Tuesday, 8 June 2010
International Match
Spain v Poland
Date/Time: Jun 8, 2010, 21:00GMT
Competition: Friendly
Live/Repeat: Live
International Friendly Preview: Spain vs Poland
In their last opportunity to prepare before attempting to win the 2010 FIFA World Cup trophy in South Africa, Vicente del Bosque’s side will play Poland at the Estadio Nueva Condomina in Murcia. This friendly match will kick off at 20:00 GMT.
Spain's Raul Albiol defends against South Korea. Spain seem to have lost the scintillating brilliance that amazed audiences during Euro 2008. In South Africa last year, there were concerns over La Furia Roja’s performances throughout the 2009 Confederations Cup where they failed to clinch glory. Vicente del Bosque might explain Spain’s unimpressive form against Saudi Arabia and South Korea lately as the result of trying different tactics with less capped players like Jesus Navas and Pedro.
Either way, there is also the excuse that Spain’s players are visibly suffering to adapt to the 2010 FIFA World Cup official match ball, Jabulani. But is this the only reason why the Spanish allowed so many holes in defense for the Koreans to create goal scoring opportunities which they couldn’t take at the relief of the 2009 Confederations Cup bronze medalists?
Well, the Spanish are widely regarded as underachievers based on their World Cup record. If they can keep the unbeaten record they set against Poland since the 1950s and stretch their winning run to 12 matches since losing 2-0 to the USA in the Confederations Cup semis, then they will surely have the necessary amount of momentum to battle at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
Torres is the only member of Del Bosque's 23-man squad that did not feature in either of their friendly wins over Saudi Arabia and South Korea as the Liverpool striker continues to recover from the knee surgery he underwent in April.
Talk coming out of the Spain camp about Torres has been positive, but the 26-year-old has still to return to competitive action and it remains to be seen if he will feature.
Away from the question mark hanging over Torres, the make-up of Del Bosque's team for the clash with Poland is likely to mirror the one that starts Spain's opening World Cup match against Switzerland on June 16.
Those two triumphs saw Spain improve their phenomenal run of form to 44 victories - including two after extra time - in 47 matches, with just one defeat.
However, this is also the last chance for the coach and the players to iron out any kinks and fine-tune their playing system, style and strategy for the finals. And after unconvincing performances against Saudi Arabia and South Korea in their two prior warm-up games, La Furia Roja will be eager to put on a good showing in front of their home fans to ensure they head to South Africa in the right frame of mind and full of confidence.
Del Bosque is expected to field his strongest available side and this clash could serve as a dress rehearsal for how Spain will line-up throughout the World Cup finals.
The Iberian nation needed late winners from Fernando Llorente and Jesus Navas to beat Saudi Arabia (3-2) and South Korea (1-0) though, and Del Bosque knows there is still work to do before the start of the World Cup.
Poland will be playing no part in the World Cup after finishing a disappointing fifth in their qualifying group, 11 points behind winners Slovakia.
This is the first time since France ’98 that Poland have failed to qualify for the World Cup. Despite having no competition to fight for this summer, the Poles are not taking this series of friendlies lightly.
The Poles drew their two recent friendly matches 0-0, against Finland and Serbia.
What will be of greater interest is how well La Roja perform and how convincing a display it will be.
Watch Spain v Poland Live
FORM GUIDE
Spain
Jun 03 Spain 1-0 South Korea (Friendly)
May 29 Spain 3-2 Saudi Arabia (Friendly)
Mar 03 France 0-2 Spain (Friendly)
Nov 18 Austria 1-5 Spain (Friendly)
Nov 14 Spain 2-1 Argentina (Friendly)
Poland
Jun 02 Serbia 0-0 Poland (Friendly)
May 29 Poland 0-0 Finland (Friendly)
Mar 03 Poland 2-0 Bulgaria (Friendly)
Jan 23 Poland 6-1 Singapore (Friendly)
Jan 20 Thailand 1-3 Poland (Friendly)
TEAM NEWS
Spain
Fernando Torres remains the only player in the 23-man squad yet to earn game time in the two friendlies so far. But ‘El Nino’ looks to have proven his match fitness after making a full recovery from his knee operation and he will be given a run-out on Tuesday.
Probable Starting XI (4-2-3-1): Casillas – Arbeloa, Pique, Puyol, Capdevila – Busquets, Xabi Alonso – David Silva, Xavi, Iniesta – David Villa
Poland
Last Starting XI (4-4-2): Fabianski – Kowalczyk, Wojtkowiak, Sadlok, Piszczek – Peszko, Dudka, Mierzejewski, Blaszczykowski – Lewandowskim, Nowak
Spain vs Poland Live Streams and TV Channels
FIFA.com
FIFA.com
(International)
source: livesoccertv.com
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