Spain 3-2 Chile - La Roja's preparation and team selection in question, Iniesta praised by Press
Saturday 03 September 2011
   Stade de Genève, Switzerland
Iniesta 55, Fabregas 71, 90 - Isla 11, Vargas 20
Fabregas missed penalty 90 - Contreras sent off 82
Spain's media were for the second friendly international in a row very critical of their national team's state of preparedness for a game, whilst equally praising Andres Iniesta's second-half contribution and questioning Vicente Del Bosque's decision to leave him on the bench for the first half.
AS’s report on the game leads with the headline: “Iniesta is non-negotiable,” in speaking of the two halves to Spain witnessed in Switzerland on Friday night, and the influence Del Bosque’s decision to leave Iniesta on the bench for the first half had on the organisational aspects of the team.
Luis Nieto wrote for the Madrid-based paper: “Chile's fight that was great in the beginning, ended with the arrival of the player from La Mancha [Iniesta], the one that Spain cannot afford to leave out. He scored a goal, made another and exhausted and disarmed a fierce opponent.”
Publicio’s Jose Miguelez wrote under the headline: “Iniesta saves Spain’s reputation” about the national team’s ‘certain complacency’ that sees Del Bosque give perhaps too many others a go in the first team at the expense of maintaining the team’s best features, most notably in this case Iniesta. Again criticism also fell on the organisation of the defence that was missing Carles Puyol and Gerard Pique.
Miguelez also drew notes on Chile’s preparation for this game as being greater than Spain’s, writing about the first-half performance as: “Based on strength and mobility, initiative and touch, hunger and daring, pressure and speed; Chile had studied Spain and did not let them play. They were complicated and drilled with the ball, and were at full speed on the counter-attack.”
Madrid-centric Marca chose to focus on the end-of-game brawl that whilst being an ‘all-out war’ showed a message of ‘unity and peace’ in the dressing room between the Barcelona and Real Madrid players.
Daniel Muñoz of El Mundo spoke of Spain taking the meaning of the word ‘friendly’ literally in the first half, with an unfamiliar team that was imprecise with its passing and nervous to win the ball back.
Interestingly not every report has mentioned the penalty decision - that although missed led to Cesc Fabregas’ match-winning goal - but Muñoz did acknowledge it was ‘non-existent’.
Spain (4-3-3): Casillas (Reina 45); Arbeloa, Martinez, Albiol, Ramos; Busquets, Alonso (Iniesta 45), Xavi; (Fabregas 64) Villa (Pedro 45), Negredo (Torres 64), Silva (Cazorla 80)
Chile (3-4-3): Bravo; Contreras, Vidal, Jara; Isla (Meneses 85), Carmona, Medel, Beausejour (Gutierrez 80); Vargas (Seymour 57), Valdivia (Orellana 86), Alexis Sanchez
Did you know…Spain came back from 2 goal down vs Chile (3-2) for third time: vs England in 1929 and Macedonia in 2009 [via @2010MisterChip]
To make sure you don't miss any of A Different League's Spanish coverage this season, follow the La Liga dedicated Twitter feed: @differentliga
See the full list of OLBG's free Football Tips here.
Related Articles
|