First Upset of 2010 World cup

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Spain versus Switzerland; 

June 16, 2010, Moses Mabhida Stadium , Durban

European champions came into the tournament with unbeaten 14 game streak and a high per game goal average of 3 in last seven games. The Swiss hadn't beaten Spain in their last 18 meetings, over a period of eighty five years, but they had a very stout defense which stifled goalless draws in last world cup, until a penalty knocked them out of group stages. Spain had the best team in years, with players from Barca, Real, Valencia all making up the team. They had the coach, Vicente del Bosque, who had supervised the golden age of Real in recent years. Swiss coach, Ottmar Hitzfeld, has 19 majors including 2 European championships with two different teams. This was going to be as much as a players match, as much as it was going to be between tactics of the two coaches.

As the pre-match predictions was being made in favor of Spain, for a score line of at least 3-0, both the teams waited in the dressing room. Torres was not in starting eleven, so was Fabregas. It was an over confident team which took to field. The initial stages saw Spain having nearly 80 percentage of possession, and the Swiss on back foot. Even then there was hardly one good shot at goal by Spain. The Swiss defense was living up to its name. After 30 minutes of play, Spain was left short of ideas, and Swiss slowly took possession. The goal less end of first half made the predicted scoreline a far shot. Even then, last nights game between the other tournament favorites Brazil made every Spanish supporter feel they might win this, yet.

Second half saw Spain starting with same tempo. The famed line up of Xavi, Villa, X. Alonso, Silva was not testing the Swiss goal keeper, Diego Benaglio, and the rock solid defense. Six minutes into the second half saw the Swiss strike. Iker Cassillas was made to come out of line by a rush from Swiss striker, Erin Dedreyk, and the opportunity in the melee was taken gladly by Fernandes who put the ball inside the net. Swiss was one up. The world cup favorites were a goal down. Suddenly, panic spread in Spanish benches and Torres and Navis was brought in for Basquet and Silva. Torres immediately injected fresh pace and sting into the attack but still was ineffective. There was many opportunities missed. Spain was lucky not to concede another when a strike by Dedreyk struck the post and came back to Pique, who found it too bouncy. The ball was safely taken out by Puyol. The Spanish defense looked never in the form as in the days of Hierro. Same could be said of the attack, which was different when Raul was there. The best shot of the match and tournament till now, was from the boot of X. Alonso, who let out a fierce right footer which unfortunately hit the bar and rebounded towards the ground. If it had gone in, it would have been a sure contender for goal of the tournament. 90 minutes later, a five minutes injury time was given. Each of those 300 seconds was met with stout defense. The Swiss made it difficult for Spain and Benaglio was given a yellow for unnecessary time wasting. The referee was tough throughout the match giving really good decisions, and the right amount of cards. In the end, the match winner was the defense of Swiss with General Benaglio in the heart of backyard.

The first major upset has made this world cup look like a goal crunch one. Spain got lot of work to do, to live up to its reputation. As my brother rightly said, For a goal strike, it takes less than 30 seconds only, but in the whole of 90 minutes, there is not many of those 30 seconds, and to find it is really the thing that marks the winning team from other.

Switzerland 1(Fernandes) – Spain 0