Friday, June 26, 2009
How pathetic is this?Out of all teams to lose against,out of all teams to break Spain's undefeated streak,it had to be USA?You've got to be joking.C'mon be realistic for a minute.USA isn't as good as Spain,but somehow they pulled off a miraculous 2-0 victory against the current Euro Champions to qualify for the FIFA Confederations Cup Finals to meet Brazil.Shows how unpredictable the game can be.Don't tell me they're gonna slay the Samba Kings.That will be a very history making moment in the world of football/soccer.Let's take a look at Spain's squad for the competition.
Keepers:
Iker Casillas* - Real Madrid
Diego Lopez - Villareal
Jose Manuel Reina - Liverpool
Defenders:
Raul Albiol - Valencia CF/Real Madrid
Gerard Pique - FC Barcelona
Carlos Marchena - Valencia CF
Carles Puyol - FC Barcelona
Joan Capdevila - Villareal
Sergio Ramos - Real Madrid
Alvaro Arbeloa - Liverpool
Midfielders:
Pablo Hernandez - Valencia CF
Xavi Hernandez - FC Barcelona
Cesc Fabregas - Arsenal
Sergi Busquets - FC Barcelona
Xabi Alonso - Liverpool
Albert Riera - Liverpool
Santi Cazorla - Villareal
David Silva - Valencia CF
Juan Mata - Valencia CF
Forwards:
David Villa - Valencia CF
Fernando Torres - Liverpool CF
Fernando Llorente - Athletic Bilbao
Dani Guiza - Fenerbahce
*Itallic is the team captain
Even with a squad biasedly full of players from good teams,they are unable to win the competition.They didnt even make it to the finals.How is that possible?Unbelivable.Is the manager's tactics to be questioned here?I don't know.I cannot say anything about it because looking at the current manager's record,Vicente del Bosque,it seems very impressive.Out of 14 matches,he has won 13 and lost only 1 with no draws at all.That is a very good stat for a manager.It was just a bad day for the whole team possibly,and a very lucky day for USA's squad,although I'm sure they will be wanting to prove otherwise with a victory over Brazil,the team which has won the FIFA World Cup the most number of times with 5.
Now let's take a look at the Brazil national football team squad.
Keepers:
Julio Cesar - Inter Milan
Victor - Gremio
Gomes - Tottenham Hotspur
Defenders:
Maicon - Inter Milan
Lucio* - Bayern Munich
Juan - AS Roma
Kleber - Internacional
Dani Alves - FC Barcelona
Luisao - Benfica
Miranda - Sao Paulo
Andre Santos - Corinthians
Midfielders:
Felipe Melo - Fiorentina
Elano - Manchester City
Gilberto Silva - Panathinaikos
Kaka - Real Madrid
Josue - Wolfsburg
Ramires - Benfica
Julio Baptista - AS Roma
Kleberson - Flamengo
Forwards:
Luis Fabiano - Sevilla
Robinho - Manchester City
Alexandre Pato - AC Milan
Nilmar - Internacional
*
Italic is the team captain
I bet when you guys look at the squad,you might be wondering about some of the football stars in the team.I think current manager Dunga did a wonderful job of creating a squad filled with young and experienced players with a perfect balance.Firstly,it is a great time for them to showcase their talents in the competition.As you can see,the players come from teams from all around the world.Germany,Portugal,Spain,England,Italy,Greece and even Brazil itself.Some coaches would not even bother looking far.They will just take star players from well-known teams like Real Madrid,AC Milan,Inter Milan and so on.When Dunga did this,I thought it was a pretty good way of making a wonderful squad.And,it is good for each of them individually too.Players like Nilmar,Miranda and Andre Santos might attract the better teams if they show a very good performance which will definitely help their football careers.
Now let's look at USA's squad.
Keepers:
Tim Howard - Everton
Brad Guzan - Aston Villa
Luis Robles - Kaiserslautern
Defenders:
Jonathan Bornstein - Chivas USA
Carlos Bocanegra* - Rennes
Oguchi Onyewu - Standard Liege
Heath Pearce - Hansa Rostock II
Marvell Wynne - Toronto FC
Danny Califf - Midtjylland
Jay DeMerit - Watford
Jonathan Spector - West Ham United
Midfielders:
DaMarcus Beasley - Rangers
Clint Dempsey - Fulham
Michael Bradley - Borussia Monchengladbach
Ricardo Clark - Houston Dynamo
Sacha Kljestan - Chivas USA
Freddy Adu - Benfica
Jose Francisco Torres - Pachuca
Benny Feilhaber - AGF
Forwards:
Conor Casey - Colorado Rapids
Charlie Davies - Hammarby
Landon Donovan - Los Angeles Galaxy
Jozy Altidore - Villareal
*Italic is the team captain
So,if you were to compare both squad,wouldn't you agree that Brazil would be winning?I would too,but one has to look at the overall performance of both teams.In the Group Stage,Brazil beat USA with the score of 3-0.But Brazil was struggling against Egypt,which they won 4-3,and that is due to Kaka's penalty.If the penalty wasn't given,would Brazil still be able to win?We won't know.Somehow,USA won against Egypt with the same emphatic score which they lost to Brazil.We cannot rule out a win for USA,which will be a stunning victory for sure if they do win.We will just have to wait and see if they can pull it off.
My predictions:
USA 0-2 Brazil
Spain 1-0 South Africa
{#4 - HäZ¡Q™ - YoUnG SaViOrZ CF} 10:22 PM
