Second Day of the World Cup bring us the replay of the World Cup 2010 final, Spain vs Netherlands where the Dutch will look to avenge 2010 final defeat. Four years later, the Spain team mostly remained the same, boosted only with Atletico Madrid’s Koke and Diego Costa, while on the other side, Dutch changed their coach and a part of their team.
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Del Bosque’s men will try to break a history and defend the World Cup. The first stop on doing so, is a game with the Netherlands. Spain in final of the World Cup in 2010. raised the trophy, but these two teams have played twice more in the last 14 years, where in two friendly games, the Netherlands enrolled two wins.
Spain open a World Cup in Brazil after winning the last two Euro and one World Cup trophy, which makes them the number 1 favourite to win this competition. These results have brought Spain on the first place of the FIFA ranking list. Del Bosque’s men with it are fully aware that every team would want even more to end their superb run which puts more pressure on the Spaniards, as every expects from the to keep winning.
Recently they don’t show some big problems with it, as in the last year they lost only two games. Friendly game to South Africa and the Confederation Cup final to Brazil, 3-0.
Of course it was not a good introduction to the World Cup, but coach Del Bosque meanwhile refreshed team with several new players, so the Spaniards arrived in Brazil with the highest possible ambitions.
It should be noted that the last World Cup Qualifiers the Spaniards done routinely, although they had a little trouble in the domestic game against France when they played only 1-1, but they revenged that draw on the best way possible and in Paris celebrated with a 1:0 win .
For the final preparations for the World Cup in Brazil, the Spaniards surprised a little with the decision to play just two home games, against not so good national selection of Bolivia and El Salvador, and expected they won both of them. Reason is simple. Most of the players have played a long season in their clubs, and Del Bosque tried with to avoid some major injuries.
Spain probable lineup : Casillas – Azpilicueta, Ramos, Pique, Jordi Alba – Busquets, Xabi Alonso – Pedro, Silva (Koke?), Iniesta – Diego Costa
As for Netherlands, their boss, Van Gaal after the World Cup is taking over Manchester United. Certainly he will aim to achieve the best possible results in Brazil. Van Gaal’s men didnt shine in some friendly games, but it seems that they know how to play at the big competitions. The last World Cup final, proves that and having that in mind we can add them to the top 5 favourites of this World Cup.
Van Gaal’s men qualification stage for the World Cup finished superbly, entering 9 wins and only 1 draw. Except Spain, they are in the group with Chile and Australia which could prove to be a hard task to reach the next stage.
Netherlands recently ( friendly games) are playing hot-cold. First they played 3 draws, and then entered two wins, against Ghana and Wales.
However, despite that, the coach van Gaal can not be satisfied very much, especially in the attack because his men in the last five matches have scored only four goals, and when we know what fantastic players in offensive part they have, van Persie, Robben, Sneijder and Huntelaar, this is a problem which Van Gaal have to resolve quickly. Due to injuries, standard midfield duo Strootman and van der Vaart will miss this World Cup.
Netherlands probable lineup : Cillessen – Janmaat, de Vrij, Vlaar, Martins Indi – de Jong, Blind – Robben, Fer, Sneijder – van Persie