With the rain coming down in Vienna, Spain clearly coped with the horrid conditions better than Russia could. The first half may have been evenly fought but credit is due to whatever the Spanish coach said at halftime to fire up his players. Russia was outclassed from minutes 45-90 and that’s why Spain was able to get as many good chances as they did. Everything went the Spaniards’ way and now they have a date with Germany on Sunday.
Cesc Fabregas lived up to his billing as the next great Spanish player by replacing David Villa – hope to learn more about that injury soon – and setting up two of the three goals. He was really the key to Spain’s attack. Then there was Sergio Ramos; one word can describe how that guy plays: Wow. If there’s a better wingback than him, I’ve never heard of him. The only guy that’s close is Germany’s Phil Lahm but he may not even be in the same league.
And how come none of the game that was played during a thunderstorm was blacked out because of lightning strikes while the one in clear weather was? That seems pretty odd to me. I’m also very surprised this game wasn’t called off after about 25 minutes due to the crazy lightning overhead. Playing in the sopping rain is one thing, playing in a lightning storm is a much more different and potentially deadly one.
Now I get to look forward to Sunday in fear for my Germans, let’s hope this David Villa injury is a lot worse than expected.