An Iberian tussle with a Persian twist (Group B preview)

Group B consists of Portugal, the current European champions, Spain with whom they share the Iberian peninsula, and who were World and European champions in 2010 and 2012 respectively. Morocco, who are appearing for the first time since 1998 and which at its nearest point is only 8.9 miles (14.3 km) from Spain across the Straits of Gibraltar, which makes this, at least geographically, the tightest of the groups. Last but not least we have Iran.

We have a number of rivalries, Shiite Iran, doesn't have very good relations with mainly Sunni Morocco.  In fact Morocco has accused Iran of supporting the Polisario rebels in their struggle with Morocco for control of the Western Sahara, what was once known as the Spanish Sahara, although why anyone would be interested in such a place with no natural reserves unless of course you count any excess of sand useful is beyond me.

Spain and Portugal while good neighbours today, were colonial rivals mainly during the exploration and conquest of  South America and to a lesser extent in Africa, which is why today most South American countries speak a form of Spanish while Brazilian is Portuguese based.  However they do have an intense football rivalry especially in recent years.

For the past decade or so Portugal have been synonymous with one player, Christiano Ronaldo, aka CR7 . There is no doubt that he has a wonderful range of skills which span the footballing rainbow. He has the capability to leap like a spawning salmon when going for headers and then muscles of iron in his neck as he powers the said headers. He used to be blessed with electric pace although age maybe is taking its toll a tad. He strikes free kicks and other dead balls with a power and accuracy that is hard to match and he has an unerring knack of finding the net, but  I will be honest, I detest him. He is the worse kind of poser, with his He Man celebration after a goal and his crying whining persona when things don't go his way.  Jealousy at his talent, maybe, but there is no being neutral with CR7. You either love him or hate him

Typical Ronaldo pose

Spain have always been a joy to watch but until the world cup of 2010 they had always flattered to deceive. Since their victory in that world cup they have added more substance to their frippery and have improved in the dark arts of the game, which a team needs to be good at if they are going to be successful over time. We referred to Sergio Ramos yesterday in the group A preview. He is the captain of Spain who has represented his country on more than one hundred and fifty occasions which is a staggering figure for an outfield player and which just shows how good he has been for so long. If he were a character in Harry Potter, he would definitely be the captain of the Slytherin Quidditch team. He also has plenty of Dark Marks for those who understand the reference. Here is just an example.

Just one of many

The crazy events of yesterday have forced me to add a few more lines. Two days ago the Spanish coach was appointed by Real Madrid to be their next manager, so what's the big deal I hear you say.  As I wrote above, Spain had never reached their full potential until 2010 and one of the main causes of this was the rivalry between the players of Barcelona and Real Madrid.

The Spanish manager at the time Vicente del Bosque who by the way for his success in doing the impossible was made the first Marquis of del Bosque by the Spanish king, was able to weld the might of Barcelona and Real into a unified unstoppable force despite the friction between the Catalans of Barcelona and the Spaniards of Madrid, which as we know has flared again recently and been brought to the worlds attention

So going back to the manager, yesterday he was sacked by Spain, two days before they face their biggest rival, Portugal. The reason given by the head of the Spanish football association was that he took the Madrid job without letting the Spanish FA know and that apparently put his nose out of joint. That may well be true, but dig deep enough and I am sure that you will find the old rivalries rearing their ugly heads in the Spanish dressing room.

The bookies and supposed pundits have lengthened the Spanish odds on winning the tournament, given that under the sacked manager they were unbeaten in twenty games. I am not so sure if it will have a negative impact, only time will tell, but it is something they definitely could have done without.

Del Bosque or as I call him the Walrus

As I mentioned earlier the other two teams in this group, Morocco and Iran in reality should just be considered as making up the numbers, but they should still not be taken lightly. All teams will feel that Spain are there for the taking. Of course now that I have put that in print one of them will cause a surprise. The battle between them will be for bragging rights in the who makes the best carpets competition. Neither have covered themselves with glory in previous tournaments. Iran have one victory and one draw in thirteen attempts and Morocco have two victories and four draws in the same amount of games.

Tomorrow two groups to preview with teams such as Les Blues and the Argies among them.
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