by karimkha

Created on: June 17, 2010   Last Updated: July 01, 2010

== La Furia Roja (The Red Fury) and their World Cup History ==

The Spanish national team... where should I start? Spain has played in 12 different FIFA World Cup tournaments and their best ever finish was a semi final in the 1950 FIFA World Cup in Brazil In addition to those 12 appearances in FIFA World Cup tournaments, we have nine in the European championship winning it in 1964 and 2008.

They were crowned European champions in 2008 in a scintillating Euro 2008 in Austria and Switzerland.

We also took part in an unsuccessful 2009 FIFA confederations cup crashing out of the semi finals of the tournament to the United States of America thanks to goals from 20 year old Hull city striker Jozy Altidore and Fulham maestro Clinton Dempsey. Although we won our 3rd place match, I, like many Spaniards, were unsatisfied since we knew that we had the potential to go all the way.

== The journey to South Africa ==

We may not have the best history in the world when going into the World Cup but this is probably our best chance since the first time Spain played in the FIFA World Cup way back in 1950!

Throughout the preliminary qualification rounds, Spain went to the World Cup undefeated in a tough group containing the likes of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Euro 2008 semi finalists Turkey, minnows Estonia and Armenia and finally a reasonably good Belgium. Throughout that European qualification Spain scored 28 goals in 10 games, second only to England (34 goals in 10 games), showing the real firepower that we possess up front.

Spain kicked off their world cup 2010 qualification thanks to a narrow 1-0 win against Bosnia-Herzegovina, thanks to yet another from El Guaje’s (David Villa) strike. This performance showed the strong resistance they have had to endure since their victorious Euro 2008 win. Although Armenia and Estonia appeared to be pushovers, we had an away clash against Belgium and the hardest games of all were the two against EURO 2008 semi-finalists Turkey (one at home, the other away in Istanbul) - the most difficult in the group.

== How They Played ==

At the (2-1) win against Belgium in Brussels we battled back to clinch victory right at the death, through an 88th-minute Villa strike. After Belgium came our home game against Turkey which we won (1-0); the goal coming from Barcelona Center back Gerard Pique. The return fixture in Istanbul saw Spain embark on yet another comeback triumph winning (2-1) courtesy of goals from Real Madrid’s Xabi Alonso and Liverpool

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