Soccer World Cup 2010 / Spain

This article covers the Spanish national soccer team at the 2010 Soccer World Cup in South Africa .

qualification

The Spaniards successfully started their World Cup qualification with a narrow home win against Bosnia-Herzegovina . Two clear victories over Armenia and Estonia followed . The Iberians conceded their first goal in the next match in Brussels against Belgium when Wesley Sonck gave the Belgians an early lead. The Spanish midfielder Andrés Iniesta was able to equalize for the Selección in the first half and David Villa scored the winning goal in the 88th minute.

The two following games against Turkey were evenly matched, but thanks to the individual class of the Spaniards and a goal by Gerard Piqué , the Iberians won the first game at the Estadio Santiago Bernabéu in Madrid. In the second game against the Turks a few days later in Istanbul at the Ali Sami Yen Stadium , the hosts took the lead with a goal from Semih Şentürk . Xabi Alonso with a penalty goal and Albert Riera decided the game in favor of the guests. In the game that followed, the Spaniards overran the Belgian guests, who had virtually no chance and drove home with a 5-0 bankruptcy.

The Spaniards were able to extend their impressive winning streak and also won the last three qualifying games. In the last game in Zenica, the Spaniards once again showed their offensive qualities and only allowed the unsuccessful Bosnian-Herzegovinians two goals in the final phase after the Spaniards had already presented with five goals. This made Spain the only team to win all ten qualifying games and collect 30 points. The Selección's top scorer was David Villa, who scored seven goals. The reigning European champion starts the 2010 World Cup in a group with Switzerland , Honduras and Chile .

rank	country	Gates	Points
1	Spain	28: 5	30th
2	Bosnia and Herzegovina	25:13	19th
3	Turkey	13:10	15th
4th	Belgium	13:20	10
5	Estonia	9:24	8th
6th	Armenia	6:22	4th

	Spain - Bosnia-Herzegovina		1: 0 (0: 0)
	Goal scorers: David Villa
	Spain - Armenia		4: 0 (2: 0)
	Goal scorers: Joan Capdevila , David Villa (2), Marcos Senna
	Estonia - Spain		0: 3 (0: 2)
	Goal scorers: Juan Gutiérrez Moreno , David Villa , Carles Puyol
	Belgium - Spain		1: 2 (1: 1)
	Goal scorers: Wesley Sonck ; Andrés Iniesta , David Villa
	Spain - Turkey		1: 0 (0: 0)
	Goal scorers: Gerard Piqué
	Turkey - Spain		1: 2 (1: 0)
	Goal scorers: Semih Şentürk ; Xabi Alonso , Albert Riera
	Spain - Belgium		5: 0 (1: 0)
	Goal scorers: David Silva (2), David Villa (2), Gerard Piqué
	Spain - Estonia		3: 0 (1: 0)
	Goal scorers: Cesc Fàbregas , Santi Cazorla , Juan Mata
	Armenia - Spain		1: 2 (0: 1)
	Goal scorers: Robert Arzumanyan ; Cesc Fàbregas , Juan Mata
	Bosnia-Herzegovina - Spain		2: 5 (0: 2)
	Goal scorers: Edin Džeko , Zvjezdan Misimović ; Gerard Piqué , David Silva , Álvaro Negredo (2), Juan Mata

preparation

The Spanish national team started their training camp on May 24th in the Ciudad del Fútbol , the sports center of the Spanish Football Association , in Las Rozas . From May 29th to June 3rd, the Iberians continued their preparation in Schruns , Austria . The Selección played two friendlies in Innsbruck's Tivoli-Neu during this period ; on May 29th they defeated Saudi Arabia 3-2 and on June 3rd they beat South Korea 1-0. The team won the last preparation game before the World Cup on June 8th at the Estadio Nueva Condomina in Murcia, Spain, 6-0 against Poland .

Spanish contingent

The Spanish national coach Vicente del Bosque announced on May 20, 2010 the line-up of 23 players. The squad was largely based on that of the 2008 European Championships , but not among others are the European champions Marcos Senna , Santi Cazorla or Daniel Güiza . With Víctor Valdés , Javi Martínez and Pedro , three players were on the list who had not yet made their debut in the national team when the squad was announced.

The 23-man squad:

No.	Surname	Club before the start of the World Cup	birthday	Games	Gates
goalkeeper
1	Iker Casillas	real Madrid	05/20/1981	7th	0	0	0	0
12	Víctor Valdés	FC Barcelona	01/14/1982	0	0	0	0	0
23	Pepe Reina	Liverpool FC	08/31/1982	0	0	0	0	0
Defender
2	Raúl Albiol	real Madrid	04.09.1985	0	0	0	0	0
3	Gerard Piqué	FC Barcelona	02/02/1987	7th	0	1	0	0
4th	Carlos Marchena	Valencia CF	07/31/1979	3	0	0	0	0
5	Carles Puyol	FC Barcelona	04/13/1978	7th	1	1	0	0
11	Joan Capdevila	Villarreal CF	02/03/1978	7th	0	1	0	0
15th	Sergio Ramos	real Madrid	03/30/1986	7th	0	1	0	0
17th	Álvaro Arbeloa	real Madrid	January 17, 1983	1	0	0	0	0
midfield player
6th	Andrés Iniesta	FC Barcelona	05/11/1984	6th	2	1	0	0
8th	Xavi	FC Barcelona	January 25, 1980	7th	0	1	0	0
10	Cesc Fàbregas	Arsenal FC	05/04/1987	4th	0	0	0	0
13	Juan Mata	Valencia CF	04/28/1988	1	0	0	0	0
14th	Xabi Alonso	real Madrid	11/25/1981	7th	0	1	0	0
16	Sergio Busquets	FC Barcelona	07/16/1988	7th	0	1	0	0
20th	Javi Martínez	Athletic Bilbao	09/02/1988	1	0	0	0	0
21st	David Silva	Valencia CF	01/08/1986	2	0	0	0	0
22nd	Jesús Navas	Sevilla FC	11/21/1985	3	0	0	0	0
striker
7th	David Villa	Valencia CF	December 3rd, 1981	7th	5	0	0	0
9	Fernando Torres	Liverpool FC	03/20/1984	7th	0	0	0	0
18th	Pedro	FC Barcelona	07/28/1987	5	0	0	0	0
19th	Fernando Llorente	Athletic Bilbao	02/26/1985	1	0	0	0	0
Trainer
	Vicente del Bosque		December 23, 1950

Quarter

The Spanish national team traveled to South Africa on June 10th, where they moved to Potchefstroom , about 120 km southwest of Johannesburg , on the campus of the Northwest University .

Games

Preliminary round

rank	country	Gates	Points
1	Spain	4: 2	6th
2	Chile	3: 2	6th
3	Switzerland	1: 1	4th
4th	Honduras	0: 3	1

The European champions from Spain, traded as one of the tournament favorites, started with a false start. Not only did they fail to score against the defensive Swiss, they also caught a counter goal. After this defeat, however, they were able to win the two remaining preliminary round games with solid performances and they even moved into the second round as group winners.

Striker Villa was the guarantee for progress. Against Honduras he stood out for an unpunished assault, missed a penalty, but scored nonetheless twice. Against Chile he scored the 1-0 and prepared the 2-0. So he was involved in all of the preliminary rounds.

• Wednesday, June 16, 2010, 4 p.m. in Durban Spain - Switzerland 0: 1 (0: 1)
   
• Monday, June 21, 2010, 8.30 p.m. in Johannesburg (Ellis Park) Spain - Honduras 2: 0 (1: 0)
   
• Friday, June 25, 2010, 8.30 p.m. in Tshwane / Pretoria Chile - Spain 1: 2 (0: 2)
   

Final round

Spain won all games in the final round 1-0.

Round of 16

• Tuesday June 29, 2010; 8:30 p.m. in Cape Town Spain - Portugal 1: 0 (0: 0)
   

In the 63rd minute, David Villa scored after a pass from Xavi to make the game 1-0, but he was offside. Ricardo Costa saw in the 89th minute the red card for an assault on Capdevila.

Quarter finals

• Saturday, July 3, 2010; 8:30 p.m. in Johannesburg (Ellis Park) Paraguay - Spain 0: 1 (0: 0)
   

Again it was Villa who scored for Spain in the 83rd minute, marking his fifth goal in the tournament.

Semifinals

• Wednesday July 7, 2010; 20:30 in Durban Germany - Spain 0: 1 (0: 0)
   

In the 73rd minute, Puyol scored the decisive 1-0 after Spain failed to take advantage of several chances to take the lead. Further opportunities to expand leadership were missed.

final

• Sunday July 11, 2010; 8:30 p.m. in Johannesburg (Soccer City) Netherlands - Spain 0: 1 a.d.
   

Andrés Iniesta shot Spain to the world title in the 116th minute.

Goal statistics

• Spain scored the fewest goals in absolute and relative terms to reach the world championship title: 8 goals in 7 games = 1.14 / game. The previous absolute minus records were Italy / 1938 (11/4 - 11 goals in 4 games), England / 1966 (11/6) and Brazil / 1994 (11/7) and the previous relative minus records were Brazil / 1994 (11 / 7 = 1.57) as well as Italy 1982 & Italy 2006 (12/7 = 1.71).
• The world champion with the most goals (absolute & per game) was Germany in 1954 (25/6 = 4.17).

Web links

• Results of the Spanish national team during qualification
• All matches of the preliminary round at a glance
• Squad Spain

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Spain - Bosnia-Herzegovina (match report)
2. ↑ Belgium - Spain (match report)
3. ↑ Spain - Turkey (match report)
4. ↑ Turkey - Spain (match report)
5. ↑ Spain - Belgium (match report)
6. ↑ Bosnia-Herzegovina - Spain (match report)
7. ↑ Lista de los vientrés jugadores convocados para el Mundial de Sudáfrica 2010. (No longer available online.) In: Real Federación Española de Fútbol . May 20, 2010, archived from the original on May 23, 2010 ; Retrieved May 20, 2010 (Spanish). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
8. ↑ Match report Spain – Portugal at kicker.de
9. ↑ https://www.welt.de/sport/wm2010/article8359392/Spanier-Puyol-beendet-Deutschlands-Titeltraum.html