Spain Final Squad for World Cup Football 2010

Spain coach Vicente del Bosque has recently announced the final 23-man Spain squad for the upcoming FIFA World Cup 2010. The notable omission from the 30-man preliminary squad is Villarreal midfielder Marcos Senna who was a member of Spain’s Euro 2008 winning team.

Captain Iker Casillas will be the first choice goalkeeper, while Liverpool’s Pepe Reina and Barcelona’s Víctor Valdés are the reserve keepers. Valdes, who had an excellent season with Barcelona, is the only uncapped player in the squad at the moment.

His Barcelona team mate Pedro and Atletic Bilbao’s Javi Martínez were uncapped while named in the final squad, before getting their international debut only recently in a 3-2 win against Saudi Arabia in an international friendly. The inclusion of Pedro and Llorente ahead of Euro 2008 winner Dani Guiza was a bit surprising too.

There are a number of injury concerns for del Bosque as he included Cesc Fabregas, Andres Iniesta and Fernando Torres. All of them are currently recovering from their injuries. However, the coach is pretty much confident about their full recovery by the time Spain starts their World Cup mission on 16 June with the match against Honduras. Spain has been drawn in Group H where they will also face Switzerland and Chile.

The squad includes 15 players who were in the Euro 2008 winning team. So, the team is pretty much experienced. Spain attack will be lead by Fernando Torres and David Villa, both of whom played key roles in Spain’s triumph in Euro 2008. However, Sergio García and Güiza are missing out, even though they were part of Spain’s Euro 2008 team.

In the midfield, Spain’s World Cup squad has retained five out of eight midfielders from Euro 2008 winning side. Iniesta, Xavi, Fàbregas, Alonso and David Silva will catch the flight to South Africa, while Senna, his Villarreal teammate Cazorla and Rubén de la Red are missing out.

Spain midfield has a number of creative players in Xavi, Fabregas and Silva who can create flurry of scoring opportunities for Torres and Villa up front. Players like Xabi Alonso, Busquets and Martínez would provide quality for the holding position in the midfield. Navas is there to deploy on the right wing, while Mata would play on the left wing. Barcelona’s versatile midfielder Iniesta can play anywhere in the midfield, though he may prefer the left win or the left side of the midfield.

The defense line up is pretty much similar to that of Euro 2008 side with Gerard Pique being the only new face. Those who are missing out from the Euro 2008 team are Navarro and Juanito, while Andrés Palop is the only new face in Spain’s goalkeeping line up.

Spain squad includes 4 centre backs: Albiol, Piqué, Marchena and Puyol. Both Sergio Ramos and Álvaro Arbeloa generally play as right back, but if needed they can be deployed in the centre of the defense. Joan Capdevila is a quality player for the left wing position, and in terms of his contribution to attack he could be compared with former Brazilian left back Roberto Carlos.

There are only 3 players from outside La Liga and all of them are from English Premier League. They are: Reina, Fabregas and Torres.

Here is final Spain squad for World Cup Football 2010:

Roles	Players
Goalkeepers	Iker Casillas (Real Madrid), Pepe Reina (Liverpool), Víctor Valdes (Barcelona)
Defenders	Carles Puyol (Barcelona), Gerard Piqué (Barcelona), Sergio Ramos (Real Madrid), Álvaro Arbeloa (Real Madrid), Raúl Albiol (Real Madrid), Joan Capdevila (Villarreal), Carlos Marchena (Valencia)
Midfielders	Cesc Fàbregas (Arsenal), Xabi Alonso (Real Madrid), Xavi Hernández (Barcelona), Andrés Iniesta (Barcelona), David Silva (Valencia), Sergio Busquets (Barcelona), Juan Mata (Valencia), Jesús Navas (Sevilla), Javi Martínez (Athletic Bilbao)
Forwards	Fernando Torres (Liverpool), David Villa (Barcelona), Fernando Llorente (Athletic Bilbao), Pedro Rodríguez (Barcelona)