THE GAMES OF THIS WEDNESDAY (This article is available in English and Español)

Tonight, we have had more European football´s games and more or less we have seen expected results.

One of these games was the good game between the European Champion, Spain, and a good Belgium at the Stade Roi Bauduin.The first half between Belgium and Spain was very interesting, since we have seen a very hard Belgium during the first 30 minutes of the game, helped by a Wesley Sonck ´s quick goal-this classic striker, after a period of time between Ajax Amsterdam and Borussia Monchengladbach, has returned to Belgium to play for FC Bruges-, which arrived thanks to a great and measured pass from Vincent Kompany-the best Belgian player, no doubt-. When Spain received the goal, it suffered during some minutes, since the Belgian team was very organized and the Spanish team had only one resort, since it was a big distance between the 3 Belgian central defenders and the Belgian goalkeeper, Spain uses the long pass to David Villa and to Fernando Torres, who has been injured and he will not be ready to play next Wednesday the Champions League´s game against Atletico Madrid. So, Spain did not find the way to scorer until a the omnipresent Marouane Fellaini(FC Everton´s player)´s mistake at minute 36 was seized by Fabregas who assisted to Iniesta, who, showing an excellent level, scored a wonderful goal- I recommend to watch it-. The goal helped to Spain, since it was the owner of the game since this moment until the end of the first half. During these 10 minutes the Belgian players had only one objective to arrive to the half time with this scorer and to try to recover the energy during the half time, which occurred, since Belgium started the second half very well, showing an aggressive, incisive and intense play and they could scorer a goal in some play, as the Anthony Vanden Borre´s play-he is player of FC Genoa and he made a very good play, showing power and quality, but Carles Puyol was at the right moment and he saved Spain- or as the young Axel Witsel(he is a Standard Liege´s player) in the 53 minutes. But little by little, especially when Xabi Alonso started to play, Spain was recovering possession of the ball and it reduces the Belgian impulses, and finally the game became a Spanish monologue and of course, the goal arrived thanks to David Villa, who took advantages of an excellent assist from the Fenerbahçe´s striker Dani Güiza(87 minutes).It is an important victory for the European Champion, especially because the game between Turkey-Estonia finished with an unexpected draw (0-0), which is rather puzzling, because Estonia is a headstrong team, but rather innocent. This result means that Spain will play calm the decisive matches in against Turkey in March, because Spain is the leader of the group and it has 4 points more than Turkey and 5 more than Belgium, so Spain is very close to play the World Cup.

Moreover, we must remark: the important Switzerland´s victory over Greece- with goals from Alexander Frei(he has scored 35 goals in 61 games, excellent numbers!) and the powerful Blaise N'Kufo-, which leaves a very open group, since both Switzerland and Greece and Israel have many chances to play the World Cup; the suffered victories of the Czech Republic over Slovenia (1-0, Sionko scored the goal) and Slovakia over Poland (2-1, Stanislav Sestak the VFL Bohum´striker Stanislav Sestak scored the 2 Slovakian goals and Ebi Smolarek scored the Polish goal) leaving everything to decide in the group 3; the solvency of Italy (it won 2-1 to the Montenegro of Jovetic and Mirko Vucinic), England (it won 1-3 at Belarus), Netherlands(it won to Norway, 0-1 thanks to a Mark van Bommel´s goal) and Germany(it won 1-0 to Wales); the pyrrhic Portugal´s draw( the game finished 0-0, which is incomprehensible, specially because Albania played all the second half with 10 players, since the Hacettepe SK´s central defender Admir Teli was sent off. Now Portugal will have many difficulties to be in the World Cup, because it has played one more game than Denmark and Sweden but it has 2 points less than Denmark and the same points than Sweden); and the interesting France´s group, since now Serbia, after the solvent victory in the Prater Stadium of Vienna (1-3, Krasic, Obradovic and Jovanovic scored the goals) is the new leader of the group.

By the way, this Thursday we will have the semi-finals of the Futsal´s World Cup this Thursday at Brazil and we can see the best 4 teams of the world, because on the one hand Spain- with great players as Luis Amado, Marcelo, Daniel, Javi Rodriguez or Fernandao-(2 times World champion in 2004 and 2002 and 4 times European champion in1996,2001,2005 and 2007) will play at 17.30 c.e.t. against Italy, with player like Foglia or Sandro Zanetti (second of the World in 2004 and European Champion in 2003)-by the way, the 14 Italian players were born in Brazil-, and on the other side at 13.30 c.e.t Brazil, with players like Schumacher, Lenisio, Vinicius or Falcao - (3 times World Champion in1989, 1992 and 1996) will play against Russia of Maevksiy and Pula. We'll see what happens.

Cheers,

J&F