Spain National Football Team, the World Cup Champion

Spain is affectionately known by its fans as La Furia Roja (The Red Fury) or La Furia Espanola (The Spanish Fury) or, even simpler, La Roja (The Red).

In July 2008, Spain topped the FIFA World Rankings and it retained its first rank for a year, before claiming the top position again in October 2009 and July 2010 after winning the World Cup 2010 in South Africa. For the detailed rankings, you can view it at FIFA World Rankings

The top football team in the world also comes from Spain. There are two main contenders to the league champion, namely Barcelona and Real Madrid. Barcelona is famous for playing possession football, powered with players such as Messi, Villa and Iniesta. Real Madrid, on the other hand, has Cristiano Ronaldo (CR7) and other stars such as Higuain, Benzema, Marcelo and Spanish top goalkeeper, Iker Casillas. Not to mention that both of them are managed by the brilliant coaches, Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola!

Manager : Vicente del Bosque
Captain : Iker Casillas
FIFA Ranking : 1
Top Scorer : Raul Gonzalez (44 goals)

Outstanding Achievements :
Winner of 2010 FIFA World Cup
Winner of 2008 UEFA Euro Championship
Winner of 1964 European Nations Cup


Current Spain squad :
- Full list of players in the current Spain squad

Spain entered the Confederations Cup 2009 with 10 consecutive wins for new manager Vicente Del Bosque, and this achievement makes him the first manager to pull off such a great performance in the world since his debut. In the Confederations Cup, Spain lived up to its name by winning all group matches, making it the first team to win 15 consecutive matches and tied with Brazil on the record of undergoing 35 matches unbeaten. However, United States ended all those remarkable records in the semi-finals, and sent Spain into the third place.

Confederations Cup 2009
Spain 5 - 0 New Zealand
Spain 1 - 0 Iraq
Spain 2 - 0 South Africa
Spain 0 - 2 United States
Spain 3 - 2 South Africa (Third Place Match)

After that, Spain went on qualifying campaign for World Cup 2010. Spain became the first team to have a perfect record of winning all the group matches in the World Cup 2010 Qualification Round by winning 10 out of 10 matches, and easily secured a ticket to South Africa in 2010.

Spain was placed in Group H in the World Cup 2010 along with Chile, Honduras and Switzerland. As many people have predicted, Spain topped the group and went on the knock-out stage. However, they did not win all the 3 group matches and surprised many by losing to Switzerland 0-1.

In the knock-out stage, Spain took on its Iberian rival, Portugal and managed to edge it out with the score of 1-0. In the quarter finals, Spain defeated Paraguay 1-0, thanks to David Villa's superb performance. They then advanced to the highly coveted spot in the Final by beating on-form Germany 1-0 in the semi-final.

In the final, Spain challenged Holland to take possession of the golden trophy and be crowned the world champion. A single goal from Andres Iniesta in the extra-time was sufficient to give Spain the title of World Cup Champion. Besides that, Spain also won the FIFA Fair Play Award. Individually, Iker Casillas was awarded the Golden Glove for conceding only two goals during the whole tournament. David Villa was awarded the Bronze Ball and Silver Boot with his contribution of 5 goals and 1 assist.

Summary of Spain's World Cup 2010 Journey :
Spain 0 - 1 Switzerland
Spain 2 - 0 Honduras
Spain 2 - 1 Chile
Spain 1 - 0 Portugal
Spain 1 - 0 Paraguay
Spain 1 - 0 Germany
Spain 1 - 0 Spain