Barca-Pool Give England A Spanish Lesson

Spain chewed England up and spit them out.

There was no other way that the game could be put. It was ironic to have done it to Fabio Cappello’s team in Spain. The home side was simply a machine and there was no doubt that they are the best team in the world.

“Barca-Pool” dominated from the get go and there was no doubt as to the final result of the game. It was not even fair. Tonight, Spain was Muhammad Ali and England was Chuck Wepner. There was no one in that pitch that thought England had a chance, and the Spaniards made sure of it quickly and oftenly. No longer were players like Beckham, Terry, Lampard even looked at in the same stratosphere as “Barca-Pool”. They were not in the same pitch as Villa, Llorente, Xavi, Senna, Casillas, and the rest of the crew.

Long gone are the days when the inventors of the game walked alone atop the footballing planet. Now they are just mixed up in the conundrum that is the mediocrity in the now third tier of international play. It’s a game in which the the reigning European champs faced a team whose glories were way behind them.

It was an honest litmus test for the Spaniards under Vicente del Bosque; but they answered those questions rather quickly. They were able to counter England and Cappello’s desire to muck up play in the middle by using the players that they had in the middle and that made all of the difference in the world. Michael Carrick was the lone line of defense in the middle as Gareth Barry was not even a factor in the match as they saw Xavi and the rest of the his teammates.

Villa Makes History

Xabi Alonso found the Valencia striker deep and with typical David Villa- style he entered Spanish national team record books becoming the first player to ever score in six consecutive matches.

At this stage in the game Del Bosque switched and played with one player up front and the intensity of the game reduced significantly, yet the accuracy remained just as deadly. Spain only had one shot on David James’ goal and it happened to be Llorente that would take it and place in the back of the English net.

The goal stretched the Spaniards unprecented winning streak into 2009. For the English continued question marks on their end as they got a big reality check.