Third Time’s The Charm

An estimated 250 million tuned in to witness history in the making when La Furia Roja thrashed the Italians in the 2012 Euro Final. A final score of 4-0 gave Spain an undisputed victory, and marked their 3rd consecutive major trophy, a feat that no international team in history can boast. An astonishing 15,358 tweets per second were posted to Twitter, proving there certainly was much to cheer about worldwide. Spain saw a new record for the nation, with 20 million watching the match at one point, excluding the mass of fans watching from the gigantic screens installed in cities.The Euro only helped the growing interest of football in the United States, where the Euro final received 3 million viewers, a 31% increase since the Euro final in ’08, as reported by ESPN.

 

Sunday’s victors certainly rewrote the record books, with numerous records being broken by La Roja. Chelsea’s young gun Juan Mata set a record for the fastest goal scored by a substitute, only 1 minute and 14 seconds after stepping on to the pitch. His Chelsea teammate Fernando Torres is the only player in Euro history to score in two finals, both assisted by Xavi Hernandez, who also respectively is the first player to assist 2 goals in 2 distinct finals. Never before have 4 goals been scored by a single team in a Euro final. Captain Iker Casillas went a record breaking 509 minutes without conceding a goal, and is the first player to ever reach 100 international victories.

Spain has come a long way from the initial group stage game where they initially tied Italy 1-1. La Roja went to the Kiev final in full force, with 14 shots (9 of which on target) and 4 saves. The match was definitely a fight until the last minute, with the match reeling in 27 fouls in total. Italy’s major downfall came from coach Cesare Prandelli, whose use of substitutions much too early on in the game proved to be very costly to the Azzurri, who ended up playing a man down. Credit is due to Andrea Pirlo who truly carried the weight of his team in the midfield. His hard work was a big factor in keeping a close possession rate (48% vs. 52%) in comparison to Spain who usually dominates the possession.

 

Despite their efforts, the Spanish came out on top with goals from David Silva (14’), Barcelona’s new signing Jordi Alba (41’), and the Chelsea boys Torres (84’) and Mata (88’). What was most impressive was how the Spanish team successfully adjusted to their traditional tiki taka style without the experience and talent of their superstars Carles Puyol in the defense, and their top scorer of all time, David Villa. Vicente Del Bosque’s use of Fabregas as a forced forward proved to be very successful and Fabregas’ midfield intuition allowed him to create many dangerous chances so close to the box throughout the tournament.

As the whistle blew, the crowd roared for La Roja who lifted the trophy once again. Among teary eyed Azzurri players, the Spanish players showed excellent sportsmanship by applauding the Italian players for a game well played before they walked off the pitch. Captain Iker Casillas begged the referee to cut the game short, and asked the referee to show “respect for Italia” and end the game after Juan Mata’s goal.The same sportmanship cannot be said for er, France, who recently has managed to disgrace their country with bad behavior once again (but that’s another story).

Cesc Fabregas told ESPN, “From our point of view, it’s been difficult from a lot of pressure from the press, especially the first game against Italy where they didn’t think playing with me as a striker was a good thing to do, and they really didn’t believe we could achieve the same thing but once again this team proved everyone wrong.”

 

That you did, Mr.Fabregas. The Spain critics will not have much to criticize as the footballing giants have certainly proved themselves with an outstanding tournament. Is it too early to say they are favorites for the 2014 World Cup? We think not.

(Photo Credits : Shaun Botterill, Martin Rose, Giuseppe Cacace, Alex Grimm, Christof Stache, Pablo Blazquez Dominquez, Getty Images)

written by Madena Sharef