A day after looking at the Netherland’s Group E, Laurence McKenna and Kartik Krishnaiyer join me to break down Group H – otherwise known as Spain’s group. The 2008 European Champions are joined by Chile, Honduras and Switzerland in one of the tournaments most interesting groups, with the quartet having no clear second best team set to push through with Spain. Laurence, Kartik and myself – with the help of Andy Brassell, Tim Vickery and Grant Wahl – breakdown each nation and walk through the six matches which will define the group.
On tomorrow’s podcast, the team will break down Group A: France, Mexico, South Africa, and Uruguay.
Spain’s second team would win this group and have a strong chance of making the semi-finals. Spain’s probable second team is Reina; Arbeloa, Marchena, Albiol, Mata; Martinez Alonso Fabergas; Navas Llorente Pedro. The only weakness is not having a reserve left back, so Mata gets forced in there. That team would likely beat Switzerland, Honduras and Chile and would give either Portugal or the Ivory Coast a tough game in the round of 16 as well as Paraguay, Italy, Denmark or Cameroon in the quarters.
Many of those players would get into the starting lineup of the other top contenders. Reina, Albiol, Alonso, Fabergas and Navas would all start for England; All three defenders, Reina and maybe Alonso would start for Argentina or Netherlands. Most of them would start for Germany (except Lahm at LB). Arbeloa might even start for Brazil at LB ahead of Bastos and Navas would push Elano/Ramieres for a starting spot. Spain, Brazil, and maybe Italy are the only teams that have a keeper the equal of Reina.
The drop of in quality from the first XI to the second XI is less for Spain than it is for the other main contenders (BRA, NED, ARG, ENG, GER, ITA), That strength in depth has to make Spain the favorites to win it all. For football’s sake I hope Spain wins the WC so teams will emulate their possession style rather than Brazil’s counterattacking style.