When the World Cup was set to kick-off, Spain were considered the favorites to win the Cup. However, when Spain took the field for their first game in the tournament against Switzerland, no one would have expected Spain to come up short as they went on to lose 1 – 0.
Now, although no one has ever loss their opening game in the World Cup and were still able to raise the Cup for the first time, with some strong teams alimented such as Argentina and Brazil, Germany seems like the really toughest task left for Spain to overcome. Netherlands and Uruguay are set to kick-off tomorrow as one of them will be playing in the World Cup match against the winner of Germany and Spain, and although people might be labeling Spain the favorites once again, Spain defender – Gerard Pique – went on to state that there are no favorites in the semi-final stage.
Gerard Pique went on to say the following :
“I feel so happy for the team and the country. It is the first time we are in the semi-finals and it is great to make history. Germany are a very difficult team, really strong, with a lot of quality, a lot of good players, and it will be difficult to stop them. I don’t know why they are so impressive. Maybe it is because they have a lot of new young players. The likes of Mesut Ozil, Thomas Muller and Sami Khedira are new in the team and they are playing great. Some were playing for their under-21s last summer and they have made the step up. I think when you are at the semi-final stage, there are no favorites. It is true because they beat England 4-1 and Argentina 4-0 that they will be in a really good mood. But we will see what happens when we meet them. We never have any doubts about ourselves. We always play the same way, the results are good and we have to be confident with our play. Germany and Spain both have new players in the team and it will be a different game to two years ago. We will always keep going. That is the sort of team we are. In a World Cup, everything is difficult and sometimes you have to score near the end to win. That is what we did against Paraguay on Saturday in the quarter-finals. You cannot choose when you score and you have to defend as well.”
Germany proved to overcome the odds as they had to come this far in the stage without their original captain Michael Ballack as he was injured and declared out of the World Cup before the tournament began. Although many people wrote this team off, Germany are by far performing the best Soccer display out of all the teams that were in the tournament. Whether or not they will be able to continue their strong performance against Spain is hard to decide, but with the speed, strength and agility that Germany attack with, if their defense can hold Spain off and force them to make errors, the Germans should have no problem reaching the finals.
In my opinion, the winner of the German or Spain match will go on to win the World Cup. Am I saying that both Netherlands and Uruguay don’t stand a chance? Of course not, but to choose either one of those teams to say that they will beat Germany or Spain and feel 100% confident, you might just be a die-hard fan of the nation. In reality, both Germany and Spain are easily the 2 teams that are expected to win the Cup as of now, should Netherlands or Uruguay raise the Cup at the end of the tournament, this will be forever on of the World Cups to remember.
Who do you think will take down the tournament? Which teams will meet in the World Cup game and who will win? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below.
