SPANISH NATIONAL FOOTBALL - SOCCER TEAM PHOTO

Here is the very latest SPAIN WORLD CUP TEAM PHOTO for all the "thirsty" image hunters that have solicitated a photo. This is the starting 11 Spanish National Football Team player before the Portugal match.

SPAIN 1 PORTUGAL 0 ...YES!!!

Excuse the bad image...FIFA is taking off most of the videos on youtube, dailymotion, sapo ...etc

STARTING 11 SPAIN PORTUGAL 2010 WORLD CUP

Source: Spanish Football Sprts /To answer the many emails from readers asking about the SPAIN WORLD CUP TEAM starting 11 against PORTUGAL tonight, the very latest from media observers following the Spanish Football Team is that Coach Del Bosque will repeat with the same SPANISH FOOTBALL TEAM PLAYERS that played against Chile.The injury worries of Xabi Alonso , Ramos & too a lesser extent Torres

SPAIN WORLD CUP TEAM STARTING 11 AGAINST PORTUGAL | FIFA WORLD CUP 2010

Source: Spanish Football Sprts Blog /Hi everyone, the below image is XABI ALONSO training tonight with his team-mates which tells us that he is "basically" over his ankle worry & injury. This should help us speculated further that he will be part of the SPANISH FOOTBALL TEAM STARTING 11 AGAINST PORTUGAL for tomorrows "knock out" game.In fact, media observers go as far as to name the following

REAL MADRID | ANGEL DI MARIA SIGNS FOR 6 YEARS

Spanish sports daily “AS” makes the announcement: Argentine International & BENFICA player ANGEL DI MARIA has signed for REAL MADRID for the next six years. The 22 year old winger has been transferred after Benfica agreed to a 25M€ offer by Real Madrid for the player to incorporate himself as of next season. The announcement has been made public on the Real Madrid website this afternoon around

SPAIN FOOTBALL TEAM STARTING 11 AGAINST PORTUGAL | REIGNING UNKNOWNS

Source: Sp Ftball Sprts /The prognostics & speculations concerning what will be the SPANISH FOOTBALL TEAM STARTING 11 LINE UP against PORTUGAL is difficult to say as the teams advance in the WORLD CUP. Both sides are training behind closed doors & are keeping their cards very close to their chest. Media observers following the SPAIN WORLD CUP TEAM are speculating more than giving any reliable

FC BARCELONA TRANSFER GOSSIP 2010 | OZIL ROBINHO MASCHERANO?

SPANISH FOOTBALL Clubs keeps working away for next season while the World Cup takes all the spotlight. After surfing the web & checking the Spanish Sports press I pick out these news pieces that although enter the rumour category they should´nt surprise anyone. The South African World Cup is afterall the biggest showcase of “Football Product” & German 21 year old International midfielder OZIL has

ATHLETIC DE BILBAO WINS 2010 JUNIOR SPANISH CUP TITLE

ATHLETIC DE BILBAO defeated REAL MADRID 0 – 2 to take the 2010 JUNIOR SPANISH CUP TITLE after waiting 18 years for it. Real Madrid were favourites before the match with their team full of of “young stars” but last years finalists (lost to Sevilla FC) had an obsession with winning this title. PEÑA & VILLAR were the scorers for Bilbao a helped finally to give them the prized “Silverware” to place

U-17 FEMALE SPANISH NATIONAL FOOTBALL TEAM WINS 2010 EUROPEAN TITLE

The South African World Cup & the SPAIN FOOTBALL TEAM are taking the spotlight in the area of Spanish Football. However, there an is equally important & great news to announce from the FEMALE SPANISH NATIONAL FOOTBALL TEAM, specifically at the U-17 level, whom have proclaimed themselves the 2010 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONS.SPAIN defeated IRELAND in the penalty shoot-out of the Final finishing 0-0 after

SPAIN FOOTBALL WORLD CUP TEAM 2010 PHOTO

Source: Sp Ftball Sprts /This is the very latest SPANISH NATIONAL FOOTBALL TEAM PHOTO taken just before the start of the Chile Group H game. This hopefully quenches the readers demand for the Spanish World Cup Team photo.

SPAIN WORLD CUP TEAM DEFEATS CHILE 1 - 2 TO FINISH TOP OF GROUP H

Source: Spanish Football Sports Blog /The objective has been achieved. SPAIN has defeated CHILE 1 -2 & finishes in 1ºst position of Group H, along with Chile, to go onto meet Portugal in the from now onwards "knock-out" stages. It wasn´t easy at all with Spain suffering from nerves from the start that were partially settled with the 1ºst goal by DAVID VILLA in the 24th min with a fantastic 30mt "

SPAIN STARTING 11 LINE UP AGAINST CHILE | WORLD CUP 2010

Source: Sp Ftball Sports /The SPANISH NATIONAL FOOTBALL TEAM has a do or "go home" match tonight against Chile to shut proceeding in Group H. In the last hours veteran defender Capdevila has gained strenght in speculations that he will retain his left back position over Arbeloa.This is the only area of doubt, if one defender or the other, as Coach Vicente Del Bosque has all his players fully fit

DAVID SILVA AGREES TO MANCHESTER CITY OFFER?

The news from insiders, the last couple of weeks, was that VALENCIA CF was negotiating with an overseas Club & that Spanish International midfielder DAVID SILVA was rejecting succulent overseas offers because he wished to stay in Spain. However, the “surprise” news this afternoon is that according to Spanish radio “Onda Cero” - & picked up by local press – David Silva has come to an agreement

SPAIN FOOTBALL TEAM LINE UP AGAINST CHILE | INIESTA FIT ARBELOA TO REPLACE CAPDEVILA

Source : Sp Ftball Sprts /Surfed the Spanish press & checked all the comments from the media observers down South Africa following the SPANISH NATIONAL FOOTBALL TEAM & the news is that everyone is fit except SERGIO RAMOS. The defender received a heavy knock in the ribs against Switzerland & played with pain – killers against Honduras. A pre-match concern to keep following closely as apparently he

SPAIN FOOTBALL TEAM PHOTO 2010 | FIFA WORLD CUP

Source: Sp Ftball Sports Blog /My email is almost collapsed with requests from Spanish Football Sports Blog readers requesting an image or directly the SPAIN SOCCER TEAM PHOTO 2010. I actually placed the very latest SPAIN WORLD CUP 2010 TEAM PHOTO below ( against Honduras ) yesterday but the search engine perhaps isn´t going straight to the post when you type your keywords. Because your requests

SPAIN FOOTBALL TEAM LINE UP AGAINST CHILE | DAVID VILLA OFF THE HOOK & WILL BE AVAILABLE WITH INIESTA

Source: Sp Ftball Sprts Blog /Great news for the SPANISH NATIONAL TEAM & the prognostics for the STARTING LINE UP against Chile next Friday in the do or die game for SPAIN in Group H. The “FIFA Disciplinary Committee” has decided not to sanction Spanish International forward DAVID VILLA after TV cameras caught the Spaniard "fending off" with his hand Honduras defender Emilio Izaguirre who then

SPANISH BASKETBALL | LIST HANDED IN FOR 2010 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

Spanish National Basketball Selector & Coach SERGIO SCARIOLO has handed in his list of 15 Spanish players to make up the Spanish Basketball Squad. The 2010 BASKETBALL WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS will be held this year in Turkey with a starting date of the 28th of August until 12th of Septembre. The big name missing from the current European Champions list is LA LAKER Spanish star poivot PAU GASOL who has

FC BARCELONA TRANSFER NEWS 2010 | TOURE TO MANCHESTER CITY | JUAN MATA PREFERRED OVER ROBINHO

Source: Sp Ftball Sprts Blog /FC BARCELONA is looking for a class “winger” to replace Thierry Henry & accompany new signing David Villa in their forward line next season. Two names had been circling the office tables at “Camp Barça”: 26 year old Brazilian International & Manchester City player ROBINHO & 22 year old Valencia CF & Spanish International JUAN MATA.According to Barcelona radio

WORLD CUP 2010 | SPAIN FOOTBALL TEAM STATISTICS | GOAL SCORING INEFFECTIVENESS

Source: Sp Ftball Sprts /A few statistics so far from the 2010 WORLD CUP & on the SPANISH WORLD CUP TEAM performance. According to figures published by local Spanish Sports paper "Marca", the SPANISH NATIONAL FOOTBALL TEAM is the most attacking & play making team up till now. One would think looking at the numbers that SPAIN would be cruising comfortably if you had not seen any game so far in the

SPAIN WORLD CUP 2010 TEAM PHOTO

Source: Sp Ftbll Sprts /Here is the very latest SPANISH NATIONAL FOOTBALL WORLD CUP 2010 PHOTO taken before the start of the Honduras Group H match which SPAIN won 2-0. Hopefully this will quench the "thirst" of photos of the Spanish National Football Team that are being requested via the SFS Blog email from fans around the World.

SPAIN FOOTBALL TEAM | SPAIN 2 HONDURAS 0 | WORLD CUP 2010 GROUP H | VIDEO DAVID VILLA GOALS

Source: Spanish Football Sports Blog /The objective was achieved, SPAIN won 2-0 HONDURAS in their second Group H match, which the SPANISH NATIONAL FOOTBALL TEAM needed to win at all costs to avoid going home prematurely. The other objective was to score goals in order to avoid a possible 3 team table draw on points within the Group & ensure the Spanish classification via a greater goal figure.

SPAIN FOOTBALL TEAM LINE UP 11 AGAINST HONDURAS | JESUS NAVAS FERNANDO TORRES

LATEST NEWS : Confirmed Line-UpCasillas, Sergio Ramos, Puyol, Pique, Capdevila, Busquets, Xabi Alonso, Xavi, Jesus Navas, Fernando Torres & David VillaSource: Spanish Ftball Sprts /The very latest news coming out from the SPANISH NATIONAL FOOTBALL TEAM camp at South Africa is that there will be two changes in the starting line-up that lost against Switzerland 1-0 in the opener of Group H. Spanish

MOTO GP | JORGE LORENZO & MARQUEZ WINNERS IN BRITISH MOTOGP

Spanish riders JORGE LORENZO in GP & MARQUEZ in the 125cc catagory flew the Spanish flag high this afternoon at Silverstone - British GP.JORGE LORENZO put himself ahead of the race in the first turn passing Spaniard Dani Pedrosa & never looked back. In fact, the race had its exciting "battle" for the 2º & 3º place which eventually went to Dovizioso & third to Ben Spies. Spanish rider Dani Pedrosa

SPAIN FOOTBALL TEAM | FERNANDO TORRES "I AM REDAY"

Source: Sp Ftball Sprts Blog /After the SPAIN was “surprisingly” defeated 0 – 1 in their opening Group H match by Switzerland the “pandora box” of passionate Football observers was opened which released various “opinions” of the why & how to solve things. Ex-Spanish National Team Coach Luis Aragones was one of the first "ghosts" from the past to voice his opinion, the Spanish media was unleashed

REAL MADRID TRANSFER RUMOURS | SCHWEINSTEIGER ATERNATIVE FOR GERRARD DI ROSSI?

Source : Spanish Football Sprts Blog /The World Cup is a showcase, this cannot be denied, as players revalue themselves with a couple of good performances. Todays front cover of Spanish Sports daily “AS” splashes the news that REAL MADRID has noted the name of 25 year old German International midfielder SCHWEINSTEIGER as an alternative if the Spanish Club encounters problems attempting to sign

SPANISH FOOTBALL | HERCULES C.F JOINS REAL SOCIEDAD & LEVENTE IN SPANISH 1º DIVISION PROMOTION 2010-2011

HERCULES C.F, Football team from the Spanish city of Alicante defeated REAL UNION 0-2 in their last game of the SPANISH 2º DIVISION to secure the 2º place on the classification table & get promoted to the SPANISH 1º DIVISION LEAGUE – LA LIGA – for season 2010 -2011. Their win keeps out REAL BETIS who defeated 4-0 Levante & finished the season with 71 points, the same as the promoted teams Levente

SPANISH WORLD CUP TEAM LINE UP AGAINST HONDURAS | STAYING TRUE TO PLAYING STYLE & PHILOSOPHY

Source: Spanish Football Sprts Blog /The latest news from the SPAIN NATIONAL FOOTBALL TEAM is that Coach Vicente De Bosque has commented that he believes 100% in the playing style of the SPANISH NATIONAL FOOTBALL TEAM , that Spain will continue with its playing "Touch Football" philosophy & believes wholeheartedly in the starting 11 that played the opening game of Group H against Switzerland were

SPAIN TEAM LINE UP AGAINST HONDURAS | THE BASE INTACT WITH POSSIBLE "FINE TUNING"

Source: Spanish Football Sprts Blog /The SPANISH NATIONAL TEAM is back at its HQ & training to meet next Monday Honduras in their 2º game of Group H. This match has become a FINAL as a loss here will virtually condemn the SPANISH NATIONAL FOOTBALL TEAM to arrive back home before expected & craete the biggest upset of the 2010 World Cup. In fact SPAIN has to score plenty of goals because there is

SPANISH NATIONAL FOOTBALL TEAM | WORLD CUP 2010 | THE "TROLLS" APPEAR FOR THEIR FEAST DAY

Source : Sp Ftball Sprts Blog /It is customary that when an event goes against the expected, the “TROLLS” see their chance to come out from under their rock & grab the limelight that they so dearly miss. SPAIN lost yesterday 1-0 against Switzerland in their opening Group H game that went against all prognostics & created the first “shock-wave” of this FIFA World Cup 2010.Firstly, congratulations

WORLD CUP 2010 GROUP H RESULT | SPAIN 0 SWIZERLAND 1 | FIRST SHOCKWAVE FROM SOUTH AFRICA | VIDEO GOAL

Source: Sp Ftball Sprts Blog /The winning goal from GELSON in the 52nd min that finally gave SWITZERLAND the 1-0 victory over SPAIN & consequently produce the first real shockwave in this 2010 FIFA WORLD CUP. Here is the VIDEO of the Switzerland goal that came after a series of unlucky rebounds that allowed a "smart" Gelson to put his boot in first for glory:The SPANISH WORLD CUP TEAM "knockers"

SPAIN STARTING 11 WORD CUP TEAM AGAINST SWITZERLAND | A MATTER OF STATE - ALMOST!

LATEST NEWS - ANDRES INIESTA in starting Line -up Source : Spanish Football Sprts Blog /It’s the million dollar question: which SPANISH FOOTBALL PLAYERS are the candidates to take the place of FC Barcelona midfielder ANDRES INIESTA in the SPAIN FOOTBALL TEAM STARTING LINE UP against Switzerland in the Group H opening game? Seems like a question of state as Spain builds up internally with

ATLETICO DE MADRID 2010 - 2011 PLAN | ROD FANNI RIGHT BACK LUIS FELIPE LEFT BACK PLUS A MIDFIELDER

Original Source: Spanish Football Sprts /Straight from the horses mouth, metaphorically speaking, as ATLETICO DE MADRID President Enrique Cerezo has said publicly that he thinks that signing of 28 year old French defender ROD FANNI of STADE RENNES is close. The Spanish Club President said that Atletico is currently negotiating with the French Club & things are moving forward but he could not tell

SPAIN WORLD CUP TEAM | 2010 | TWO HYPOTHETICAL SPAIN STARTING TEAM LINE-UPS

Source : Spanish Football Sports Blog /Here is a simple video of the SPAIN NATIONAL FOOTBALL TEAM PLAYERS getting on a bus direction city of Durban where tomorrow they kick-off their Group H match against Switzerland. Last news from the SPAIN PLAYERS is that they are anxious to get going as naturally the tension is mounting inside to begin playing some Football.The other great news is that ANDRES

Do you need to win your first game?

Over half the teams have now played and to be honest - with the exception of the impressive Germans - I am pretty underwhelmed. Too many team have been overly cautious and are scared of losing rather than trying to win. As a keen amateur economist I must once again point to risk aversion - the fear of losing something weighs greater on the mind than the joy in gaining. So, the fear of losing a point prevents teams risking it all to win three (a two point gain).

How true then is the notion that you simply can't lose your first game? Let's look at the data from the last 3 World Cups to see the trends:

2006 - of the 16 teams that qualified there were 11 wins, 3 draws and 2 losses in the first game
2002 - of the 16 teams that qualified there were 9 wins, 6 draws and 1 losses in the first game
1998 - of the 16 teams that qualified there were 11 wins, 5 draws and 0 losses in the first game

The above data shows that if you lose your first game, the chance of making the last 16 based on historical (if crude) results is just 6.25%. Furthermore, in the last 3 tournaments no team has ever made the last 16 after losing to a team in round 1 that did not top the group having come into the competition as a top seed (the three advancing teams were Ghana who lost to Italy and Ukraine who lost to Spain in 2006 and Turkey who lost to Brazil in 2002).

This would suggest that Greece (lost to S Korea), Algeria (lost to Slovenia), Serbia (lost to Ghana) and Cameroon (lost to Japan) are already done.

Exclude the first seeds
If you look purely at the non-first seed results (who we would expect to win a majority of the time anyway - 88% have qualified for the last 16 in the last 3 tournaments) the results show the teams who ultimately qualified started with:

2006 - 4 wins, 2 draws, 2 losses
2002 - 4 wins, 4 draws, 1 loss
1998 - 6 wins, 3 draws, 0 losses

This backs up what we noted above that losing to a top seed is not a disaster and you can still bounce back. The chance of qualifying is now up to 12%, hardly a wild encouragement for the likes of Nigeria, Australia and Denmark.

Conventional Wisdom
It would be appear on the face of it that conventional wisdom is actually correct for once and losing your first game is indeed close to disaster. I would note however that of the progressing teams, only 30% of them drew their first game so risking a draw (30% chance) for a win (65% chance) is still a worth while best, even if you do risk losing (6% chance).

SPANISH FOOTBALL SPORTS BLOG PASSES 1,000,000 VISITORS

SPANISH FOOTBALL SPORTS BLOGreaches 1,000,000 unique online site visitorsReaders from all around the World...USA, England, Europe, India, Middle-East, Australia, Africa, Far-East Asia, Russia, China.... 1,000,000 times THANK YOU for being loyal, pro-active, generous, constructive, funny, critical & importantly, for being the Global & Spanish Football Sports Fan that you are.Spanish Football

SPAIN LINE UP FOR WORLD CUP 2010 | WILL OR WILL NOT ANDRES INIESTA PLAY IN THE GROUP H STARTER?

The SPANISH NATIONAL FOOTBALL TEAM travels to the city of Durban to face its opening Group H WORLD CUP 2010 game against Switzerland this Wednesday at 16.00 (S.A time). The big unknown is if midfielder ANDRES INIESTA will make the final list of SPAIN PLAYERS to start in the already mentioned match. The player himself said to Spanish TV that he is fine & ready to play, however National Coach

FC BARCELONA | SANDRO ROSELL NEW PRESIDENT

As predicated & expected, candidate SANDRO ROSELL (pictured) has won the FC BARCELONA Presidential Club elections by a landslide. With 100 % of the votes counted 61% has voted Rosell with candidate Benedito coming in second with 14 %.The chart below shows the final voting results:The note here is that the candidate of outgoing President Laporta - Ferrer - finished last in the voting. This

SPANISH FOOTBALL | REAL SOCIEDAD SPANISH 1º DIVISION TEAM NEXT SEASON ALONG WITH LEVANTE

SPANISH FOOTBALL has´nt as yet finished even though the Spanish 1º Division finished weeks back. The Spanish 2º Division continues & tonight we can announce that REAL SOCIEDAD (pictured celebrating below) & LEVANTE are SPANISH 1º DIVISION TEAMS for next season after earning the coveted promotion. Real Sociedad won 2-0 Celta de Vigo maintaining them as classification leaders & 2º placed Levante

FC BARCELONA | CLUB PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS TODAY | WHO WILL BE NEW PRESIDENT?

Sports daily "Mundo Deportivo" gives us this cartoon of the 4 candidates of which FC BARCELONA Club members are called today onto the ballots to choose who will be their next Club President.From left to right : hot favourite Sandro Rosell, Marc Ingla, outgoing Laporta favoured-man Jaume Ferrer & Agustí Benedito.The election campaign has been "dirty" & at times personal as each candidate lacked

SPAIN FOOTBALL TEAM PLAYERS | WORLD CUP 2010 | XABI ALONSO GIVES A SCARE

The SPANISH FOOTBALL TEAM is busy training & preparing themselves for their opening game of Group H against Switzerland next Wednesday. The SPAIN WORLD CUP TEAM is based in the South African town of Potchefstroom & in their training session of today gave us all a slight scare when XABI ALONSO retired from training half way through the session.Spain has currently "under care" another vital piece

WORLD CUP 2010 NEWS | SPANISH FOOTBALL TEAM IN SOUTH AFRICA | ANDRES INIESTA AN INJURY WORRY

The SPANISH NATIONAL FOOTBALL TEAM was the last WORLD CUP SQUAD to arrive at South Africa today as the FIFA WORLD CUP kicked off with two Group A matches. The SPAIN FOOTBALL TEAM flew over safely & now awaits its first Group H game against Switzerland on the 16th of June.The only apparent worry from a tactical team angle & player concern is midfielder ANDRES INIESTA who trained apart from the

Predictions

With only hours to go until the greatest show on earth kicks off, it's time to lock in my predictions. I'm finding it hard to find too many great underdogs this year - though I'm sure they'll be some - some there's the potential for these predictions to go horribly wrong early on:

Last 16
France
Greece
England
Serbia
Netherlands
Paraguay
Brazil
Chile
Argentina
Uruguay
Germany
USA
Italy
Denmark
Spain
Cote D'Ivoire

Quarter Finals
France
Serbia
Netherlands
Brazil
Argentina
USA
Italy
Spain

Semi Final
France
Netherlands
Spain
Argentina

Final
Netherlands
Spain

Champions
Netherlands

Golden Boot
Leo Messi (dark horse Van Persie)

Biggest Surprise Team
Serbia / USA

Player that earns a big money move
Marek Hamsik / Alexis Sanchez

SPAIN WORLD CUP TEAM | THE FC BARCELONA CONNECTION

This is a curiosity, definitely a fact & information for the reader about the current SPAIN 2010 WORLD CUP TEAM. The below photo illustrates 8 players that are part of the current SPANISH NATIONAL FOOTBALL TEAM: Pique, Valdes, Xavi, Villa, Puyol, Busquets, Iniesta & Pedro. All except goalkeeper Valdes would normally start in the SPAIN starting line-up or get a run during the course of a game.

SPAIN WORLD CUP TEAM | PREVIEW VIDEO TRAILER

Here is a video "mash-up" to support the SPANISH NATIONAL FOOTBALL TEAM & its 23 team players who are about to fly off to South Africa with expected arrival tomorrow to begin the long road & attempt to become "eternal" if they can win the 2010 FIFA WORLD CUP. It will not be easy at all, the Spanish Team know it & go into the competition with humility & respect for all of their opponents. Spanish

KOLARAV SAYS YES TO REAL MADRID ?

I always thought it was “illiegal”, according to FIFA rules, to touch (negotiate) a player still under contract with his Club. I understand that if a Club is interested in a player at another Club that the former contacts the latter & begins to negotiate with the player staying at the margin. Perhaps someone can confirm me this?Anyway, I start with all the above because Spanish Sports daily “

SPAIN WORLD CUP TEAM PLAYERS LIST | STARTING LINE UP (AT TIMES)

Receiving lots of emails from readers asking for information about the SPANISH FOOTBALL TEAM PLAYERS LIST & STARTING LINE-UP. Your wishes are my command, although they were posted a month back perhaps the Search Engine isn´t matching your typing words, therefore I post the info here again.The full list of 23 Spanish National Football - World Cup 2010 - Team players are: Goalkeepers: Iker Casillas

VALENCIA CF SIGN GETAFE FORWARD ROBERTO SOLDADO

VALENCIA CF has found a substitute for departed forward David Villa in GETAFE striker & ex-Real Madrid player ROBERTO SOLDADO. The 25 year old player signs for the next 4 years & Valencia pays the Madrid (Getafe) Club a cool 10M€ over the next coming years in various instalments as part of the contract release clause obligation.A good signing as Soldado has had a great 2009-2010 season & now with

SPANISH NATIONAL FOOTBALL TEAM | SPAIN 6 POLAND 0 | FRIENDLY GAME 2010 | VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS

Source: Sp Ftball Sprts /SPAIN put in a grand Football show with a 6-0 victory over POLAND in their last friendly game before flying off to South Africa for the World Cup. The SPANISH NATIONAL FOOTBALL TEAM did play a less than perfect Poland who are in a transition stage with lots of U/21 players, but Spain did give sufficient positive vibrations with their passing & touch game coming together.

REAL MADRID | WHAT ABOUT YOANN GOURCUFF ?

As habitual this time of the year Football player names are flying around & said to be in the orbit of REAL MADRID: Maicon, Kolarov, Steven Gerrard, Jesús Navas, Di Maria, David Silva, Pedro Leon, Di Rossi...bla bla bla.But how about this for a name; YOANN GOURCUFF?This is just a personal hunch. The name is not being splashed on the front-pages of the Spanish Sports dailys at all - not as yet.

Strategy Proposals

I am assuming here that most of us are playing the official FIFA fantasy game and so I will focus all strategy ideas and player picks on that game.

Before we start, here's a quick run down of the key rules regarding lineups and transfers:

Transfers

• Once the tournament kicks off, its only 1 transfer before round 2 and 1 before round 3 (without incurring a 3 point penalty) and so your squad really needs to carry you through the group stages (save for an injury or an unexpected benching).
• After the group stages you can reload your entire team so there isn't an absolute need for your squad to be made up players challenging for the trophy. However, with the price rises, it will pay somewhat to get on board a player early who you think might make an unexpected run to the last 8 and beyond.

Substitutions

• At the start of each day, you can replace any player in your starting eleven with a player from the bench who is yet to play (provided he wasn't sent off).
  
• You do not have to replace a defender with a defender but you must always play a legal formation, so if you have only 3 defenders in your side you could not then sub out a defender for another position.

Strategy 1: Stars and Scrubs
A well documented strategy in fantasy auctions, stars and scrubs basically entails plowing all your money into a smaller number of premium players then trying to plug in some very cheap players to either simply make up the numbers, or to contribute some unexpected points.

The strategy has an element of boom or bust as a bad game or injury will really hurt you each round, whereas strategy 2 below will allow you to shift your team around after a top player lays an egg.

The upside is that with such a small number of games, longevity is not really a major issue and the 3 point transfer at least gives you an out, even if it is a bit costly.

Example team
Picking my favourite players irrespective of price and then filling in the squad with scrubs I ended up with the below, as a first effort:

GK Casillas
DF Lahm
DF A Cole
DF Cannavaro
MD Di Maria
MD Xavi
MD Sneijder
MD Ribery
FD Messi
FD Rooney
FD Van Persie
BE Maicon
BE Kaka
BE Ronaldo

I have chosen to bench those three given that they play later in the round and so I have one player at each position to bring in for whichever of my starters have a bad game.

The rest of the squad is made up of players who should get a game (D Suazo, Subotic, Kroldrup) and represent good value in case of injury or players who are the cheapest at their position.

I like this strategy and I feel that most players will use it given the outstanding names you can get in your lineup. However, the problem is that having the 'best' players will not necessarily win given the small sample size of games they play. It may therefore be beneficial to effectively have two or even three backups for each position who you can keep rotating in as your starters fail to make an impact. The idea behind this is strategy 2.

Strategy 2: Hit or Stick
The basic premise here is to build a good squad of players that are almost guaranteed to play for their respective teams and hence maximise your chances to hit home runs, in what is a comparatively small number of games for fantasy leagues.

Example Team
The key is to have players staggered across the round so the below situation can be taken advantage of:

Day 1
DF - Evra - 2 points
MD - Pienaar - 6 points

Day 2
DF - A Cole - 7 points
MD - Di Maria - 5 points
MD - Dempsey - 2 points
FW - Messi (c) - 3 points (doubled to make 6)

In this example you decide to 'hit' on Evra figuring that your deep bench will surely be able to generate better than a 2 point return. You could replace him with, say, Lahm on day 3 or Chiellini on day 4. You would stick with Pienaar after a solid game and move onto day 2.

After day 2 you are happy with Cole and Di Maria but Dempsey and particularly captain Messi flattered to deceive so you ditch them both in favour of say Van Persie (day 4) and Fernandes (day 6).

Now, there is an element of risk in this as you are actively gambling with points and so will feel worse when you lose points than when you make a correct decision and gain them. This concept is known as risk aversion and plays a key part in fantasy sports as people fear looking foolish by benching a 3 point Messi for Van Persie who ends up not playing, even though the percentages say that the move was logical.

In a 38 week season this strategy may not pay off as you might find yourself chasing points and ultimately not benefit from playing the long game on star players. However in a short competition like the world cup I think this is a great opportunity as you effectively get anywhere from 15-20 bites at the cherry to try and hit a home run. To continue the analogy you only need to hit .300 (6 for 20) at those rates to have 6 successes where as in strategy 1 you will need to hit a Ted Williams like .428 (6 for 14) to enjoy the same rate of success.

If you have absolute convictions over the star players you like in the tournament then perhaps strategy 1 is for you, but if, like me, you like around 14-18 players but struggle to pin down your golden boot or tournament favourites then strategy 2 allows for more wiggle room and flexibility.

Right now I am going to try and assemble a squad using strategy 2 and see if I can get enough good players/matchups to make it work. I will post my efforts here shortly to see how this compares with other peoples' teams, who I suspect will largely use strategy 1.

Thanks for reading and please post your comments/ideas below or tweet me @plfantasy.

You can find my ideas for top players for the tournament here

IBRAHIMOVIC - ROBINHO SWAP OFFER?

While IBRAHIMOVIC hangs out next to a swimming pool in Miami on holidays, ROBINHO is concentrated with the Brazilian National Team in South Africa awaiting the World Cup to kick off. What both do however share & have in common is that neither of their respective Clubs wish them back for next season. Even though FC BARCELONA says that Ibrahimovic is not on sale, the incorporation of Spanish

PEDRO LEON | REAL MADRID, SEVILLA FC ATLETICO DE MADRID OR AC MILAN ?

Source: Spanish Football Sports Blog /Real Madrid, Sevilla Fc & Atletico de Madrid are thinking about it, especially the first mentioned. The contract release clause is “only” 10M€ & in today’s market prices the price / quality ratio is high. Who am I taking about?The player is PEDRO LEON midfielder for Spanish team GETAFE who exploded onto the Spanish Football scene the past season & was

SPANISH SPORTS | TENNIS RAFAEL NADAL WINS HIS 5TH FRENCH OPEN | SPANISH RIDERS HIGH IN MOTO GP

Great & outstanding weekend for SPANISH SPORTS in two areas were Spanish Sportsman are traditionally strong: Clay-court Tennis & Motogp racing.Spanish Tennis ace & World Nº1 , as of tomorrow, RAFAEL NADAL won his 5th FRENCH OPEN after defeating 6-4 6-2 6-4 Swede Robin Soderling. The Spaniard regains all the lost ground after suffrering a terrible year with injuries that showed by his tears of joy

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Source : Sp Ftball /Name: Gregory van der WielAge: 22 yearsNationality: DutchClub: Ajax of AmsterdamProfession: Right Back DefenderFC BARCELONA considers the player as a potential “star” in the making & has been following Van der Wiel for sometime. The player is powerful, offensive minded with the sufficient defensive discipline to ensure that his forward movements do not leave the a "hole" in

Official FIFA game is open

The official game price list is out and it makes for some interesting reading. Before delving too much into strategy I thought I'd throw out a few names of players who jump off the page as being potential bargains or players I like better than those for the same value:

Casillas 8m
lloris 6.5m
Stekelenburg 6.5m

Cole 7.5m
Chiellini 7m
Evra 7m
Van der Wiel 6.5m
Albiol 6m
Subotic 4m

Kaka 10m
Xavi 9.5m
Di Maria 8m
Lennon 7m
Fernandez 6.5m
Gourcuff 6.5m
Hamsik 6m
Dempsey 5.5m

Messi 10m
Villa 10m
Van Persie 8m
Suarez 7m
Sanchez 6m
Frei 5.5m

Keepers are valuable in the game given their extra two points for clean sheets and so I think it's worth paying extra for a premium guy. Strikers probably have slightly more value that midfielders as all players score 5 points for a goal regardless of position. However, I think that the position falls off quickly and so I will load up on two or even three top guys and go for the mid range midfield option (not unlike my favourite EPL tactic for the past season).

As for the somewhat unique transfer system, my idea right now is to play high risk-high reward guys from the start (say, Lennon, Suarez, or Pienaar) and hold a stud on the bench to bring in for whichever of those guys turns out to be a bust (Spain, Brazil and Chile work well for this). Of course to do that you will need a deep squad which will mean that you not be able to get 4 or 5 top line guys. It will be tough to balance your squad but I do think you should have at least two 1.0m players as the chance of needing your entire squad is small and the money saved can be better used elsewhere.

I'm guessing my squad will change something like 3,451,763 times before Friday so why not post your ideas below or @plfantasy and we'll see if we can get some consensus sleepers/studs for our squads.

Sleeper Team

There aren't many things I like better than prospect lists and I'm a huge sucker for 'the next big thing', spending countless hours watching high school football prospects, soccer phenoms from Brazil and college baseball. When I can combine some crystal ball gazing with the World Cup, well, it just doesn't get any better. Here then is my list of prospects to look our for this World Cup. The only rule is that you can't have been in your country's squad in the World Cup before, so a couple of these guys are household names while a couple will hopefully give you someone new to look for (depending on how much you play Football Manager or scour the internet and YouTube)

GK Hugo Lloris
Lloris has been on the world scene for several years, often tipped as the long term replacement for Edwin van der Sar or the answer to Arsene Wenger's goalkeeper woes. It's incredible to think that Fabian Barthez (yeh, remember him?!) was Les Bleus number one in 2006, preferred to the in form Gregory Coupet and young gun Mickael Landreau. Both of these have been surpassed by Lloris who has shone for Lyon and once again earned goalkeeper of the year this past season. Fantasy wise, Lloris should also be a decent pickup as a younger French back line faces good but not great opposition in Group A.

DF Raul Albiol
Not a true sleeper in that I'm sure everyone is familiar with Albiol's work but I felt he warranted inclusion here to reflect his meteoric rise to prominence. Albiol was named in ESPN's La Liga team of the year, and they sum him up well as "low profile, competitive and continuously improving". Spain have one of the better defenses around and Albiol would make a sound and cheaper option than the higher profile Carlos Puyol.

DF Giorgio Chiellini
Cannavaro might have the glory and the newly signed megadeal to play in UAE but it is Chiellini who is Italy's best defender these days. The Juventus - at least for now - defender is back in training and should be good to go for Italy's first game against Paraguay to play alongside the aforementioned Cannavaro. Over the past 6 seasons at Juventus, Chiellini has grown into one of the most consistent defenders in world football, averaging over 30 games a season and looks ready to take his place as the next great Italian defender.

DF Neven Subotic
Already heralded as the next Nemanja Vidic - even to the point where rumours suggest he will replace his fellow countryman at Old Trafford - Subotic could launch himself onto the world stage playing for an underrated Serbian team. Subotic may be familiar to any America readers given that he played at USF as well as the US U-17 National team back in 2005. He instead chose to represent his native Serbia and will partner Vidic in one of the best CB pairings in the competition.

MD Marek Hamsik
To be honest I thought I had a gem to announce here but it turns out that every one is already on the Hamsik bandwagon with multiple sources citing him as a future star and the inevitable transfers rumours already having begun. The hype is genuine from what I've seen, and this video shows the incredible versatility he brings to both his game and his goal scoring. I have not seen such goalscoring instincts in such a young player for a while and I can see him being perhaps the rising star of the tournament. Unless he is surprisingly priced I would put him as one the biggest bargains available when FIFA announce their fantasy prices tomorrow.

MD Angel Di Maria
Possibly the most exciting prospect in world football, I already rate Di Maria alongside the likes of Ribery or Robben and would consider picking him over that pair and many others, regardless of their respective value in the fantasy game. Consider therefore that Di Maria will likely be cheaper than his more famous counterparts and you have yourself bargain and probably a differentiator (at least over Joe Sixpack anyway).

MD Matias Fernandez
I've been hearing about Fernandez for some time, and I was thrilled when he got his move to Villarreal. Things didn't really pan out though and he moved to Sporting before this season. He is supremely talented though and is playing for a good Chile side who should enjoy success against Honduras and Switzerland and are my pick to progress through Group H.

MD Yoann Gourcuff
I absolutely love Gourcuff and I hope beyond pretty much all players in the world that he makes his way to England this summer, ideally to play for Arsenal (even if that does mean losing my beloved Cesc to Barcelona). Touted as another "next Zidane" I think that Gourcuff might actually live up to some of the hype this summer and could lead a fantasy team to glory as I think France as a whole are better than some are giving them credit for.

MD Mesut Ozil
Losing Ballack is a blow for the World Cup but he isn't the talent he once was and his absence might pave the way for Ozil to shine. Ozil is as talented as any other young player in the world and enjoyed a great season for Werder notching 9 goals in 31 league appearances to help guide them to a 3rd place finish. His sole international goal came against South Africa and I think he will enjoy further success playing there this summer.

FW Alexis Sanchez
El Nino Maravilla (the Wonder Boy) still reminds me a bit of a 2005 rather 2008 Cristiano Ronaldo in that his tricks seem to outweigh his end product, but nevertheless his natural talent is unquestionable. Already one of the best dribblers in the world, he will cause any defense problems and should form an exciting trio with the aforementioned Matias Fernandez and Humberto Suazo, who enjoyed some success in the second half of the season with Zaragoza. Sanchez will probably be a bit frustrating to watch and the end might not always equals the means, but boy will you have fun rooting for him along the way.

FW Luis Suarez
Granted there have been a few players from the Eredivisie who have brought great goalscoring records to one of the bigger clubs in Europe and failed to hit the big time (Kuyt, Kezman, Alves) but nor did those players have the kind of natural ability and flare that Suarez enjoys. He can score from anywhere while showing a gift for scoring the easy ones too on the way to his insane 74 in 97 record for Ajax. Uruguay have a tough group and if history is anything to go by will likely fall at the first hurdle (no home nation has ever failed to escape their group) but Suarez is still a good pick for the first three games as none of his opponents have an elite defensive unit. He should be a level below the cost of Europe's top strikers allowing you to bring in a couple of premium players by saving some cash here if FIFA haven't caught onto the hype yet.

Honourable Mention/Bench

Simon Kjaer - almost made the starting XI but injury brings into question his place at the tournament.
Ramires - a better player in real life than fantasy, he would have cracked the XI had this been a real team. His endurance and tackling are a microcosm as what is good about the new look Brazil.
Juan Mata - I love this guy's talent but I fear he won't play enough to generate fantasy consideration. I felt he warranted mention though.
Thomas Muller - Muller exploded this year playing in all 34 Bundesliga matches to help Bayern secure their domestic double. Like Mata I feel he won't generate enough minutes to be a superstar but worth looking out for nonetheless.
Pedro - enjoyed an astonishing season for star studded Barcelona becoming the first player to score in six competitions in a single season. Again, likely won't get enough minutes to be a star but might have an impact off the bench for tournament favorites Spain.

Do you think I've missed anyone? Are there any stars you think are ready to explode? Please post your thoughts below or @plfantasy and we'll discuss.

A visit from the future

Get your bets in now guys, Doc Brown has fired up the old Delorian and left us a treat on the Sky Sports website. The highly anticipated England-US game is going to finish 2-2.
For reference, Bet365 are quoting 22-1 (+2200) on that result.

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