Spain Legitimate Favorites for the World Cup

Frank Doyle makes the case for Spain to win their first ever World Cup in South Africa this summer.

Spain is synonymous with soccer. La Liga, the Spanish domestic league, is one of the great competitions in Europe and some of the greatest players in the world have plied their trade there – Di Stefano, Puskas, Cruyff, Stoichkov and Ronaldo, to name but a famous five.

Despite all this, Spain has always underperformed at World Cups. Spain’s fourth place finish in 1950 remains their best ever finish, with every other tournament resulting in heartbreaking disappointment for a proud soccer nation.

Failure to beat Honduras or Northern Ireland on home soil in 1982. Following up an epic win over Denmark with a crushing loss to Belgium in 1986. First round elimination in 1998. A trail of tears along the plains of Castile.

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But Spain arrives at South Africa 2010 as joint favorites with Brazil and for once, the faith of their fans may be justified. Spain turned a corner in soccer betting terms when it beat mighty Germany in the European Championships of 2008.

Strong Spanish teams had blown up in so many previous tournaments, or had failed to qualify in the first place, that the confidence with which Spain claimed the title in Vienna with a win over Germany in the final was like a brave new dawn of international Spanish soccer.

The Spanish built on that success to win all of their qualifying games for the World Cup and replenish the squad in the process. It’s a measure of the strength in depth available to the national side that Cesc Fabregas, the Arsenal player whom some consider the best midfielder in England, can’t even make the first XI.

Spain is strong in every line of the pitch. They enjoy the talents of Real Madrid’s superlative goalkeeper, Iker Casillas, a solid back four, a cultured and talented midfield and a deadly strikeforce of David Villa and Fernando “El Nino” Torres.

So what’s to stop Spain? The Spanish are red hot favorites to win Group H, and are also favorites to score most and concede least in those World Cup special markets.

They have a very experienced coach in Vincente del Bosque who took over from Luis Aragones after the European triumph, their strength in depth is tremendous and their confidence and self-belief is at all-time high. If the Spanish don’t win the World Cup, it can only be the World Cup winners themselves who beat them.