\u201cI\u2019d choose David Villa over Kaka and Cristiano Ronaldo,\u201d declared Vicente Del Bosque in 2009.<\/p>\n
The moustahced Salamancan laddering the thumb-sucking Asturian above the last two recipients of the FIFA World Player of the Year award was a shuddering shush. Del Bosque was perplexed that he had to play defence counsel for a 28-year-old who\u2019d rippled nets with military regularity for every team he\u2019d ever represented. Attacks on Villa\u2019s position were nonetheless incoming as Spain readied for the FIFA World Cup\u2122\u2013 from two directions.<\/p>\n
Under Luis Aragones, a diehard Atletico Madrid man, Villa had not only stolen Raul\u2019s place at Spain\u2019s spearhead, but also his treasured No7 shirt. Real Madrid followers \u2013 one-third of the nation\u2019s population \u2013 were outraged.<\/p>\n
When Del Bosque, a Madrista through and through, assumed the controls following UEFA EURO 2008, a potential Raul recall monopolised the headlines. The Blancos legend hit 18 goals in 37 La Liga games in back-to-back campaigns. He declared his desire to dress in red once again. Del Bosque welcomed the news.<\/p>\n
There was also a kid-versus-kid debate. Fernando Torres, with Villa absent, had scored the only goal in UEFA EURO 2008 final. \u2018El Ni\u00f1o\u2019 also averaged 0.82 goals per game for Liverpool in the 2009\/10 Premier League. Yet Del Bosque\u2019s faith in \u2018El Guaje\u2019 was abundant and unshakeable. When Spain\u2019s South Africa 2010 campaign began, Raul was on his sofa, Torres was on the bench, and Villa was leading the line.<\/p>\n
Its maiden hour-and-a-half was dolorous. A goal Gerard Pique described as \u201csomething out of a cartoon sketch\u201d snatched Switzerland a 1-0 win. The backlash was wicked. Among it were shouts for Torres to oust Villa. \u201cIt was never even a consideration,\u201d insisted Del Bosque.<\/p>\n
Villa swiftly showed why. He bagged a brace in a 2-0 win over Honduras, chipped home the first and set up Andres Iniesta\u2019s winner in the 2-1 reverse of Chile, and was Spain\u2019s solitary marksman in an all-Iberian clash with Portugal in the last 16. Then, after craftily winning a penalty, which Xabi Alonso spurned on a retake, Villa snatched a last-gasp win over Paraguay.<\/p>\n
Spain were in the semis. Villa had scored or set all six of their goals en route. The hero\u2019s cape was passed to Carles Puyol against Germany and Iniesta against Netherlands as Spain seized a first star. Villa\u2019 contribution to their conquest had, however, been colossal.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2018El Guaje\u2019 was exceptional,\u201d recalled Puyol. \u201cHe was fundamental to our success. His work-rate, his skill, his goals. They weren\u2019t just any goals, but goals when Spain needed them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Iker Casillas concurred: \u201cWe wouldn\u2019t have won the World Cup without David Villa. He was one of the best players in the world at the time, and he showed up in South Africa. When the pressure was on \u2013 and it was intense pressure \u2013 he produced. I\u2019m just glad it was Andres and not him that scored the goal in the final or we would have never heard the end of it!\u201d<\/p>\n
La Roja\u2019s capstone wasn\u2019t an offshoot of outscoring adversaries. They conceded just twice in South Africa \u2013 the joint-lowest figure for a World Cup-winning team \u2013 and remain the only one to go through its knockout phase without conceding. They had just three marksmen and netted only eight goals \u2013 both lows for a triumphant team. What they had in South Africa, however, was match-winning marvel.<\/p>\n
If Del Bosque had ranked Villa above Kaka and Ronaldo going into the tournament, during it the Spain No7 stole a piece of history set by a GOAT contender when he was in his mind-blowing pomp. Diego Maradona held the record for scoring or assisting the highest portion of a triumphant team\u2019s goals at a World Cup: 71 per cent during his hallowed campaign in Mexico. Villa had managed 75 per cent of Spain\u2019s in South Africa.<\/p>\n
How many men can say they outmatched Maradona of \u2019\u06f8\u06f6?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cI\u2019d choose David Villa over Kaka and Cristiano Ronaldo,\u201d declared Vicente Del Bosque in 2009. The moustahced Salamancan laddering the thumb-sucking Asturian above the last two recipients of the FIFA World Player of the Year award was a shuddering shush. Del Bosque was perplexed that he had to play defence counsel for a 28-year-old who\u2019d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":1003076,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20966],"tags":[9648,27138],"class_list":["post-1003075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fifa-news","tag-fifa","tag-fifanews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1003075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1003075"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1003075\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1003076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1003075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1003075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1003075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}