Spain Team Profile World Cup 2010

The Spanish national football team represents Spain in international football and is controlled by the Royal Spanish Football Federation. The Spanish side are commonly referred to as La Furia Roja (The Red Fury).

Spain are the current European champions, having won the UEFA European Championship in 2008. They also won the European Nations' Cup in 1964 and reached the UEFA Euro 1984 Final. Spain have qualified for the FIFA World Cup twelve times, reaching fourth place in the 1950 tournament.

In July 2008, Spain rose to the top of the FIFA World Ranking for the first time in their history, becoming the sixth nation, and the first who has never won the World Cup, to top this ranking. Between November 2006 and June 2009, Spain went undefeated for a record tying 35 consecutive matches —record shared with Brazil— including a record 15-game winning streak.

1950 World Cup

The Spanish Civil War and World War II prevented Spain from playing another competitive match until the 1950 World Cup. There they topped their group against England, Chile and the United States to progress to the final round. The cup was decided in a league format against the other group winners — Brazil, Uruguay, and Sweden. Spain gained only one point by drawing with eventual winners Uruguay, losing to both Brazil and Sweden, thus finishing fourth, which remains, as of 2008, their best performance in a World Cup. The team failed to qualify for another major tournament until the 1962 World Cup.

Under French-Argentine coach Helenio Herrera, Spain came out of dormancy to qualify for the first European Championship in 1960. Spain beat Poland 7–2 on aggregate to progress to the quarterfinals. However, Spain forfeited its quarterfinal tie with the Soviet Union because of political circumstances between Spain's dictator Franco and the Soviets.

1982 World Cup in Spain


In 1966, Spain was selected as host of the 1982 FIFA World Cup. This edition of the World Cup featured 24 teams for the first time. Expectations were high for Spain as the host nation under coach José Santamaría. In the group stages, Spain was drawn into Group 5, in which they could only manage a 1–1 draw with Honduras in the finals' opening match, after which they had a 2–1 victory over Yugoslavia, but were defeated 1–0 by Northern Ireland. These results were enough to secure progress to the second round where they were drawn into Group B, but defeat to West Germany and a goalless draw with England meant that Spain were knocked out, and Santamaría was sacked.

1986 World Cup


Spain qualified for the 1986 World Cup in Mexico having topped Group 7 with Scotland, Wales, and Iceland. Spain began the group stage by losing to Brazil 1–0, but progressed after beating Northern Ireland by 2–1 and Algeria by 3–0. Round 2 paired Spain with Denmark, who they overcame 5–1 with Emilio Butragueño scoring four goals, but in the quarterfinals a 1–1 draw with Belgium ended with Belgium winning 5–4 on penalties.

1990 World Cup


For the 1990 World Cup in Italy, Spain had a new coach, Luis Suárez. Having qualified from a group consisting of Republic of Ireland, Hungary, Northern Ireland, and Malta, Spain entered the competition on a good run of form, and after reaching the knock out stages through a 0–0 draw with Uruguay and wins over South Korea (3–1) and Belgium (2–1), fell to a 2–1 defeat to Yugoslavia in the second round.

1994 and 1998 World Cup


Javier Clemente was appointed as Spain's coach in 1992, and the qualification for the 1994 World Cup was achieved with eight wins and one loss in twelve matches. In the final tournament Spain were in Group C in which they drew with Korea Republic 2–2 and 1–1 with Germany, before qualifying for the second round with a 3–1 victory over Bolivia. Spain continued through the second round with a 3-0 victory over Switzerland, but their tournament ended with a 2–1 defeat to Italy in the quarter-finals.

In his second World Cup as Spain's coach, Clemente led his team undefeated through their qualifying group in which Yugoslavia and Czech Republic were the other contenders. Spain qualified with fourteen other European sides in the first ever thirty-two team World Cup, but were eliminated in the first round with four points after losing to Nigeria, drawing with Paraguay, and winning just one game, against Bulgaria.

2002 World Cup

The qualifying tournament for the 2002 World Cup went as expected for Spain as they topped a group consisting of Austria, Israel, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Liechtenstein. In the finals tournament Spain won its three matches in group B, against Slovenia, Paraguay (both by 3-1), and South Africa (3-2). Spain beat Republic of Ireland on penalties in the second round, and faced co-hosts Korea Republic in the quarterfinals. Spain twice thought they had scored, but the efforts were disallowed, and Korea were successful in the penalty shootout after a 0-0 draw after a great theft of party.

2006 World Cup

Spain qualified for the 2006 World Cup only after a play-off against Slovakia, as they had finished behind Serbia and Montenegro in Group 7, which also included Bosnia and Herzegovina, Belgium, Lithuania, and San Marino. In Group H of the German hosted finals, Spain won all their matches, beating Ukraine 4–0, Tunisia 3–1 and Saudi Arabia 1-0. However Spain fell 3–1 in the second round to France team, with only the consolation of a share, with Brazil, of the 2006 FIFA Fair Play Award. Spain qualified for Euro 2008 at the top of Qualifying Group F with 28 points out of a possible 36, and were seeded 12th for the finals. They won all their games in Group D: 4–1 against Russia, and 2-1 against both Sweden and defending champions Greece.

Confederations Cup debut and 2010 World Cup

Luis Aragonés left the manager's role after the Euro 2008 success, and was replaced by Vicente del Bosque.

2008 saw David Villa score 12 goals in 15 games, breaking the Spanish record of 10 goals in one year held by Raúl since 1999. On 11 February 2009, David Villa broke another Spanish record against England, as his 36th-minute goal saw him become the first Spanish player to score in six consecutive games.

Spain began their 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification campaign with six successive wins, and went into the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup as one of the favourites. By the start of the tournament, Del Bosque's had ten consecutive wins, making him the first international manager to do so from his debut, breaking Joao Saldanha's record, held since 1969, of nine consecutive wins with Brazil.

Spain won all three of their matches at the group stage, the 5–0 win over New Zealand including a Fernando Torres hat-trick that is the earliest and fastest hat-trick in the tournament's history. With further wins over Iraq (1–0) and South Africa (2–0) they earned not only qualification for the semifinals, but also obtained the world record for 15 consecutive wins and tied the record of 35 consecutive unbeaten games (with Brazil).

On 24 June 2009, Spain's undefeated record ended when the United States beat them 2-0 in the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup semi-finals which sent them to the third place match. This was Spain's first defeat since 2006. Spain defeated hosts South Africa 3–2 after extra time in the 3rd-place playoff.

On 9 September 2009, Spain secured their place at the 2010 World Cup finals after beating Estonia 3–0 in Mérida. They went on to record a perfect World Cup qualifying record with 10 wins out of 10 in Group 5, finishing with a 5–2 victory over Bosnia and Herzegovina on 14 October 2009.

Spanish Team Profile Matches Road to 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa

Armenia Belgium Bosnia and Herzegovina Estonia Spain Turkey
Armenia 2 – 1 0 – 2 2 – 2 1 – 2 0 – 2
Belgium 2 – 0 2 – 4 3 – 2 1 – 2 2 – 0
Bosnia and Herzegovina 4 – 1 2 – 1 7 – 0 2 – 5 1 – 1
Estonia 1 – 0 2 – 0 0 – 2 0 – 3 0 – 0
Spain 4 – 0 5 – 0 1 – 0 3 – 0 1 – 0
Turkey 2 – 0 1 – 1 2 – 1 4 – 2 1 – 2


Spanish team last standing position 2010 FIFA World Cup Qualifying
Team
Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts
Spain 10 10 0 0 28 5 +23 30
Bosnia and Herzegovina 10 6 1 3 25 13 +12 19
Turkey 10 4 3 3 13 10 +3 15
Belgium 10 3 1 6 13 20 −7 10
Estonia 10 2 2 6 9 24 −15 8
Armenia 10 1 1 8 6 22 −16 4


Spanish Team World Cup Record

Host nation(s) / Year Round Position GP W D* L GS GA
Uruguay 1930 Did Not Enter - - - - - - -
Italy 1934 Quarter-final 5 3 1 1 1 4 3
France 1938 Entry not accepted by FIFA - - - - - - -
Brazil 1950 Fourth Place 4 6 3 1 2 10 12
Switzerland 1954 Did Not Qualify - - - - - - -
Sweden 1958 Did Not Qualify - - - - - - -
Chile 1962 Round 1 12 3 1 0 2 2 3
England 1966 Round 1 10 3 1 0 2 4 5
Mexico 1970 Did Not Qualify - - - - - - -
West Germany 1974 Did Not Qualify - - - - - - -
Argentina 1978 Round 1 10 3 1 1 1 2 2
Spain 1982 Round 2 12 5 1 2 2 4 5
Mexico 1986 Quarter-final 8 5 3 1 1 11 4
Italy 1990 Round of 16 14 4 2 1 1 6 4
United States 1994 Quarter-final 6 5 2 2 1 10 6
France 1998 Round 1 17 3 1 1 1 8 4
South Korea Japan 2002 Quarter-final 5 5 3 2 0 10 5
Germany 2006 Round of 16 10 4 3 0 1 9 4
South Africa 2010 Qualified - - - - - - -
Total 13/19 - 49 22 12 15 80 57


Spanish Team Complete Profile
Shirt badge/Association crest
Nickname(s) La Furia Roja (The Red Fury)
La Roja (The Red)
Association Royal Spanish
Football Federation
Confederation UEFA (Europe)
Head coach Spain Vicente del Bosque
Captain Spain Iker Casillas
Most caps Spain Andoni Zubizarreta (126)
Top scorer Spain Raúl (44)
Home stadium Santiago Bernabéu
Vicente Calderón
Mestalla
FIFA code ESP
FIFA ranking 1
Highest FIFA ranking 1 (July 2008–June 2009)
Lowest FIFA ranking 25 (March 1998)
Elo ranking 2
Highest Elo ranking 1 (Sept 1920 - May 1924, Sept - Dec 1925, June 2002, June 2008 - June 2009)
Lowest Elo ranking 20 (June 1969, June 1981, November 1991)
First international
Spain 1 – 0 Denmark
(Brussels, Belgium; 28 August 1920)[1]
Biggest win
Spain 13 – 0 Bulgaria
(Madrid, Spain; 21 May 1933)
Biggest defeat
Italy 7 – 1 Spain
(Amsterdam, Netherlands; 4 June 1928)
England 7 – 1 Spain
(London, England; 9 December 1931)
World Cup
Appearances 12 (First in 1934)
Best result Fourth Place, 1950
European Championship
Appearances 9 (First in 1964)
Best result Champions, 1964, 2008
Confederations Cup
Appearances 1 (First in 2009)
Best result 3rd Place, 2009

 

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