Video: Spain advance through Villa’s superlative goal

This is David Villa’s World Cup. Fernando Torres might have faded but Villa seems to be relishing doing double duty.
An offside maybe but given the number of really bad calls already in the World Cup, this is not so egregious. It all happens in a blink of an eye and Eduardo who had a stellar match was unable to keep the ball away from Villa a second time. The Barca striker clipped it smartly over the sprawling goalkeeper with his right foot for the game’s only goal.
Another World Cup disappointment for Cristiano Ronaldo, a lonely figure stuck high on the field. He got few chances and most of them were disappointing. Ronaldo’s paranoia in his team mates abilities leads him to try and overachieve. Choking is what we call it. In his case the gulf between national team and club record continues to grow bigger.
Hugo Almeida was much better and he got one of Portugal’s best chances in the first half. Iker Casillas failed to latch on cleanly to a 20 meter drive by Tiago and as the ball ballooned up towards goal the backpedaling Spanish goalkeeper had to fight off Almeida who was rapidly closing in and also keep the ball out.
Carlos Quieroz sending in Danny for Hugo Almeida was puzzling. It removed the one effective threat on the Spanish goal. This was also a disappointing World Cup for Simao Sabroso who seemed unable to deal with the pace of the game. Portugal also missed Nani who could have given them that pace and creativity on attack that seemed to be missing. He would have been a perfect complement to the excellent Tiago and Fabio Coentrao.
On the other hand Vicente De Bosque’s gambit of pulling Torres for Joseba Llorente in the second half provided the spark in the El Roja’s attack.
Xavi and Iniesta were their usual clever and inventive selves. Check out Xavi’s clever back heel that leads to Villa’s forthcoming goal.
Spain dominated Portugal in virtually every statistical category. Possession, passes made, total shots, shots on goal, and were deserved victors. The one sour note, Joan Capdevila’s play acting that got Ricardo Costa sent off. It’s all down to ‘intent to harm’ but there was no actual contact.
They meet Paraguay in the quarterfinals. Publicly proclaiming their toughness: in reality, secretly rejoicing. The path to the finals got a wee bit clearer.