As nothing is happening in La Liga or The Champions League until later this month, I thought it would be a perfect time to comment the on Spain, only team that matters to me in the World Cup Qualifiers. The world cup isn’t until 2014, but the first round of qualifying matches have already begun. Spain, being the reigning world Champions have a lot to prove, and a lot to lose heading into this game. One being their perfect shut out streak in the last two Euro Cups and World Cup qualifying rounds, and also Spain’s goal keeper Iker Casillas’ own shut out record. In the 25th minute my own personal dreams came true when center-back Sergio Ramos scored a close range goal, literally 2 seconds after attempting to head it in, but the ball hit the post. The ball rebounded to a fellow player who shot on target but was poorly handled by the French keeper. When the ball got away from him Ramos seized the opportunity to redeem himself kicked it powerfully into the back of the neck. He celebrated his goal with a crowd pleasing double back flip, and equally enthused praise an hugs from his teammates. The 1-nil score held for the entire game until after the 90th minute three minutes of stoppage time was added. Well past the 93rd minute mark and within the 94th the ref had still not called time and France came back to score a game changing goal right before the whistle blew. So the Spanish team’s unheard of shut out streak of 24 matches came to an end, and we discovered that Iker Casillas and his teammates are human after all. After winning the last World Cup and two consecutive Euro Cups Spain is still the favorite to win the World Cup in 2014, but it that only means that every team will work even harder to beat them. Ties are usually bittersweet, but for France this was all sweet glory, for Spain, it just sucked.
