Spain 2-0 Honduras – Comfortable win for La Roja

‘You have to win and win and win…’ read the front page of Spain’s biggest sports paper Marca. There was a lot of pressure coming from the media demanding an improvement after a lacklustre display against Switzerland – and a win is what they got. Along with the victory came the greatly improved performance that Vicente del Bosque had promised in the build up to the game.

Changes were made from the first game with Fernando Torres and Jesús Navas replacing David Silva and an unfit Andrés Iniesta. This saw Navas take up his natural right wing position and Villa taking his place on the left to accommodate Torres down the centre – but the 4-2-3-1 system remained in place. Whilst we didn’t see a change in the system, we did see a change in mentality. The Spanish were more forward thinking, quicker and a great individual performance from David Villa ensured a comfortable win.

No surprises in the pattern of the game, Honduras packed their midfield and left one striker upfront, David Suazo, who remained a lonely figure for most of the evening. Spain controlled the game with their easy on the eye style, stroking the ball around with their usual confidence and swagger. David Villa’s long range strike cannoning back off the crossbar after just six minutes was a sign of things to come. It took the new Barça man just seventeen minutes to open the scoring, cutting inside from the left, gliding past two defenders and curling it into the top right corner over a flapping Valladares in the Honduras goal. More opportunities came and went as the half wore on, with a rusty looking Fernando Torres squandering most of them. The Hondurans were already starting to look dejected.

Just five minutes into the second half Spain scored again, a move which saw Jesús Navas (who was a threat down the right all game) link up with Villa for his second of the match and his 40^th goal in 60 international games – a truly incredible record. His strike from outside the area fooled the goalkeeper as it took a deflection off Osman Chávez and flew in. The onslaught continued and just ten minutes later Navas was brought down in the box and a penalty was given, but Villa fluffed his chance of a hat-trick as his kick flew unexpectedly wide of the goal.

The game was effectively over, but that didn’t stop Sergio Ramos rampaging forward. He had an excellent game, and the kind of performance that was missed against Switzerland. Fernando Torres had plenty of chances to score but he couldn’t make his mark and was eventually replaced by Valencia’s Juan Mata, who made his first appearance at the World Cup. Cesc Fàbregas was also introduced late on and almost grabbed a third goal, but after rounding the keeper his shot was cleared desperately off the line.

All in all a decent showing by the Spaniards, featuring some good individual performances from the likes of David Villa, Sergio Ramos and Xabi Alonso. But in truth Honduras never looked capable of troubling them. However, a tougher test awaits them on Friday with the game against Bielsa’s attacking Chile side – a game that should they win will see them qualify for the next round.

Group H, Honduras, Spain, World Cup 2010