Aragones Demands Spanish Improvement

One could be mistaken for thinking that the USA football team were a brush aside after an England dominating two nil win over them last week, however one of Euro 2008 favourites Spain could only manage a unconvincing one nil win at the Bernabeu on June 5th.

Spain manager Aragones has acknowledged that his side can not experience a repeat performance like the one against the USA. A Xavi strike in the second half is the only goal that separated the two sides. Despite the unconvincing win however, Aragones has stated that is was a useful exercise for his Squad.

Spain has long been regarded as one of the favourites for winning the European Championships this summer due to the sheer amount of quality players who are putting on a Spanish football shirt these days. Players like Torres, Fabregas, Casillas, Puyol and Villa are just a few of the playing squad who would not struggle to make the starting line up of any top European side.

One criticism from the game against the USA was how isolated the Premiership’s top striker Torres was up front. Aragones stated afterwards that “In the first half Fernando Torres seemed like he was an island, all on his own and this was not good. Although is it true that this was whilst our opponents were at the top of their physical condition”

Aragones has come under a lot of criticism is recent years over his handling of the Spanish football squad. It is believed that this will be his last year in charge. Earlier this month he dropped Raul from the senior squad. Raul, 30 has always been the fans favourite when they come to buy football shirts and is respected by all sections of the football world. At Madrid he is known as the king and demands a first team place on almost every occasion. Aragones has however had his successes as manager. The win over the US extended Spain’s unbeaten run to 16 matches and many still think the best is still to come.

If Spain and Aragones are to be successful this summer then there will have to be a drastic improvement from the performance against the USA. Known as Europe’s ‘nearly men’ Spain will have to find a way to gel and play as a team that has been seldom to them in recent years. They need to work together and try and win the Euros for only the second time in their history. One thing is for certain though, and that is they definitely have the players capable of challenging any team in the world.