What Next for Spain?

June 25th, 2009 | by: Daryl |

Much of the reaction to USA beating Spain 2-0 in yesterday’s Confederations Cup semi-final has focused on the winning team. And quite rightly too. Beating Spain was and is a huge result for the USA, and possibly a turning point in Bob Bradley’s regime.

But how will the loss affect Spain? They had wowed everyone in winning Euro 2008, changed coaches without skipping a beat and won six out of six in World Cup 2010 qualifying. Their unbeaten streak was a record-tying 35 games and they’ve been FIFA’s #1 ranked team for what feels like forever.

For most people, Spain’s Confederations Cup 2009 campaign was either going to end with another trophy, or maybe a narrow defeat to Brazil in the final.

Obviously a 2-0 defeat to a CONCACAF team doesn’t mean Spain are suddenly useless. Vicente del Bosque’s men had more possession and more shots at goal, and if not for the heroics of Oguchi Onyewu, Jay DeMerit and Tim Howard, they could easily have won yesterday’s game. But they didn’t. And so now that aura of invincibility is gone.

Spain are still the best team in the world. The team that’s really clicking at international level. And it wouldn’t surprise anyone if they go on to win their first World Cup when they return to South Africa in 2010. But that all depend on how the team handles yesterday’s surprise defeat.

Will there be questions about their style of play not being direct enough? Do we now believe that Spain aren’t the same without Andres Iniesta (injured for this tournament)? Does this 2-0 loss hint at a possible choke at the 2010 World Cup? Or will Spain just shrug this off and go back to crushing opposition teams?

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http://hull.theoffside.com Matt

I think they’ll just carry on destroying everyone. And Iniesta’s absence really hurt. With Xavi being hounded all over the park they really could have used him. Still a good bet for the title next year I think.
Bob

Distroying everyone is a stretch Matt, distroying minnows is more like it as they seem to have difficulty with the better teams. As for being the world’s best, in my opinion there is no team that fits that title in this day and age, every game is a gamble and victory is not certain, Spain has been reminded of this time and time again in big games.
alex

spain lost because they finally played a decent team….south africa, iraq, new zealand….cmon!…spain thought that they could just skip right into the finals…and now everyone is crying for iniesta…please…they beat everyone in there group with ease…they had possesion, they had shots, and they even were a man up and still couldnt score???…the US hit them in the mouth and they didnt know what to do…plain and simple…and to tell you the truth…this was the same old spain we got use to seeing…(before they won the euro 08)
Applesauce

Spain is still the best team in the world, however matches aren’t decided on paper and no team is invincible.

“The ball is round, the game lasts 90 minutes, everything else is pure theory.”
Seth

I still consider Spain to be the #1 team at the moment. Every big gun suffers a shock defeat or two from time to time. But what makes the big teams different from the minnows is consistency in form. For Spain, this was probably just a small bump, but just look at their fine impressive form ever since winning Euro 2008. I think they will continue to impress. USA, on the other hand, lack consistency. They can challenge any team on a given day yet illustrate the complete opposite another day. They’re never the same team in my opinion, and this Confederation Cup is a prime example of what I mean. Anyway, Spain will certainly be a major threat next year. And who knows, this defeat could be a blessing in disguise for Spain. I think they were becoming a tad bit over confident. Respecting your opponent should be an aspect of any great team.

Oh and Daryl, I’m also considering your mighty lions as a threat next year (who knows, this time they might actually win a penalty shoot-out :P)
Yankee

Spain will recover. If anything this loss is good for them as it brings them a dose of reality as they learn to always be on their toes. I am still betting for Spain to win the world cup next year.
BM

The players’ post-match comments say everything. The U.S. team knows that it won through strength and cunning and luck together. There’s still room for improvement, especially where consistency is concerned.

Spain seems to be taking the loss with equanimity, which they must do in order to maintain their focus on 2010. There is no reason to fall apart.

Supporters on both sides will continue the debate, but only the teams can determine the significance of this result.
sandrahn

Bob: “Distroying everyone is a stretch Matt, distroying minnows is more like it as they seem to have difficulty with the better teams”

What an incredibly stupid, ignorant comment! How long have you been watching Spain? Spain beat Holland, Russia, Italy, Germany at the Euros last summer.

Yeah, those are real minnows. Crap teams, all of them.

I’d like to see the US beat all those teams.

So now the US is better than Spain, Holland, Russia, Italy and Germany. After winning two games at a low level tournament no one in Europe cares about. Delusional stuff.

Spain will be fine. They’re still a world class team that had a bad day. I don’t like calling any team “the best in the world” because there really is no such thing but they come pretty close.

However, this result just proves the old maxim about European national teams playing outside Europe: THEY DON’T WIN THESE TOURNAMENTS. Doesn’t matter how good they are. They can come close, even get to the final. But they don’t win.

Non-European teams, on the other hand, don’t win in Europe either. Brazil did it once in 1958 when the world cup was a much smaller tournament. They haven’t done it since.
Dustin

I think there’s only one thing for Spain to do at this point. Dismantle their national team and ban soccer forever. The United States is not going to tolerate Spain trying to ever beat them after this, so it’s over, give it up.

Maybe all those players can make very nice Flamenco dancers or something. Either way it was a good run but times have changed, goodbye Spain, we’ll miss you.
OhYes

The U.S. is the first good team they faced? I guess it’s easy to forget the Euros.

I’m not worried about Spain. One loss after 35 games is not bad, but it is important that they learn from the loss. Were they tired? Obviously they’d have to find a way to prevent fatigue, or learn how to rotate. The loss of Iniesta was devastating, he definitely would have made a huge impact in the game. How can Spain replace him?

The important thing is that the Confed cup has them playing every other 2 days, and some of those players (Xavi in particular) have played a massive number of games this season so I would expect them to be tired.
The Wall

I agree with Seth, la Seleccion will realize that the Tactics which they use, works best with high intensity. Winning so many games in a row, most by just coasting and without high intensity, wasn’t good for the team. This will be extra motivation for Spain, and they’ll look like how they did that second half(attacking attacking attacking futbol) all 90 minutes all next year and hopefully they’ll raise that cup. They hunger for it more than any other team in the world(I promise you).
And as I devout Spain fan, I’m glad we lost our streak to the U.S.(and yes, I was solky) and not some other team, this will help U.S.A. soccer and it will help the psyche of Spain.
Kahn

sandrahn, get your facts straight! Spain did NOT beat Holland, never have and never will. Holland lost to Russia in the Euro, and Spain dismantled Russia afterward. Spain did NOT beat Holland.
Holland is Better than Spain.
Madridista

Kahn, while Spain did not beat Holland, you would have to go quite a bit to find someone who would agree that the current Holland is better than the current Spain, especially after both teams’ Euro showings against Russia.

Spain HAS beaten Holland before.

I don’t think Spain will simply fall apart after this, and not under del Bosque. I think there was some complacency before the match, especially since Spain were expecting to play Italy or Egypt. Also it does look like a combination of factors coming together: sky-high confidence for the Americans, Spain going on auto-pilot instead of paying attention, individual mistakes by the Spanish full-backs, missing not just Iniesta but Silva, who were the wingmen in Euro 2008. Eduardo Alvarez has an insightful article on Soccernet discussing some of these reasons for the loss.

We will see. I think this squad, at least, will retain a winning mentality.
Dustin

“I don’t think Spain will simply fall apart after this…”

Well of course not, that is why I’m proposing a systematic dismantling of Spain’s Soccer/Football organizations. You have until Next World Cup to comply.