Spain vs. Chile, Friday june 25th, pre-game thoughts

Chile is a fantastic team, coached by a great Argentine coach, Marcelo Bielsa.

Spain played Chile in November 2008 in a friendly game and won only after a big effort. The final result, 3-0, was misleading. Chile played a phenomenal first half, particularly in pressing Spain in the midfield. Brilliant job, really. Chile missed two very clear scoring opportunities, the first one when the game was 0 - 0, and received two silly goals against, one after a dumb penalty and another one after the ball hit the back of a Chilean defender



Chile also run an excellent qualifying tournament for the World Cup 2010. It qualified second after Brasil.

Chile vs. Spain is the last game of Group H. By the time they meet, both teams may have been qualified for the next round. By then it will be also known for sure how Brazil did in its group. Mind you that the winner of Brazil group will play the second of group H (probably either Chile or Spain), and vice-versa. Spain may very well play with its B team against Chile, just as it did in the Euro2008 against Greece. This gave some very necessary rest to the A team as it kept in good shape and highly motivated the B players. If Spain plays with its A team, Chile can still beat Spain. If Spain plays with its B team, it is even more possible. Thus Chile may very well qualify first of Group H, and Spain may have to play Brazil in the first play-off.

Watch Chile. It may go far into the play-offs. It does not play Spain´s associative foothball, but it plays excellent football too.