José Mourinho, nuevo entrenador del Real Madrid, salió en defensa de Cristiano Ronaldo tras las críticas que ha recibido por su comportamiento tras el partido frente a España. También lanzó un dardo al seleccionador, Carlos Queiroz, al sugerir que dejó caer sobre el crack del Madrid todo el peso de la derrota.

"Soy el entrenador del Real Madrid y Cristiano Ronaldo es mi jugador. Tengo el derecho de hacer lo que no hice desde el inicio del Mundial, un simple comentario: en mis equipos, cuando ganamos, ganamos todos. Cuando perdemos, pierdo yo. Por eso Cristiano puede estar tranquilo y disfrutar sus vacaciones, porque la próxima temporada no dejaré que nadie ponga sobre él todas las responsabilidades de un equipo", dijo.

"Los grandes jugadores marcan la diferencia, porque son mejores, pero los equipos son el soporte de todo. Portugal perdió porque España fue mejor y punto", concluyó.

After the Swiss aberration, Spain are back to where they belong: the best team at this World Cup. Their standard of play against Honduras was back to its usual height and had Fernando Torres been a touch sharper, they would have scored five or more. While Argentina and Brazil have been impressive and Portugal thrashed seven past the North Koreans, that Spanish attacking performance was a defining moment of this World Cup. It set down a marker.

What must have been particularly discouraging for the rest was the depth of talent available to Vicente del Bosque. Andres Iniesta was out with a thigh strain but the Spain coach could still afford to use Cesc Fabregas and Juan Mata off the bench.

With Fabio Capello trying to find players capable of freshening up his team for the crucial game with Slovenia it made for a depressing comparison. England’s squad looks desperately thin.

Spain have been the best international side in the world for the last three years – ignore the Fifa ranking of Brazil as No1 – and their first team is formidable. How many English players would make that XI? Ashley Cole for sure, but it is hard to make a case for anyone else.

What was driven home on Monday night, though, was how few English players would have a hope of making the Spain squad, let alone the team. Here’s the Spain squad and here’s the England squad. If you go through it systematically, like-for-like, you’ll see what I mean.

Not a single one of our three goalkeepers would make it. Spain’s No3, Victor Valdes, would easily be England’s No1. One England insider said to me before the tournament that Spain’s seventh-choice goalkeeper would be England’s first choice. He was only half-joking.

Spain’s only weak position is left-back, where Joan Capdevila is capable but not brilliant. Ashley Cole is certainly the superior player. But across the rest of the defence it looks less convincing. Rio Ferdinand and John Terry are not the players they were and Glen Johnson is miles behind Sergio Ramos at right back. You would probably take Terry ahead of Carlos Marchena as a back-up centre back to Carles Puyol and Gerard Pique.

The strength of the Spanish central midfield is ludicrous – Xavi, Iniesta, Xabi Alonso, Fabregas and Sergio Busquets. Steven Gerrard would get in ahead of Javi Martinez but that’s it. None of the English wingers are better than David Silva, Jesus Navas or Mata.

In attack you have the superb pairing of Torres and David Villa to contend with. Then Pedro Rodriguez provides real pace and trickery and can also play out wide. Wayne Rooney would go ahead of Fernando Llorente, the Bilbao target man, but I can’t see any of the other three – Peter Crouch, Jermain Defoe, Emile Heskey – making it.

So out of the 23, if you go on a like-for-like basis, I reckon only four players – A Cole, Terry, Gerrard and Rooney – would make the Spanish squad. That’s the gulf in class Capello has to contend with.

It has become a fixture of NBA draft week in Manhattan: Steve Nash's “Showdown In Chinatown" soccer game.

The charity match, co-staged by Nash and retired American soccer star Claudio Reyna, returns Wednesday night to the turf of Sara D. Roosevelt Park, once again free to the public on the eve of the draft.

Nash and Reyna will be serving as team captains in the 8-on-8 match, which benefits their respective foundations and brings together famous faces from the basketball and soccer worlds.

Rosters are tentative until the game actually starts at 6 p.m., as with any charity event, but the list of expected participants includes two top point guards besides Nash – San Antonio’s Tony Parker and Milwaukee’s Brandon Jennings – as well as a couple of soccer surprises.

Surprise No. 1: Villareal striker and recent ESPN The Magazine cover boy Giuseppe Rossi would have been unavailable for the Showdown had Italy, as widely expected, selected the 23-year-old for its World Cup team. But Rossi, who had the right to represent either Italy or the United States in international play, has put aside the disappointment of the snub to return to the public eye on American soil.

Surprise No. 2: Anthony LaPaglia, perhaps best known in this country for playing Daphne’s raucous brother from England on “Frasier,” was a former professional goalkeeper in his native Australia and will reprise that role in this third edition of the Showdown.

Other scheduled participants include Nash’s Suns teammate Jared Dudley and former teammate Raja Bell, footballers Mathieu Flamini (AC Milan), Juan Pablo Angel (New York Red Bulls) and Simone Motta (Serie A alumnus now at Serie B club Novara in Italy), Red Bulls assistant coach Richie Williams, former soccer pro-turned-journalist Simone Sandri of La Gazzetta dello Sport … and a certain intruder from ESPN.com who doesn’t like to write about himself.

More information on the game, pre-and-post-match activities and Nash’s charitable organization can be found here.

CR9 has broken his drought of almost two years of not finding the back of the net for A Selecção. Exploding onto a defense splitting pass, beating the goalie, albeit slightly fortuitously, and prodding home an acrobatic goal into the wide open net. How does that nursery rhyme "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" go? This is exactly what I thought of when I saw this wonderful goal!

A dos estadísticas de la perfección atacante. Ése es el lugar donde el repaso a los números ofensivos del Mundial colocan a España. La Roja domina en nueve de los 11 apartados analizados, y en los otros dos ocupa el segundo lugar. En posesión, pases con éxito, regates, centros al área, córners, jugadas en el área rival, jugadas con remate en ese área y pases en profundidad, los hombres de Del Bosque hicieron el mejor partido posible de este torneo el otro día ante Suiza. Y segundo en otros dos: remates totales y aperturas a banda. Además, existe otro dato que desmiente que Vicente haya abandonado la fe en el tiqui-taca: España ha hilvanado la jugada con más pases seguidos del torneo, 32.

En remates y en aperturas a banda, la Roja es sólo superada por Brasil, a la que por cierto le costó ganar su encuentro contra Corea del Norte. Puestos a ser escrupulosos, quizá se debería haber jugado más por las alas...

En los números encontramos claves, como por ejemplo que Argentina no ha necesitado tener el balón mucho para ganar con solvencia sus dos encuentros hasta el momento. 28 minutos de media suman los de Maradona, lejos de los imponentes 41 de los españoles sobre un juego efectivo de poco más de 55. Una barbaridad de dominio que, sorprendentemente, se tradujo en derrota.

Statistics show good passing is still key

Criticism of the Jabulani is borne out by Opta, whose analysis shows an inability to shoot straight dominated the first 16 games.

The Jabulani may not have hit the back of the net very often in this World Cup, but the net of public opinion is closing around it. To the naked eye, the controversial Adidas ball that was introduced for this tournament has been a significant factor in the lack of goals so far, and that perception is supported by statistics taken from the first round of group matches.

Opta figures show that, so far, only 33.44% of shots have been on target. That is down by almost 10% in comparison with the Premier League and Champions League last season, and also the World Cup in 2006. While this may be partly attributable to the small sample size, the fact the difference is so pronounced suggests that it is more than a statistical anomaly. Only four sides – Italy, Japan, Slovenia and Germany – have hit the target with more than half of their shots.

The Germans are at the top of most positive lists, as you would expect of a side who have scored twice as many goals as anyone else. Their passing accuracy of 91.54% is the best of the tournament so far, while a total of 579 passes and a passing accuracy of 80.18% in the final third put them behind only Brazil and Spain.

Once upon a time it was the job of the World Cup to challenge received wisdom and introduce new tactical thinking. This time, the manner of Internazionale's Champions League victory under José Mourinho led to a school of thought that possession was less important than before, because of the increased prioritisation of counterattacking. And although Spain's defeat by Switzerland may reinforce that perception, the general trend of the first week has been to reaffirm that most basic of principles: the teams who pass the ball often and accurately are most likely to succeed.

Arguably the five best sides in the tournament – Germany, Spain, Brazil, Holland and Argentina – are the leading five in terms of passing accuracy, both overall and in the final third. Those teams also provide five of the top six in terms of number of passes; the other is Mexico. The lowest-ranked team are Switzerland, with 233.

As a consequence, the usual suspects top the lists for individual creativity: Robinho, Xavi, Lionel Messi and Wesley Sneijder are almost ubiquitous. Xavi hit the most successful passes in the final third, while Robinho and Messi created the most chances. Brazil's dependence on their full-backs to provide an attacking threat is reflected in the fact that only Xavi and Messi played more successful passes in the final third than Maicon.

Frank Lampard was England's most accurate passer at the business end of the pitch, but his completion percentage of 84 is relatively modest. In football circles, the phrase the English Disease once referred to hooliganism; these days it is more likely to mean the apparent chronic inability to pass the ball to a team-mate, which has driven Fabio Capello to distraction and led to Franz Beckenbauer disdainfully asserting that England "have gone backwards to the bad old times of kick and rush".

The statistics don't necessarily support Beckenbauer's comments. Only 13.88% of England's passes against the USA were long, which makes them the 14th-most direct team of the tournament, a fraction ahead of Brazil, for whom jogo bonito is increasingly little more than romantic rhetoric.

Against the USA, England played 425 passes, which puts them 11th out of 32, with an accuracy of 76.94% (19th out of 32, and below even Greece) and an accuracy in the final third of 66.20% (10th out of 32). Yet despite their occasionally blundering nature, England managed regularly to threaten the USA goal. They managed 23 touches in the opposition penalty area, which puts them sixth on a list headed by Spain, whose total of 49 touches was 17 more than the next best, Chile, and 48 more than Honduras at the bottom of the list. Japan, in an affecting display of minimalist attacking football, beat Cameroon 1-0 despite only having three touches in the opposition's penalty area.

In the first round of matches, Spain had the most passes, the most shots and the most touches in the opposition box. If they keep losing, the voices of those who feel that possession is overrated will be heard. Yet for now, it seems that keeping possession of the Jabulani is the way forward, even if you may not want to shoot with it.

Xavi Hernandez was voted player of the tournament after Spain won the 2008 European Championship. Teammate Sergio Ramos didn't even make the all-tournament squad.

Yet they tied as the two best players at Euro 2008. At least according to a study out of Northwestern University's engineering school, which tried to quantify the performances of soccer players.

The report was published Wednesday in the scientific journal PLoS ONE.

Luis Amaral knows he isn't exactly unbiased when it comes to watching his beloved Portugal. The Northwestern engineering professor wanted to find a way to objectively evaluate players in a sport with few statistics because of the rarity of goals.

"When things are going well, I think they're playing better than they truly are," Amaral, the study's senior author, said in a phone interview Tuesday not long after Portugal tied Ivory Coast 0-0 in a World Cup match. "When they're not going well, I'm probably harsher than I should be."

Amaral and colleagues Jordi Duch and Josh Waitzman did a computer analysis of the play-by-play from each Euro 2008 game. The best players would be the ones who most often touched the ball as part of a sequence that resulted in a shot.

Of the 20 players with the highest scores for the tournament, eight made the all-tournament team. Amaral said that indicates the computer analysis is an accurate tool.

He believes it would be most valuable for scouting lower-level events and comparing players across different leagues and different seasons. Just as statistical analysis has influenced how baseball teams spend their millions, he predicts soccer clubs could follow suit.

"You start to ask, Are these players you're paying this amount of money to actually performing at that level?" Amaral said.

He suggested this type of analysis could also be helpful in basketball, even though the sport, unlike soccer, produces a plethora of stats. Assists are a widely used indicator, but what about the pass that led to the pass that led to the score?

These evaluations could even extend into business, measuring the individual contributions of employees working as a group.

Spain's Ramos may want to show this study to any potential future employers. The Real Madrid defender got off to a rocky start at Euro 2008, getting beat for a goal against Sweden and arguing with his coach at a practice.

But he wound up being a key cog in Spain's run to the championship — and apparently was just as important in his team scoring all-important goals as the much-honored Xavi.

___

The top 20 players at Euro 2008 as determined by the computer analysis:

T1. Sergio Ramos, Spain

T1. Xavi Hernandez, Spain

3. Marcos Senna, Spain

4. David Silva, Spain

5. Wesley Sneijder, Netherlands

T6. Deco, Portugal

T6. Joan Capdevila, Spain

8. Cristiano Ronaldo, Portugal

9. David Villa, Spain

T10. Armando Petit, Portugal

T10. Cesc Fabregas, Spain

T10. Carlos Marchena, Spain

T10. Gokhan Inler, Switzerland

T14. Jose Bosingwa, Portugal

T14. Rafael van der Vaart, Netherlands

T16. Ruud van Nistelrooy, Netherlands

T16. Ivan Rakitic, Croatia

T16. Nigel de Jong, Netherlands

T19. Roman Pavlyuchenko, Russia

T19. Andre Ooijer, Netherlands

Amaral, now a professor at Northwestern University, combined his love of soccer with his research team's computational skills to measure and rank the success of soccer players based on an objective measure of performance instead of opinion. The results of the study are published in PLoS ONE, a journal published by the Public Library of Science.

Through their analysis, Amaral and his team were able to objectively rank the performances of all the players in the 2008 European Cup tournament. Their results closely matched the general consensus of sports reporters who covered the matches as well as the team of experts, coaches and managers that subjectively chose players for the "best of" tournament teams.

"In soccer there are relatively few big things that can be counted," said Amaral, professor of chemical and biological engineering with the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science and senior author of the paper. "You can count how many goals someone scores, but if a player scores two goals in a match, that's amazing. You can really only divide two or three goals or two or three assists among, potentially, eleven players. Most of the players will have nothing to quantify their performance at the end of the match."

To find a quantitative way to rank players, co-author and Northwestern graduate student Josh Waitzman first wrote software to pull play-by-play statistical information from the 2008 Euro Cup website. This type of extensive statistical information is usually only gathered for important matches, Amaral said. Amaral and Jordi Duch, the paper's first author and an assistant professor of applied math and computer science at Universitat Rovira I Virgili in Spain, used the data to quantify the performance of players by generalizing methods from social network analysis.

"You can define a network in which the elements of the network are your players," Amaral said. "Then you have connections between the players if they make passes from one to another. Also, because their goal is to score, you can include another element in this network, which is the goal."

Amaral's team mapped out the flow of the soccer ball between players in the network as well as shooting information and analyzed the results.

"We looked at the way in which the ball can travel and finish on a shot," said Amaral, who also is a member of the Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO) and an Early Career Scientist with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. "The more ways a team has for a ball to travel and finish on a shot, the better that team is. And, the more times the ball goes through a given player to finish in a shot, the better that player performed."

"It would never happen by chance that we would get such striking agreement with the consensus opinion of so many experts if our measure wasn't good," Amaral said.

He says this kind of analysis can be used outside of the soccer world, too. Companies could use the method to rank and evaluate the performance of employees working together on a team project, for example.

The title of the paper is "Quantifying the Performance of Individual Players in a Team Activity."

The National Science Foundation supported the research.

The title speaks for itself. I don't have much to say at the moment except for the fact that it seems that these men were still stuck on the set of the commercial as they played against Switzerland...

or we can always blame Jabulani.

Meet other Real Madrid Fans in NYC! We are recognized by Real Madrid as an official Real Madrid supporter's club. Real Madrid NYC is a not for profit club, our only mission is to share our passion for Real Madrid and building a large New York network of fans and friends. You can now find us in Facebook: Peña Madridista NYC Our official headquarters (nuestra casa) is Mr Dennehy's at 63 Carmine St, New York, NY 10014  An awesome place to watch the game!

So the day has finally come!!! From dark horse to fiery steed, España were changed forever by the Euro. Thanks to Torres's goal against Germany and Fàbregas's penalty against Italy, La Selección finally won a major tournament – and a new identity. A new mentality. Declaring themselves favorites is nothing new but this time, more than ever, Spaniards truly believe it.

As I have quoted Cesc before, let's hope this will continue to be the case:

Un día nuestros nietos leerán esto en los libros de Historia: "El fútbol es un deporte que fue inventado por los ingleses en el siglo XIX y que siguió su desarrollo en el XX e inicios del XXI. Pero en el año 2008 apareció un equipo que apodaban La Roja e inventó el sky-football (fútbol celestial)". 

And now my English translation: One day our grandchildren will read this in the history books: "Football is a sport that was invented by the British in the nineteenth century and continued its development in the twentieth and early twenty-first. But in 2008 appeared a team, nicknamed "The Red" and invented the sky-football (heavenly soccer). "

See the full event details at http://www.meetup.com/realmadridnyc/calendar/13808889/.

Here's a categorical imperative: Put the ball in the net.

In a blissfully funny, vintage Monty Python sketch, there is a soccer game between Germany and Greece in which the players are leading philosophers. The always formidable Germany, captained by "Nobby" Hegel, boasts the world-class attackers Nietzsche, Heidegger and Wittgenstein, while the wily Greeks, captained by Socrates, field a dream team with Plato in goal, Aristotle on defense and—a surprise inclusion—the mathematician Archimedes.

Toward the end of the keenly fought game, during which nothing much appears to happen except a lot of thinking, the canny Socrates scores a bitterly disputed match winner. Mayhem ensues! The enraged Hegel argues in vain with the referee, Confucius, that the reality of Socrates' goal is merely an a priori adjunct of non-naturalistic ethics, while Kant holds that, ontologically, the goal existed only in the imagination via the categorical imperative, and Karl Marx—who otherwise had a quiet game—protests that Socrates was offside.

Los jugadores de la Selección han atendido a los medios de comunicación a su llegada al hotel de concentración este mediodía. Además del jugador del Real Madrid Sergio Ramos, Navas y Llorente han mostrado su entusiasmo por que empiece el campeonato. Villa se ha referido a su compañero Iniesta: “Sabemos que la lesión es poca cosa”.

El defensa de La Roja Sergio Ramos ha declarado que “el equipo lleva en mente hacer el mismo papel que hicimos en la Eurocopa”. Al preguntarle por los rivales, ha dicho que van “con mucha tranquilidad y mucha calma, teniendo el máximo respeto a todos”. Al hacerle los periodistas referencia a Suiza, también ha añadido que “en este tipo de eventos cualquier equipo puede dar la sorpresa”.

El optimismo de los jugadores de la Selección se ha reflejado en las declaraciones de Jesús Navas: “Tenemos ganas de que empiece el Mundial y afrontar el primer encuentro. Tenemos que ir con tranquilidad y humildad”. El delantero Fernando Llorente ha confirmado esa actitud: “Tenemos ganas de ganar partidos y hacerlo bien”.

En referencia a la seguridad del país anfitrión, tanto Villa como Navas han dicho estar tranquilos: “Nos han dicho que vamos a tener seguridad y confiamos en ello. Estará todo controlado”.

Suiza, Honduras y Chile son los primeros rivales a los que se enfrentará La Roja, y los únicos que preocupan ahora a los futbolistas, como Navas y Llorente, que tienen claro que “hay que ir paso a paso, partido a partido”. Sergio Ramos, por su parte, ha afirmado que “hay que pensar en los tres primeros partidos y luego ya se verá. No hay que pensar en el fracaso, y ser optimistas”.

Mañana se decide si hay gira por Asia o por Europa

El Madrid ultima la pretemporada. La llegada de Mourinho ha variado los planes iniciales. Los últimos retoques se harán mañana en la reunión del comité de dirección. Ahí se intentará cerrar todas las fechas y presentárselas a Mourinho el lunes, cuando regresa de las vacaciones. Nada más aterrizar en Madrid se verá con Valdano y con Pardeza y conocerá a Karanka, su segundo.

Ya está confirmado que la vuelta al trabajo es el 16 de julio. El día 28 se irán a la concentración de pretemporada en Los Ángeles. Allí permanecerán diez días y el club tiene previsto jugar dos amistosos que le reportarán al club entre dos y tres millones de euros.

Volverán el día 8 de agosto porque los internacionales tienen que concentrarse con sus respectivas selecciones, ya que el 11 de agosto es fecha FIFA. Luego, el calendario está aún por decidirse y es lo que se hablará en la comisión de dirección de mañana. Tienen cerrado un partido contra el Bayern de Múnich el 13 de agosto y ahora lo que deben concretar es si el Madrid se va a una minigira por Asia con dos partidos, que sería del gusto de Florentino Pérez (ve primordial la expansión del Madrid por Asia, donde Cristiano Ronaldo es el mayor icono) o si se quedan por Europa y disputan otros dos encuentros con rivales de primer nivel antes de que dé comienzo la Liga.

El último partido de la pretemporada será el Trofeo Bernabéu contra el Corinthians, que servirá de homenaje a Roberto Carlos y Ronaldo.

Sergio Ramos has tried to ease the pressure on his Spain team-mates by dismissing the idea they should be considered favourites to lift the World Cup.

The European champions boast a formidable record in international football over the last three years and are widely favoured in South Africa. But Ramos believes there are several teams who can challenge over the course of the next few weeks.

"Well, I think in these kinds of events you always have a surprise," the Real Madrid defender said.

"Obviously the favourites are Italy, Brazil, Portugal, Holland... in this year's tournament we will see so many good players which make the World Cup so interesting and exciting. So, we pass the status of being the favourite to the other teams.

"We do not like to be seen as favourites but of course we have a strong team and if we do the things well as we did in the European Cup, step by step and respecting every team, we will play an important role. I would be happy reaching the 11th of July, the day of the final."

Ramos' Madrid team-mate Alvaro Arbeloa is likewise looking at others to carry the weight of expectation.

"Well, for me favourites are Brazil," he said. "They have a lot of experience, the team which won the most titles, they are a team which are always dangerous and to be considered. Furthermore everyone talks about us, Spain, but this in the end does not help. I think Spain and Brazil are the favourites.

"Italy are always very strong, although it does not look like this before the tournament. England with Capello are very good. Then teams like France, Germany and Portugal who have great individual players and, yes, Argentina, why not?"

A week prior to the 2010-11 Bundesliga campaign, the Allianz Arena will stage a glamour pre-season dress rehearsal for Louis van Gaal and his team. On Friday 13 August 2010, German double winners Bayern entertain Spain’s most successful club Real Madrid in an official Franz Beckenbauer testimonial match.

FCB chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge first revealed the fixture at the Bayern AGM last November. Reviewing the history of the club, said Rummenigge, it occurred to him that Beckenbauer’s departure as a player in 1977 to New York Cosmos “was not marked in a worthy fashion, and specifically not in a Bayern-like manner.” This omission will now be rectified. Kick-off at the Allianz Arena is at 8.45 pm.

Van Gaal is certain to use the Real clash as a full-on pre-season warm-up for his team. The match features an intriguing reunion with José Mourinho, who guided Inter to Champions League glory against Bayern in May but immediately switched to the hot seat in Madrid. And the crowd will be treated to the sight of superstars such as Kaka, Christian Ronaldo, Ilker Casillas, and Gonzalo Higuaín, to name but a few.

Advance ticket sales for the Franz Beckenbauer testimonial start on Tuesday 8 June 2010. Prices range from €15 to €60. Tickets are initially available exclusively from:

* Our Online-Ticketing service;

* By written application to:

FC Bayern München

Ticketing

Postfach 90 04 55

81504 München

Germany

* By telephone to our ticket hotline:

+49 89 699 31 333

Counter sales at the Säbener Strasse ServiceCenter will commence at a later date.

Los jugadores de la Selección se hospedarán en un complejo a estrenar en la ciudad de Johannesburgo (Sudáfrica). Todo está a punto en el hotel, lleno de comodidades para los internacionales. Dispondrán de una pequeña cocina, una sala de estar e incluso una sala de juegos para los momentos de relax. Los organizadores quieren asegurarse de que todo está en orden y los operarios se afanaban en dar los últimos retoques. El autobús de la Roja, además, luce un nuevo eslogan: 'Ilusión es mi camino, victoria mi destino'. Sudáfrica espera a España.

Sergio Ramos es un jugador de los que todo entrenador quiere tener en su equipo: tiene raza para dar y tomar y fútbol para repartir. Un defensa de los de antes.

Desde que llegara al Real Madrid le han comparado con muchos mitos del madridismo, pero Sergio Ramos quiere hacerse un nombre en sí mismo, sin necesidad de referencias. Así se entiende que su carrera haya ido ‘in crescendo’ desde que saliera del Sevilla con destino a la capital de España… y a la Selección.

Porque en España, el lateral de Camas demuestra su polivalencia al igual que hace en su equipo. Lo mismo actúa como un central marcador, que ocupa la demarcación de libre para estar siempre al quite. Es su rol con ‘La Roja’, lejos de la banda derecha que suele ocupar en su equipo, pero presto siempre por si el entrenador le necesitara en otra ubicación.

Con Piqué formará una pareja de cuidado: fuerte, seria… y con fútbol. Porque si el central del Barcelona se especializa en el juego aéreo y es normalmente el primer pase de Casillas para sacar el balón jugado, Ramos muestra un toque de balón que ya querrían para sí muchos de los mejores futbolistas del mundo. No es extraño verle realizar pases de 50 ó 60 metros medidos a sus compañeros para buscar quebrar las defensas rivales.

Fuerza, potencia, mucha clase y polivalencia. Fútbol, en definitiva, al servicio de la causa, la de la selección española que espera dar el golpe definitivo a partir de este próximo viernes en Sudáfrica.

The team

Long perceived to be the perennial bridesmaids of world football after flattering to deceive at the past nine tournaments. Semi-finalists in 1950 they should have matched that in 1994 against Italy before Mauro Tassotti's vicious elbow poleaxed Luis Enrique and left him with a nose resembling Charlie Magri's. Brilliant in the group matches in Germany four years ago, they were undone by an ageing France in the last 16, a result which finally allowed them to draw a line under the Raúl era. Without their supposed talisman they won Euro 2008 with a brand of exuberant purist football that has made them many people's favourites (again).

Vicente Del Bosque has used 4-1-4-1, 4-4-2 and 4-3-3 with Xavi and Andrés Iniesta pivotal in midfield in front of Sergio Busquets, David Silva teeing up chances from the wing and David Villa and Fernando Torres (when fit) combining with brilliant effect up front. Doubts persist about the defence, where Carles Puyol lacks pace and height and Sergio Ramos has yet to grasp positional discipline.

Portugal will be gunning for them in a neighbourly feud and they owe Italy a gubbing after 1994's bloodbath.

La Furia Roja – The Red Fury – named after the singer Billy Fury because they used to leave their fans halfway to paradise.

Take your pick from midfielders with exquisite touch, scintillating widemen in Jesús Navas and David Silva or either of two sadistically destructive strikers. Even among this array of talent, however, Villa stands out. Magnificent at Euro 2008 he is even better now after scoring 58 goals for Valencia and 18 for Spain in the two seasons since. Combines lethal finishing with feet and head (despite being stumpy) with superb ball skills and positioning.

In their dreams. They will have to wait till one of them is past it in La Liga, as they did with Fernando Hierro, to have a sniff.

Sergio Ramos likes to taunt opposition players then hides behind his hair and the referee when someone stands up to him.

With that sparsely-furnished pate and "I'm still virile" luxuriant tache, he could twin with the BBC's senior political correspondent John Pienaar.

Vicente Del Bosque won five titles with Real Madrid as a player, two as a coach as well as a pair of European Cups. The only man to make the gálacticos policy work successfully, he took the Spain job after the Euro 2008 triumph and promptly won every qualifier.

Admired for his humility and light-touch style but expectation is onerously high.

Manuel Cáceres, better known as Manuel el del Bombo, the team's self-styled No12, has been following Spain and banging "that fucking drum™" since the 1982 World Cup. The rotund Valencia bar owner returned from supporting the side in 1987 to find his family had walked out on him, a bittersweet timpani if ever there was one.

Tapas, potatoes in omelettes, most of the new world even though it was already there, the Armada, the language spoken by Dora the Explorer among others and the fiendish torture ordeals of the Inquisition, not including the comfy chair.

Old Spanish women rocked the goth look long before the snakebite-supping hordes of West Yorkshire adopted widow's weeds.

Played 10, won 10 and had to break sweat only when Turkey and Bosnia held them to tight 1-0 victories on the peninsular. David Villa scored seven and Gerard Piqué became a defensive linchpin.

"Disciples of the Bernard Manning school of race relations and serial bull tormentors in league with the Russians."

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Highest finish: Fourth place in 1950

6: In February 2009's match against England, David Villa became the first Spain player to score in six consecutive games

Switzerland, 16 June, Moses Mabhida Stadium, 3pm

Honduras, 21 June, Ellis Park 7.30pm

Chile, 25 June, Free State Stadium, 7.30pm

They have been a joy with their intricate yet incisive passing style. The speed of Fernando Torres' recovery from a knee operation is debatable but with Xavi and others on the scene they ought to cruise through the group. Spain won Euro 2008 and any concerns reflect the workload of the players. Can they still be fluent? Semi-finalists.

From dark horse to fiery steed, Spain were changed for ever by Euro 2008. Thanks to Fernando Torres's goal against Germany and Cesc Fàbregas's penalty against Italy, la selección finally won a major tournament – and a new identity. A new mentality. This Time, England's 1982 song, could have been written for them. Declaring themselves favourites is nothing new but this time, more than any other time, Spaniards actually believe it. "If we'd said four years ago that Spain would win the European Championships and go into the World Cup with a real chance of winning it, you'd have said we were mad," Torres admits. "But not now."

As one headline put it: "Spain come into this World Cup as genuine favourites." The "unlike every other World Cup" went without saying. After Spain defeated France in Paris in the spring, one columnist wrote: "Hands up any of you who did not go to bed last night with the feeling that no one can stop this team. Step forward those of you who don't think that, barring some major accident or a coincidence of strange events, we're coming back from South Africa with the Cup under our arm. Too optimistic? No, just realistic."

Realistic might be pushing it, but it is not just the Spanish saying so. The coach, Vicente del Bosque, has constantly fled the favourites tag, like it was some kind of plague-infected rat hell-bent on biting him. It is, he insists, a "terrible trap". But however hard he runs, however cleverly he hides, there is no avoiding it. "Everyone," notes Torres, "is talking about us. Whenever coaches or players are asked for their favourites, they mention Spain. We've earned that. In the past we talked about being favourites when maybe we weren't – this time we really are."

Much of that is due to sheer talent. This generation of players is, quite simply, better than those before. Raúl is often declared the finest Spanish footballer ever, certainly their best goalscorer. Yet David Villa is now only seven behind him. Having played 46 games fewer. If Torres is fit, Fàbregas doesn't get in the side and few complain. Mikel Arteta never gets in the squad and no one has even noticed. As Thierry Henry puts it: "They have Villa and Torres; they have Xabi Alonso and Cesc, Iniesta and Xavi, and Silva. It's incredible."

Euro 2008 underlined the depth of talent and also enhanced it, changing perceptions, strengthening the selección. Without it, attitudes coming into South Africa would surely be very different. The chances too.

No one here will forget Torres putting the ball beyond Jens Lehmann. That goal on 29 June 2008 ended a 44-year wait. Spain, along with England, were the ultimate underachievers. Now England stand alone, contemplating a four-decade drought. But, says Torres, the moment Spain won Euro 2008 – the moment that not only changed their history but their future too – happened a week earlier, when Fàbregas's penalty beat Gianluigi Buffon in a shoot-out. That was the turning point.

Spain had got through a quarter‑final. And against Italy too, the side they had not beaten in a competitive match for 88 years, the one they love to hate, the country with all the qualities – said through gritted teeth – that Spain lack: luck, competitiveness, effectiveness. They had done it on penalties, after a goalless draw and on 22 June, the date they had lost on penalties three times running. They had overcome a mental barrier: before Euro2008, the band Pignoise, led by the former Real Madrid player Álvaro Benito, wrote a tournament song. It was called 'Let's Get Beyond the Quarters!' At last Spain had done.

David Villa says, "owed us." Now it no longer weighs them down. Had Spain lost to Italy their early-tournament brilliance would have been lost in a familiar fog of depression. Instead, everything they do was reinforced, vindicated. Primarily, the adoption of a ball-playing game. For years Spain sought an identity; now it is unshakable, embedded, resistant. Natural. "Spain play with incredible ease," Arsène Wenger says. The ball belongs to them. "Watching them on TV is lovely," Henry says, "but playing against them is infuriating: you never get possession."

The clarity and stability, the contentedness, is startling. Debates are few – the outcry for Víctor Valdés to be included as third-choice keeper when most countries struggle to find a first spoke volumes about the strength of the squad and was at least in part provoked by club sectarianism and boredom.

But for Euro 2008, things might have been different. Style is fine but there's no security blanket like success. Each victory reinforced the model, a virtuous circle; very occasional poor performances are not enough – at least not yet – to leave people questioning it. After Spain's disappointing 1-0 win over South Korea on Thursday, a result that once would have had them panicking, the county's best-selling newspaper simply stated: "Now's not the time to sound the alarms but to keep the faith in a team that has earned it."

Earn is not the half of it. The style works. The stats are uncontestable. At the end of the previous friendly, against Saudi Arabia, the defender Carlos Marchena broke the world record, surpassing Garrincha by going 50 internationals unbeaten. Spain won 10 out of 10 in World Cup qualifying – the first team ever to do so – and have lost only one of their last 47 matches. They have won 36 of their last 37. Including beating Italy, Argentina, France and England. Twice. During the France match, the St Denis fans started olé-ing the opposition's every touch.

"Spain have confirmed that they're one of the great favourites for the World Cup," the France coach, Raymond Domenech, said afterwards. "They have exceptional talent, sacrificed for the collective good. They play without haste and yet they do so with intensity and intent. Their circulation of the ball is spectacular and the final pass from midfield is like a penalty for anyone else."

Asked how he would handle them in South Africa, Domenech shrugged. "Luckily, we won't play Spain until the final so I don't need to think of that just yet," he said, adding quickly: "If we get there." If we do. He, like so many others, didn't doubt that Spain would.

Sergio Ramos captained Spain for the first time yesterday against South Korea. At just 24 years of age, Ramos is also one of the captain's at Real Madrid. The defender already has 59 caps. He made his debut on 26 March, 2005, against China in Salamanca. Sergio embodies the values of footballers that have been leaders on the Spanish national team throughout its history, such as current team captain Iker Casillas.

Ramos and Iniesta were the only two players in the starting lineup against South Korea who also made the starting eleven against Saudi Arabia. None of the players who have seniority over Ramos on the squad made the lineup -Casillas (103 caps), Xavi (84), Puyol (82), Torres (72) and Xabi Alonso (67).

It is also worth mentioning Raul Albiol is still undefeated as an international. Ever since the Real Madrid defender made his international debut on 13 March, 2007, Spain have only failed to win three games, none of which featured Albiol (Finland, 0-0; Italy, 0-0, Spain won in the penalty shootout; and USA, 0-2).

Mourinho ya tiene los mandos de la nave. Su primera decisión ayer fue la de cambiar el plan inicial de pretemporada que tenía preparado el Madrid antes de su incorporación. Para empezar, el portugués retrasa la llegada al trabajo de los no mundialistas del 12 al 16 de julio. No quiere más de 10 días entrenándose en Valdebebas y cambiará el stage de pretemporada en Irlanda por Estados Unidos.

Ésta es la novedad más importante. El técnico madridista avisó en El Larguero: "Debo saber si el Madrid tiene compromisos firmados en pretemporada". Ayer, el club blanco empezó a trabajar en la elaboración de la nueva concentración norteamericana. Se barajan dos ciudades en las que Mourinho estuvo el año pasado: Los Ángeles (diez días) y Boston (cinco días). El entrenador ha recomendado las instalaciones de la Universidad de UCLA y Harvard. En función de la disponibilidad de instalaciones (el Inter, por ejemplo, pasará por allí) y plazas hoteleras, se elegirá un destino u otro.

Gira.

Mientras, la gira asiática está en el aire porque el inicio de la Liga podría adelantarse al penúltimo fin de semana de agosto y no habría tiempo material. La LFP lo decidirá en julio. El México-España del 11 de agosto obligó a abortar los partidos previstos en Seúl, Sanghai y Tokio. No falta trabajo en las oficinas blancas...

Africa United is the story of modern day Africa told through its soccer. Travelling across thirteen countries, from Cairo to the Cape, Steve Bloomfield, the former Africa Correspondent for The Independent, meets players and fans, politicians and rebel leaders, discovering the role that soccer has played in shaping the continent. This wide-ranging and incisive book investigates Africa’s love of soccer, its increasing global influence, the build-up to the 2010 World Cup itself and the social and political backdrop to the greatest show on earth.

Africa United is the story of modern-day Africa told through its soccer. Traveling across thirteen countries, from Cairo to the Cape, Steve Bloomfield meets players and fans, politicians and rebel leaders, discovering the role that soccer has played in shaping the continent. He recounts how soccer has helped to stoke conflicts and end wars, bring countries together and prop up authoritarian regimes.

A lively and elegantly reported travelogue, Africa United calls attention to the amazing relationships between people and soccer, and to the state of Africa on the cusp of the biggest moment in its sporting history, the 2010 World Cup.