Why do spain play in the confederations cup

Comment posted by Diderot, at 14 Jun Diderot. Comment posted by U, at 15 Jun U Calling the present Spain team the "best side ever" is complete rubbish. It also tends to suggest the comment is being made by those who are rather young. Both the Brazil side of and the Holland team of were infinitely superior. Comment posted by U, at 14 Jun U Tanglefoot - Give me boredom please if it will give me 2 European Championships, a World Cup, 3 CL titles since , multiple Europa League cups in the last few years, multiple European Championships for the junior sides, Exporting top talent to the PL, best two managers in the world last year.

Please give me boredom. I am English you know. I'll bite your hand off for some!. Comment posted by Abdi, at 14 Jun Abdi. Like I said previously Spain are and will be the team to beat at the next WC that doesn't mean there won't be stern challenges from Germany, Argentina, Holland, possibly Columbia. Enough of this Spain are boring stuff their crushing defeat of Italy at Euro was nothing short of a master class!

Giovanni Trapattoni - he must be a crap coach hey. Let me check his record. Damn what a record. I have never seen a team play with such precision at such pace. They are even stronger, better than Pele's Brazil".

During the 70's to 90's Spain and England were happy bed fellows. They were both losers and both called German football boring and uninspiring. They both felt entitled to win every major Championship - setting themselves up for serial self inflicted schadenfreude. Now things have changed. Spain have gotten off their backs. Germany has become England's role models.

Times change.. I would like to ask British football fans what entertainment is? Face facts, Spain are the only team in history to win 3 Major Tournaments in a row. The confederations cup is a guide to see where the teams are at. Spain lost Confed , and won WC. In last 3 major tournaments, who has Germany lost to? What is this current fascination with Germany? Are Brits praising failure - 3 semi-final defeats. Comment posted by geoffn54, at 14 Jun geoffn Possession is one of the golden rules of football.

If we've got the ball they can't score. Spain and Holland are leaders in this philosophy, and that's no big surprise as Johan Cruyff was the tactical guru who put the theory into practise at Barcelona.

It's no guarantee for entertaining football though, opponents are forced to defend in depth. Comment posted by Tony, at 14 Jun Tony. At 42 and the others. Enough said Goodbye. To those that say Spain is boring you don't understand Football.

The games when they pass and pass, backwards, sidewards e. The two teams hit their peak of success in Spain won the World Cup that year which was sandwiched in between Champions League wins for Barcelona in and Both teams are still unbelievably good with Barcelona winning La Liga this season and the Copa del Rey last season and Spain winning the Euros last summer. However, the cracks in the armor have begun to appear.

Barcelona has been knocked out the Champions League in the semifinals two years in a row again, this would be an unbelievable accomplishment for any other team , and Spain was given all it could handle against Italy in the semifinals of the Confederations Cup. And, the man who was always the rock in the back for both squads, Carlos Puyol, has been beset by injuries for the last two years and is 35 years old. Fernando Torres has been a shadow of his former self since before he left Liverpool —and that was two-and-a-half years ago.

While Spain still has a team and a style the rest of the world looks up to and aspires to replicate, they are no longer invincible. When David Luiz first made his big-money move from Chelsea to Benfica as a year-old, he suffered from a number of unsteady performances not atypical for a young center defender. However, many were quick to criticize Luiz instead of giving him time to settle with his new club in the English Premier League.

On Sunday, Luiz proved his growing maturity once again, helping Brazil to a shutout over the defending World Cup champions in the final of a major tournament. The best individual moment for Luiz came in the 41st minute when a Juan Mata pass put Pedro in behind the Brazilian defense. The score of the game was at the time.

Neymar will be meeting several of his new clubmates on Sunday night, as Spain's recent success has been achieved with a nucleus of Barcelona players, when it will be mildly interesting to see how Real Madrid defenders such as Sergio Ramos and Alvaro Arbeloa react to this posturing attention-seeker. While Barcelona doubtless know what they are doing, there can be little doubt either that Neymar is going to have to tone down his act for Europe.

England, currently a more realistic ninth in the Fifa rankings, are still not sure whether they will be taking part at next year's World Cup finals, but the footage from Brazil must have made uncomfortable viewing in almost every sense.

The games were played in 30C heat and high humidity, prompting Arbeloa among others to call for evening kick-offs in the tournament proper, and the generally high-tempo English game never seems to adapt well to such sapping conditions, especially when players arrive tired after a long and demanding domestic season.

Then there is the not-so-small matter of penalty shootouts. England are historically bad at them, and Spain and Italy on Thursday evening offered something close to penalty-spot perfection. Even players who were visibly nervous found the net with unanswerable accuracy. Two of the best goalkeepers in the world never managed to get a glove on the ball as the first 12 shots all went in.