France - Spain : International Friendly : 3 Mar 2010

I personally think that Sergio Ramos is great! He is good in attack, he is aggressive in defense, and he is athletic. He also gives us a set piece target. He may be too aggressive at some times, but I like it. Its either you or the ball... Personally I dont like Albeloa... He is weakish and not great in attack...

Ramos can be a walking red card though. Also his lapses in concentration have cost us, the game vs the US was the most obvious.

ramos is a top 3 RB in the world after maicon and dani alves - off the top of my head - i can't think of better RB's in the world after those 3...

who else would you say is better??

I didn't use to think so either, but I'm discovering he is better than I've given him credit for. His ability to hold onto possession is certainly world class, and he seldom makes a bad choice with the ball. He is still a bit immature off the ball, which he'll improve at, and he's an absolute douchebag diver and whiner, but that doesn't necessarily make him a worse player.

Plus there's an added value in playing combinations than know each other. I think that based only on form and current ability, Albiol should start over Puyol, which is something that will happen sooner or later anyway because of Puyol's age. But as long as Puyol plays with Pique regularly, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts kinda thing. Same with Busquets and Xavi/Iniesta.

I think the only teams that can keep with are brazil and it might be funny france as long as they don't play both gourcuff and hnery as they don't bring anything that other players can't.

Brazil because like your players they can actually keep the ball as well but unlike you they are quicker especially with kaka and robinho which i think is something you need each time you take the ball away from spain and france in gourcuff had a slow,scared,without any ideas to what to do player who couldn't pick a simple pass or get away from your very aggressive midfielders.

Kaka on the other hand despite not being as quick as before would be able to get away from busquets and alonso but also with their better movement and bombing full backs who actually know what to do whenever they receive the ball would expose arbeloa the cheat and slow or even slower but better left back capdevilla.

You have in torres and villa the best attacking duo in the world but i feel that torres and can be bullied which is a tactic terry and italy used very well in the past and in lucio they have the right player to do just that.

But your best chance would come from the brazil left hand side as they don't have what you call a recognize left back and that could be their weak point but dunga has shown in the past that he is willing to use left wingers or daniel alves there which to limit the impact silva could have as he would be coming in to daniel right foot which would then make his job easier.


On the france chances they are slightly shorter but as long as they don't play both them players i talked about then they would be ok but they would need to play a passing and better player than toulalan who just doesn't do enough for me,they could play diaby there as he has the skills,physical attributes to stand up to the aggressiveness of busquets,alonso or senna but also he could join the attack in a much better way than the lyon man could ever dream of.

Ribery would need to play on either the left or in the attacking mid like kaka does which to me would free him up of the isolation spain put on him as both busquets and alonso were marking ribery area - I feel that with him as an attacking mid he would be able to use his acceleration to a greater effect as he would running straight through the middle with the whole pitch to see and do his magic.

Ben arfa on the right would be a much better player than anyone on the french team also as he has the pace,trickery and the vision to play but he has also work on his defence.

benzema up front for anelka who despite his very good pace seems to disrupt the play more often than complement it with his laziness,benzema is a great target man but is always willing to put the team first with clever running and touches.


Saying a lot but to me brazil are the best team in the world and i think that only spain and france can actually beat them at their best and like so spain are their best can only be defeated by both brazil and france are their best .

You cannot include France b/c they are not good.

If we're going to talk about teams being able to beat others WHEN they are at their best and would therefore play much better than they are now, then you can add a buttload of teams besides France.

Hell, this is football. The better teams don't always win, so there's a buttload of teams that can beat Brasil and Spain anyhow.

on paper, the teams that will pose the toughest challenge to Spain are Brasil, England, Holland and Germany. Italy has regressed and not progressed with many of their young players while France is still trying to find some identity in their midfield - their 4-3-3 is not as impressive as it sounds...

I still remember Clemente from years back: "tenemos equipo para ser campeónes." Essentially, "we have a good enough team to be champions."
Fast forward to 2010: new coach; new players. Yet the more things change, the more they stay the same - especially when it comes to Spain's World Cup hopes. Once again: great team and high hopes. 2010 feels just like 1998, 2002 and 2006 all over again.

And to be clear: I go into every World Cup passionately pulling for the U.S. first and Spain second.

You don't think winning Euro 08 changed the mentality at all? I will say that I'm concerned with how Del Bosque runs this team. Aragones might have been a bastard but he got the team to play.

My point is that Spain has always had the mentality that they were a good team. They always have been. They will be again. That is not enough.

In the end, it is just as important to be lucky as it is to be good.

True, but you can't draw parallels to this team and past teams. This squad actually fulfills its potential. It won Euro 2008, went 10/10 in qualifying, and has had 1 loss (vs. US in Confederations Cup play) and 1 draw (vs. Italy, who they beat on penalties) since November 2007! This team is stacked, the squad picks itself, the manager has the experience with that Great Real Madrid side of the early 2000s.... Spain have it all. They'll make the semifinals and from there on out they'll have to be lucky and good to beat the likes of Brazil, Germany, or the Netherlands.

That's what they were saying when they had Juanito in '82. They said the same thing when "El Buitre" was prominent in '86. Raúl and Morientes stepped in and were great, but no difference. Whether they had Arconada, Zubizarreta, Cañizares or Casillas in goal made no difference. Throw in Manolo Sanchís, Mendieta and Fernando Hierro for good measure. Under Clemente they had an very impressive streak. More recently, before the loss to the U.S. they had gone 35 without a loss between Aragonés and Del Bosque. These are just amazing performances. Spain has always had terrific qualifying runs only to come up short in the World Cup. Admittedly, they were raped by the officiating in South Korea, but they have had other opportunities in other years and they simply never put it together.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for 2010.