Village Idiot

Busquets... he can't shoot for shit

Iniesta, Piqué, Ramos taking pens. Better switch those shooting boots.

Dunno, ask Marquis Del Bosque Soldado's injured, but I'd have hoyed in Villa at least.

Ya against Portugal and Italy I think. Portugal's was exactly one year ago (June 27h 2012). Italy blatantly going for the pens.

This has been rumored for a while, but I'd surprised if it takes effect in the next 5 years. The figures in the article look very off though, La Liga's collective budgets are way higher than 750m, only Barça and Madrid together are already 800+

Ah Iniesta

Our CBs surely love a skied ball.

ah, good ole 4-6-0

I know Balotelli is injured and Osvaldo was iced out... but isn't there anything better in Italy than Gilardino? Italy would be winning this already.

Xavi covers far more ground than Pirlo since he uses short passing instead of long range, and this has enabled Pirlo to age better hanging around the midfield line while Xavi has noticed more the decline of his athleticism. Pirlo is probably a bit better right now because of that, but I'd take Xavi in both their primes.

Navas already done more in 5 minutes than Silva in 50.

Pedro switched sides with Silva, should make our wings more balanced.

Italy are reading the game well, sitting deep and using their long range passers to mount great counters. Fun game so far.

Ah, do the hard part, miss the easy part. Typical Torres.

For some reason, VDB just doesn't fancy Mata. Never got a good go at the NT despite his form since moving to England.

The exact date is usually announced just a few weeks before the fact. but it's usually always around the end of July, might be earlier this year due to the World Cup.

Soldado's injured and Villa is a winger for VDB.

Well, Alonso did his groin and missed through injury, so it's sort of forced. He could've introduced Martínez alongside Busquets, though.

Mid-late July usually.

I always preferred Spain to play with only one DM, we're just more entertaining, if not so rock solid (something like 4 goals conceded in official tournaments since VDB took over?)

Brazil crowds have hated on us the whole tournament

Iniesta

Courtois is far too good. He will keep Chelsea's goal for years.

Happens all the time, injuries to Márquez and Milito made Piqué a first team regular.

No, but he's still 18. I don't think he'll make it myself, however. Prototypical example of player that scored 200000000000000000 goals at youth level due to his athleticism but isn't good enough for the real stuff. Samper has been promoted to our B team this year, incidentally. He's been my favorite prospect for years, dying to see if he can cut it at a professional level.