El Nino looked a trifle sharper in the Germany match coming off the bench.
Of course, one does not know if that was indeed true because the player who got the start over him decided to bypass him in a ball hogging moment. Pedro might have been playing for his future in the national team. El Nino might have scored a goal and made Vicente Del Bosque’s decision easier for the final. But it did not happen and we are back to decision time.
Pedro over Torres in forcing errors:
Pedro is favoured to start after getting a slap on the wrist and he does bring his pace and ability to slip inside while all the attention is paid to David Villa. Plus, he has the ability along with Xabi Alonso to test Maarten Stekelenberg with some long range bombs. Which brings us to the Dutch goalie.
Although he brought off one of saves of this World Cup against Kaka, his goalkeeping has not been that assured – allowing Diego Forlan’s goal in the Uruguay match and then failing to rush out to challenge Robinho against Brazil, making it easy for him to score. Those errors did not prove costly to Netherlands but it could be different against Spain which loves holding onto one goal leads and scoring last minute clinchers.
One should expect some more ambition from the Spanish attack given Stekelenberg’s predilection for errors. Pedro looks sharper than Torres in this regard.