Del Bosque Focuses On The Positives

WITH HIS side safely into the semi-finals, the defeat a couple of weeks back by the Swiss might safely be dismissed now as no more than an opening-match glitch but Spain’s veteran coach Vicente del Bosque has been around the block a enough times to realise the quality of Saturday’s performance in Ellis Park will not exactly have terrified the increasingly-confident Germans.

Understandably, the former Real Madrid manager sought to credit the Paraguayans with having made life tough for players and focused on another good night for Villa and, this time, his goalkeeper, Iker Casillas rather than the collective shortcomings.

Ultimately, however, he had to concede that Spain, generally, had not played well although there was a strong underlying sense of confidence they have what it takes to raise their game again, come Wednesday in Durban.

“It’s been the toughest and most uncomfortable match but this is what we had predicted,” said the 59 year-old. “Paraguay knocked us out of our stride. But Villa had that hunger for goal that allowed him to convert and Casillas (who stopped a penalty then a late close-range shot by Roque Santa Cruz) has been extraordinary; they were two magnificent saves. He certainly contributed to our win.”

Getting to the final, though, is likely to prove a little trickier for while Paraguay failed to find a way past Casillas, Germany appear to have a little more know-how in that area. “Yes, but we didn’t play a very good match today,” said the coach. “We are confident we have the necessary resources to play Germany. We beat them in the last European championship and believe we can do so again although clearly it will not be easy.”

Villa, he said, had underlined his remarkable form at these championships with another confident performance and outstandingly well-taken goal. “It speaks volumes for his form, he was right there.” But he also defended the contribution of Fernando Torres who was again handed the central role up front only to fall short once more.

“Physically he is fine,” said Del Bosque , a comment that only serves to add weight to the suspicion the 26-year-old’s head rather than his knee is the problem. “We took him off because the team wasn’t fine-tuned but we are very happy with Fernando’s work and how he is doing.

“We hope he will do better in the next two games. We hope to be more exciting against Germany too. We hope to raise our quality, to celebrate football and make it to the final.”

Paraguay coach Gerardo Martino had done well to reorganise and re-energise his side to the extent they were capable of presenting a major challenge to the Spanish after such an insipid display against Japan last week but he felt hard done by, insisting the referee had done much to prevent his side breaking more new ground.

He was philosophical about Oscar Cardozo and the penalty miss that had prevented the South Americans from taking the lead early in the second half: “He will know and understand this is the history of football. Players who take on the responsibility of taking penalties know this can happen.”

Martino deflected the conversation away from the matter of his future with the team. “All I can think about now is the match,” he said. “It’s very hard to talk about my situation. We weren’t lucky, it wasn’t our night.”