FanNation - The Republic of Sport

Watching the Spain/Italy semifinal yesterday was the pinnacle of excitement for me in this tournament.  As a Spain fan, and as a blogger, I am not bound by any unbiased code or journalistic integrity in my thoughts on the game.  So here they are.

Italy got outplayed even when they were pushing forward aggressively.  Everytime an Italian player made a quality move - and there were a lot of individual skills shown yesterday by the Italians - there was another Spanish player in their face.  Repeatedly, Capdevilla stood patient and strong on the left while Sergio Ramos was aggressive and focused on the right.  That is defensive soccer.  At times both either pushed forward (Ramos) or sent workable long-balls up the field (Capdevilla).  Carles Puyol was the perfect example of a central defender - rock solid all day long.

If you can't appreciate the way Marcos Senna and David Silva routinely dominated the midfield then you weren't paying attention.  Myself and a few other bloggers have made observations about Senna and yesterday he was brilliant.  He got some shots off, yes, but he routinely stymied the Italians at midfield.  Even when not winning balls at midfield, everytime there was a midfield-defensive stop, Senna was close to receive the outlet pass or doing the stopping himself.

David Silva was relentless.  As much as Senna was the ideal defensive midfielder, you cannot ask for anything more from an attacking midfielder like Silva.  He was everywhere - at least three shots that had Buffon on his toes and countless setup passes for other players.  Aragones has come out and made some insightful statements about throughballs and setup passes that are certainly on-point.  However, none of that should refelct negatively on David Silva's 120 minute demonstration of blue-collar soccer.

I didn't like seeing Torres come off with 5 minutes left either, particularly since having a sub in extra time is a much more cautious move.  However, the Italian defense is not just a physical line of ankle-whackers.  They know defense, they know how to wear down players, and they know hoe to push buttons.  Aragones saw it, he realized that Torres was getting frustrated and he made the appropriate call.  Is Guiza anyone's favorite player right now?  No, but he did offer Aragones a rested attacking player to throw at the Italians - who haven't seen much of him. 

The rest is a happy and concluded history.  With all due respect to Arshavin, Spain is still very much the team to beat in this tournament.  Spain was focused yesterday.  Being focused is how successful tournament teams win.  Just as they were in their semifinal win yesterday - Spain was focused, meticulous and precise. 

As a fan of Spain, soccer and certainly spanish soccer, yesterday was a beautiful thing.