For months Spain have been labeled the over whelming red hot favorites with seemingly only Brazil able to compete with them for the World Cup trophy. What pundits fail to realize that winning a tournament is not as simple as who has the best players. There is a mentality you must have to win things. Brazill, Germany and Italy historically have it inbreaded in them how to win. Spain contray to what you may have heard have not.

Expectations boiled over after Spain’s Euro 2008 triumph, causing an assumption that Spain had ended their years of under achievement.

While without question todays result was a shock all Spain have actually done is continue what has become a World Cup tradition. This is not the first time a talented Spanish team have come to the finals to under perform ( they have not gone beyond the quarter finals since 1950).

All the Europen Championships showed was Spain are a quality team, with great players who play beautifull football but they still need to prove they could handle the pressure of expectation. It takes years for even great side to get used to the demand to win every game, Spain is a footballing nation who have never proved that, they have proved the opposite.

Not that you can fault the performance. Spain had enough chances to win the match handsomely but before the goal they over played with a slight arrogance . Every chance they missed was met with a smile, comfort in the knowledge that chances would fall their way.

A sudden urgency was evident as soon as Fernandes scrambled the ball over the line. Maybe this will be a blessing in disguise, a wake up call to get the Spanish to focus, maybe will will see a degree of humanity. Maybe the likes of Fabregas and Torres can forget about trying to sort out their transfers and realize they are at the World Cup. A World Cup no matter how good a team you are you can never expect to just show up and win it.

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