Tag Archives : spain

The big news filtering through from Durban this evening is that Fernando Torres has been dropped by Del Bosque in favour of Barcelona striker Pedro Rodriguez. The manager had been backing Torres publicly all week, but you’d expect nothing else in the build-up to such a big game. 22 year old Pedrito is starting only his seventh game in Spain’s colours, and has one international goal to his name. For Germany, the influential Thomas Muller misses out through suspension, and Piotr Trochowski comes in for his first start this tournament. Freidrich and Khedira have both shaken off knocks to make the starting eleven. Fabregas is fit to take his place on the bench for Spain. [Read more...]

Paraguay’s Oscar Cardozo and Spain’s Xavi Alonso have both just failed to put the ball in the net from 12 yards, after infringements in the box. Alonso had to take his twice, and slotted home the first, but the whole sequence of play sums up the standard of play throughout this tournament. [Read more...]