Source: Jingchu Network - Sports Weekly
According to the Jingchu Network (Sports Weekly), after the World Cup qualifiers held on European time last night, all 32 teams for the South Africa World Cup have been determined. Major European betting companies promptly released their odds for winning the South Africa World Cup. Brazil and Spain, the two teams with the best records throughout 2009, both ranked first with odds of 5.5. The top five teams in terms of odds also include England, Argentina, and Germany.
It is uncontested that Spain has become the most popular team. Not only are they the champions of the 2008 European Championship, but they also advanced to the World Cup with a proud record of 10 wins in the just-concluded qualifiers. Since the end of the European Championship, Spain has won all of their friendly matches. Apart from losing 0-2 to the United States in the Confederations Cup, Spain's performance could not be better. Out of 22 matches since the European Championship, Spain achieved an impressive record of 21 wins and only 1 loss!
If one still cannot appreciate how strong Spain is, consider the friendly match they played against Austria last night. Austria took the lead at the 7th minute through a goal by Burian Tche. However, Spain quickly equalized when Fabregas scored with a push shot. Subsequently, the game was completely controlled by the Spaniards. At the 20th minute, Iniesta made a straight pass from the left flank, allowing Villa to break free from the Austrian defense and score with a push shot from the top left corner of the small area. At the 45th minute, Villa scored his second goal of the match with a low shot into the near corner from the right side of the small area. At the 56th minute, Guiza combined with Pablo and broke through to the edge of the small area before scoring with a toe-poke. At the 57th minute, Navas crossed from the right flank, and Pablo broke into the penalty area from 10 yards out and scored with a low shot into the far corner, scoring his first international goal and sealing the 5-1 victory.
The Spanish media has become numb to the national team's victories and high scores. They believe that the biggest highlight of this match was Villa's brace. Villa has now scored 35 goals for the Spanish national team, just 9 goals away from Raul's record. Villa is proud not only of this achievement; since the start of last year's European Championship, he has scored 22 goals in Spain's matches. Since 2008, Villa's goal-scoring rate has been almost one goal per game. Calculated by season, Villa scored 13 goals in 14 games during the 08/09 season. Entering the 09/10 season, Villa participated in 4 national team games and scored 4 goals. If he continues at this pace of scoring one goal per game, Villa may surpass Raul's record in the upcoming World Cup next year and become Spain's highest-scoring forward in history. After the match, Villa expressed his joy: "I am very happy to be back here (where Spain won the European Championship). The memories are so wonderful, it feels like we've returned to two seasons ago. I think we played a great game and won beautifully!" (Riva)
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