by Roberto Alvarez-Galloso

Created on: June 18, 2009

Spain faced the Iraqi National Football [Soccer] Team after its astounding victory over New Zealand. It was widely expected that the Spanish team would defeat Iraq in the same way New Zealand was defeated. Bora Multinovic who is the coach of the Iraqi National Team predicted a Spanish win.

Many experts predicted the same thing based on Spain's performance in the Euro 2008 Cup and on the FIFA/Coca Cola World Ranking. According to FIFA/Coca Cola World Ranking posted for June 2009, Spain was in first place with 1761 points compared to Iraq. Iraq was in 77th place with 450 points.

While Spain defeated Iraq, the Iraqi team showed some resistance. It appeared that Iraq was trying to make up for lost time because of the time that followed the US Invasion and Occupation of their country. It should be remembered that the Iraqis are proud of the fact that they defied all of the odds in order to win fourth place in the Olympic Football Tournament Final in 2004 as well as the Championship of the Asian Nations Cup in 2007.

Iraq started the game by dominating it but Abbas received the first booking of the game in 29 minutes for anti sports behavior. Iraq was also unable to use to its advantage the overconfidence that the Spanish National Team exhibited.

Spain did not even attempt to play a decent game after its victory over New Zealand on the basis of this overconfidence. The result was a poor showing in the first half of the game with Alonso receiving a booking within 38 minutes.

The first half ended without ceremony and with both teams scoreless. The second half was almost a continuation of the agony of the first half. It was then that within 55 minutes of the game, David Villa was able to kick the ball via Joan Capdevilla's cross past the goal keeper Mohammed Kassid.

After the goal, Spain attempted to maintain its lead while the Iraqis started to make mistakes such as lacking the electricity while having posession of the ball. In spite of the attempts by Iraq to equalize, Spain won. While Spain is in the Semi Finals of the 2009 Confederations Cup, they should never underestimate an opponent. When a team underestimates its opponents, they set themselves up for surprises that are unexpected.

The Most valued player for the 2009 Confederation Cup game between Spain and Iraq was David Villa for his first and only goal in this game. Another Most Valued Player was Mohammed Kassid for his attempts to block the attempts by Spain to score.

Spain 1-0 Iraq

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