Madrid - The Spanish media are delighted with their team's
5-0 thrashing of New Zealand on Sunday, in their impressive
Confederations Cup debut.
The handsome win, with an early hat-trick from Fernando Torres, is
the front-page splash in every Spanish newspaper on Monday.
Barcelona paper La Vanguardia talks about 'an impressive win, in
front of the whole world,' whilst Madrid paper ABC calls Vicente del
Bosque's team 'the best national team ever.'
The current numbers of 'La Seleccion' would certainly support this
claim. Spain have now gone 33 games without defeat, since 2006, and
are three games away from breaking the world unbeaten record of
Brazil between 1993 and 1996.
In addition, they have won all 11 of their matches since Del
Bosque took over from Euro 2008 hero Luis Aragones 11 months ago.
The taciturn, understated Del Bosque has made an excellent start
in the job: practically qualifying Spain for the 2010 World Cup
finals, and now setting the Confederations Cup on fire on a flood of
goals.
According to Madrid daily El Mundo, 'what is positive about this
result (against New Zealand) is not just the scoreline, but that the
team was faithful to its traditional style of play ... possession
football, with precise passing and fast breaks down the flanks.'
Sports daily Marca points out that Del Bosque's team does not play
with conventional wingers, 'so it is important that the full-backs
(Sergio Ramos and Joan Capedvila) make good progress down the flanks
and put over centres, as they did last night.'
Most Spanish papers on Monday carry the judgement of New Zealand
coach Ricki Herbert, who said that 'we have played against the best
team in the world.'
Spain are top of FIFA's national team rankings, and are likely to
stay there for some time.
The only note of caution is truck by sports daily AS, which
comments that 'the initial group will be too easy' and that 'this
tournament will not really begin until the second finals.'
Spain's other two Group A matches will be against Iraq on
Wednesday and hosts South Africa on Saturday. Then they will,
presumably, face either Brazil or Italy in the semi-finals.
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