Spain NT News and Rumours

No friendly on FIFA match date 29. February ?

 

MARCA said recently that negotiations were still ongoing with Venezuela.
FIFA website has the match listed with Málaga as the venue.
La Roja traveled to Puerto de la Cruz and defeated the South Americans 3-0 on June 7.


Olympics update:
The three overage players for the Olympic squad must be born on or after January 1, 1989.
From the team that won the U-21 UEFA tournament in Denmark last year five were born before 1 January '89: Juan Mata, Javi Martínez, Diego Capel, Adrián López and Jeffrén Suárez.
Coach Roger Milla and his staff have expressed their intent to bring three of these five players. Mata, Javi Martínez and Adrián are the leading candidates. However, with Mata and Javi Martínez likely to be in Del Bosque's team that will attempt to successfully defend the Euro title there could be some problems of those two appearing at the London Games. If Spain reach the EURO final those two players would return to Spain on July 2. The opening matches of the Olympic tournament kick off on July 26 with the final scheduled for August 11. There's also the concern of whether Chelsea would free up Mata to participate (unsure if FIFA would require them to).

 

RFEF confirmed today the friendly v Venezuela in Málaga on February 29. Kickoff at 21:30 CET.

 

Venezuela is a perfect opponent for Spain. They are one of the most defensive teams in the world and Spain needs to practice breaking teams like that down. They also have alot of physical strenght, so in that way they might resemble France/Italy, although only in a small way.

I think France/Italy are the two teams that can pose problems for La Roja at Euro 2012. I wouldn't fear Germany or Holland. These teams don't have the needed defense to upset Spain. France and maybe Italy does.

Next friendly, Spain should select North Korea....

 

Torres has been left out of the squad for the Venezuela friendly, Del Bosque reportedly opted to bring a man less to the team as the situation was with Torres still being part of the squad. However decided to bring along Munuain (and Soldado) instead.

 

Here's the Sub-21 list of 20 players called up by coach Luis Milla for the friendly against Egypt in Torrelavega (El Malecón) on February 28th.
These players are considered to be likely candidates for the Olympic squad.

David de Gea ............. Manchester United (ENG)
Diego Mariño .............. Villarreal

César Azpilicueta ........ Olympique Marseille (FRA)
Alberto Botía ............. Sporting Gijón
Álvaro Domínguez ....... Atlético Madrid
Martín Montoya .......... Barcelona
Víctor Ruíz ................ Valencia
Mikel San José ........... Athletic Bilbao
Dídac Vila .................. Espanyol

Diego Capel ............... Sporting Lisbon (POR)
Óscar de Marcos ........ Athletic Bilbao
Ander Herrera ............ Athletic Bilbao
Isco ......................... Málaga
Ander Iturraspe .......... Athletic Bilbao
Koke ........................ Atlético Madrid
Oriol Romeu ............... Chelsea (ENG)

Isaac Cuenca ............. Barcelona
Adrián López .............. Atlético Madrid
Rodrigo Moreno ........... Benfica (POR)
Cristian Tello .............. Barcelona

 

Has Jose Enrique done something weird earlier in the national team... liking sleeping with the coachs daughter or something? He is one of the best left backs I have ever seen play and he does it time and time again. No ups and downs.

 

alcantara now moreno.. damn even the world cup champions steal players from brasil...

 

Can we ban this guy already? His broken record act got old the first time he did it. An accomplishment in itself.

 

Spain's second kits have a great history:
1964: Blue shirts worn in Euro final v USSR
2008: Gold shirts worn in EURO semis v Russia
2010: Blue shirts worn in World Cup final v Holland

The new second strip for EURO 2012 will debut on Wedenesday v Venezuela.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4DZrusgaVU"]adidas presenta la segunda camiseta de España para la Euro - YouTube[/ame]​

 

I think it looks good, an improvement over the golden one at least even though it brought us success.

 

A couple of friendlies in preparation for EURO 2012 are being reported by MARCA (nothing yet announced on the RFEF website).

Saturday 26 May v Serbia in St. Gallen, Switzerland
Spain will be without players from Athletic Bilbao and Barcelona since they will have played the Copa del Rey final the previous night (Friday 25 May).

Saturday 2 June v China in Sevilla
A midweek encounter (Tuesday 29 May) was not considered so as to give the players rest after a long hard season.

 

Spain will also have to play China in China within the next two years as part of the deal.

 

$€££ $€££ $€££ $€££ $€££ $€££ $€££...

 

Puerto Rico is actually an amazing market for Spain to play in. Puerto Rico never gets big teams like that playing in the island. Plus there are tons of Spaniards living in Puerto Rico not to mention a ton of people with Spanish parents. It's clearly all about money but when talking in terms of that it's a win-win for both parties.

 

yes Puerto Rico-Spain match is scheduled on Fifa website....They are supposed not to be much better than....Andorra or Faroe Islands.

 

With Barcelona no longer involved in the CL final, Del Bosque is requesting for the Copa del Rey final to be brought forward to Wednesday 16 May so that he can have the players from both Barca and Athletic available for the May 26 friendly against Serbia.
I suppose even moving the Copa final to its original date of Sunday the 20th could be a possibility as well.
Not sure how a change would affect ravel plans for the clubs/supporters of both clubs.

Also, any thoughts of how the eliminations of both Real Madrid and Barcelona in the CL semifinals could affect the players with the Spain national team? Will the disappointment carry over to La Furia or will the players be even more united to show the rest of Europe that the best players still play in Spain?
El Clasico looked to be played in fairly good spirits so Del Bosque must've been pleased with that.

 

Well Madrid doesn't have that many Spanish nationals so not sure about the affect there. Truth be told it's only a difference of one game anyway. I don't see it making much of a difference. What will be interesting is if Madrid win the league with two weeks to go will Guardiola and Mourinho rest a lot of the first teamers for meaningless games?

 

Carles Puyol is to have right knee surgery on May 12 and will require six weeks recovery. He has been ruled out for EURO 2012.
SPORT

 

So, what do you make of that news?

 

Me personally, and I usually don't feel comfortable talking club football in this part of the forum, but the Barcelona fan in me loves this news. I actually hoped he had kept his word when he announced immediately after the World Cup final that he was retiring from the national team. But a number of players as well as Del Bosque convinced him to carry on. Now 34, I would think this would mark the end of international career.

With that out of the way, I don't know who should be starting at the EUROs.
Piqué has been in terrible form all season.
Sergio Ramos will probably now move over from right back. Perhaps Arbeloa or Javi Martínez will partner him. Not comfortable with Busquets in the back line. Much prefer him in defensive midfield. Marchena... (?)
Álvaro Domínguez, Alberto Botía and Martín Montoya are ones for the future but despite getting recent call ups all have yet to debut.

 

Pique, even with his poor form, will start with Ramos for sure. Javi Martinez is the only other option, if we go by Del Bosques prior lineups.

If Albiol gets selected and plays any part of the Eurocopa then we are done.

Overall, not getting a good vibe for this summer.

 

Just go into the Euro thinking Germany will win it (playing half at home in Poland) as Spain winning 3 titles back to back is just too much of a good thing. It wouldn't be fair to all those other nations.

 

I take you aren't Spanish despite you having listed Spain as your country...? Cuz I doubt many Spanish would consider a third title too much of a good thing!

As for Germany, I hope you're right. So far we're doing well in terms of injuries. And our team is a whole lot stronger than it was in 2010.