World Cup 2014 – Spain’s End Game

Below is a random rant I just posted on my Facebook page.  God- I love the world cup!

Yes this is a long post.

2006 World Cup- Who would win it all? Well France of course! Why France? Henry, Vieira, Gallas, Wiltord, those were the main reasons why. Some of Arsenal’s finest (some past, some present) all from France and for most of these guys it was looking to possibly be their last world cup Yet, they looked nearly as strong as the ’98 French national team. Long story short, they lost to Italy in the final from PKs- even non-soccer loving people remember this game (and the world cup in general) mainly from the infamous headbutt from Zidane.

On to the point of this post- out of the 2006 world cup there was a country that had nothing but young talent and had a ton of future potential. This country was Spain. Not to mention Fabregas and Reyes made the squad (Gunners!). Why did Spain really stand out? It wasn’t the fact that they won all three group play games (they had an easy group), but because they faced the mighty French in the round of 16. Yes, France went on to beat Spain in this game, but the 3-1 score really doesn’t reflect that game. France trailed for a while and did not equalize until late in the first half. I remember thinking that game could be the end of France’s march to another world cup championship on European soil. France would eventually put 2 more in the back of the net to advance on.

From that round of 16 game I had a lot of respect for Spain and really took an interest to the entire them and all of the individual players. Majority of those same players would go on to win 2 back to back European Championships (2008 & 2012) and the 2010 World Cup. I truly believed they could do what no team has ever done and I don’t think will even come as close as Spain has- winning back to back Euros and World Cups two times consecutively. BUT, it didn’t happen! Life goes on.

Thank you Spain for 6 years worth of some of the most amazing futbol!!

Anyway, this might have turned more into a rant than anything else! LOL I guess the anxiety of Spain winning this thing is gone and now I can truly just enjoy some damn good soccer. There’s no excuse- Spain fell flat, looked disorganized and had zero control over midfield. They lacked the creativity that generally comes to light for them. Congrats to Chile- they looked awesome and their clash against Holland (who’s also looking solid) will hopefully be a great game nonetheless.