Steven Petrov
The Paw Print
“La Furia Roja” has taken over the football world and has been dominating the scene in the last 5-6 years. Winning three consecutive major international competitions (Euro 2008, World Cup 2010, and 2012 European championship), Spain is the only team in football’s history to ever accomplish that.
The Spaniards have not only been winning a lot of games and titles, but they have been doing it with flair, elegance, and with a unique style of play that no one can match. “La Furia” turned the football (soccer) game into a possession game where Spain is in control of the ball for roughly 60-70% on average every game.
This changed the game drastically because the opposing team has to spend so much energy running and chasing the ball around the field, while the smart and incredibly technical Spanish players use no more than 2 touches and keep the ball moving throughout the whole field at all times. The Spanish strategy proved to be hugely successful by winning them Euro, World, and again Euro cups successively.
After all, think about it for a second, if you don’t have the ball you cannot score! Everyone is wondering why was the team underperforming in the years preceding the current reign and why didn’t they delivered that type of performance in the previous tournaments.
Spain has always had high quality players but was unable to record constant and major success. Throughout this article we are going to focus on the history of “La Roja” within the World Cup competition, their achievements, best players, and most importantly their expectations for the upcoming World Cup 2014 in Brazil.
When looking at the Spaniards’ results within the World Cup, ever since it’s originating in 1930, one can question Spain’s place in this group of major contenders for the upcoming Mundial. Winning only one 4th place in the far 1950, Spain was never considered as a major threat for the title. Just like everything else in life, things in the football (soccer) world also change.
Now there are only few teams that are able to keep up with the level of play that “La Furia Roja” brings up to the table every time they play. In the most recent international competition, the Confederations Cup 2013 in Brazil, this past summer, the “Selesao” showed that they are one of those few teams that can stand against Spain and even outplay them. Brazil and Spain met at the final in Rio De Janeiro on June 30th, and surprisingly for everyone, Brazil dominated the game winning with 3:0 against the tournaments’ favorite.
Even though “La Furia Roja” has an incredibly experienced, talented, and successful team people should not forget that they are people too and they can make mistakes like everyone else. At the same time there are a handful of teams that will punish any single mistake you make no matter what your team’s history or potential is. So no matter what happens next summer in Brazil, people should be ready for beautiful, high-scoring, and interesting soccer that will change our lives for 1 month, because while the World Cup is going on around the world everything else comes second.
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