Spain v Turkey

Here at La Liga Weekly we don't do many recaps, we don't do match analysis or at least we don't do it the way that most blogs do it as a sort of minute by minute expression of something you should have watched anyway. No, this here blog is different. Not better, I hope not worse, but just a little different.

So, I was watching the Spain v Turkey match, I figured I'd better watch it if I wanted to be ready for this week's show, and I wanted to see if Del Bosque's side were any better than Aragones's side that won the Euros. No, I hadn't watched the previous matches since one old Spaniard succeeded the other.

First of all, it is not an easy thing to finish a hotly contested league title race in Spain or in its football colony England, then fight it out all Summer for a more competitive than usual European Championship and then start it all over again domestically the following year. These guys are tired, it's late in the season, and Spain are missing some of their more creative players in the midfield. Gone was Andres Iniesta who plays alongside Xavi for club and country and offers another point of attack, another fantasista in the midfield that the other players can play little triangles off of. His understudy, Cesc Fabregas of Arsenal, is just now returning from a knee injury he suffered against Liverpool in the league late last year.

With central midfield lacking that extra spark, Spain changed tactics and decided to attack the Turkish flanks. Villareal's Santi Cazorla started the game on the left but was subbed out late in the game by Valencia's Juan Mata who got his first cap for Spain. David Silva was a late substitute on the right but none of the newcomers had a marked impact on the game; they were pacy and involved all match but they offered an unfamiliar skill-set than what the FC Barcelona midfield engine of Xavi and Iniesta usually bring in for Spain. Spain were more direct but Torres in fact looked like he was at half speed, like he was saving himself for the English title race and Villa did not have one of his better games lacking the service he usually gets from the midfield. In my opinion they were lacking an identity and an obvious plan B.

All in all it was a win. Del Bosque would surely have come in for some sharp criticism had Spain thrown away the easy three points at the Santiago Bernabeu with a difficult away match set for Wednesday at Istanbul, and you know that the Raul-birds would have been squawking even more incessantly than they already have about his omission from the squad. They still have talent, but they will need to work very hard to get back to the level they were playing at after the Euros.