Mixed Results for Spanish National Teams

SPANISH FOOTBALL NATIONAL TEAM encounters, which ended with a draw, that is, a loss and a win. Although the news is now old, SPAIN lost 2 -1 at Bari to home team ITALY, and the U-20 youngsters won 7-6 SOUTH KOREA in the penalty shoot out after their match finished 0 – 0 at the U-20 FIFA World Championships.

International Friendly games are not resulting to be to positive for the current FIFA World Champions. They lost to Argentina, Portugal and now Italy, were the latter is practically celebrating it as if it was the World Cup final. And rightly so, as Italy needed this “shoot in the arm” to lift their confidence as they are currently moving between teams and rejuvenating (refreshing) their National squad. Spain lost much more than 2 – 1 andhad a real scare with Fernando Torres early in the game with a severe clash that rushed the player to a hospital for a TAC scan, which thank God, turned out to show that he was OK. Defenders Pique ( Barça ) and Iraola (At Bilbao) also received knocks and are under an “injury cloud”. A Friendly match were Spain did not play at all bad, but lost to the Italians creating two details at the right moment.

Details:

Italy 2 : Buffon; Maggio, Ranocchia (Bonucci, m.77), Chiellini, Criscito; De Rossi (Aquilani, m.65), Pirlo, Motta (Marchisio, m.46); Montolivo (Nocerino, m.74); Rossi (Pazzini, m.59) and Cassano (Balotelli, m.59).

Spain 1: Casillas (Valdés, m.46); Iraola (Villa, m.46), Piqué (Busquets, m.45), Raúl Albiol, Arbeloa; Javi Martínez, Xabi Alonso; Iniesta (Thiago, m.46), Cazorla (Mata, m.80), Silva; and Fernando Torres (Fernando Llorente, m.15).

Goals: 1-0, m.11: Montolivo. 1-1, m.37: Xabi Alonso de penalti. 2-1, m.83: Aquilan

Spain U-20

Good news from Colombia in the U-20 FIFA World Championships, where SPAIN defeated SOUTH KOREA in the penalty shoot out (7-6)after their game finished 0 – 0. Did not see this match but commentators here say that justice was done because Spain played better and created more chances. The U-20 youngsters now move onto the Q/finals.

Details:

Spain – 7: Fernando Pacheco; Hugo Mallo, Bartra, Amat, Luna; Oriol Romeu; Tello, Koke, Canales (Álvaro Vázquez, min.58), Dani Pacheco (Isco, min.51); and Rodrigo (Recio, min.89).

South Korea – 6: No Dong-Geon; Kim Jin Su, Jang Hyun Soo, Min Sang Gi, Lee Kie Je; Choi Sung Guen (Nam Seung Woo, min.96), Kin Young Uk; Moon Sang Yun (Jung Seung Yong, min.76), Baek Sung Dong, Yun Il Lok (Kim Kiung Yung, min.59); and Lee Yong Jae.

Penalties: Tello, 1-0; Jung, 1-1; Recio, 2-1; Nam, 2-2; Koke, miss; Lee, stopped by Pacheco; Álvaro, 3-2; Kim Young, 3-3; Isco, 4-3; Jang, 4-4. Baetra, 5-4; Min, 5-5. Amat, 6-5; Baek, 6-6; Oriol, 7-6; Kim Kyung, miss over the bar.