The Day The Earth Stood Still For Spain and South Africa

Images by El Universo

Spain, favorite team to win the World Cup by many, had a chaotic debut against Switzerland in the opener for Group H. Switzerland has never won over Spain in their respective matches against the Spaniards, but yesterday it happened so for the first time in history with a 1 - 0 score. The striking offense leaded by David Villa and Fernando Torres was shut down the light for both in their worst moment in history. Switzerland was up in the score thanks to the Swiss striker Gelson Fernandes in the 52 minute. With Spain's first loss in the debut of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, this cuts the 12 straight wins that Spain previously had with the United States on the June 24, 2009 win over Spain in the Confederations Cup.

This historic goal that Switzerland scored came about by a long shot from Swiss goalkeeper Diego Benaglio to striker Eren Derdiyok, which he gets knocked down by Iker Casillas, Fernandes was very effective granted that he was present in the Spanish area so he took advantage and gave it a fantastic goal. Before the loss, Spain was considered to be favorites to win the World Cup, came to the that in their 50 years, Spain has never overcomed a win in their World Cup debuts. Spain cotrolled most of the game, but the effectivity of their strikers lacked vocational offense and they had a large amounts of chances to score, but this was the consequence that Switzerland took advantage of and scored by the end of the match. Spain tried to recuperate from the goal, but for the most part Swtizerland already bet in many of their players to remain with their result and became a wall that the Spanish could not penetrate. Many breathed early with a clear shot from Xabi Alonso, but it was not enough for the Spanish to suffer this way.

When Spain controlled much of the game, Switzerland betted to defend and attack in minutes after the goal when Eren Derdiyok had a clear shot on goal but the ball drifted to the other side. During stoppage time of 5 minutes, the Spanish seemed nervous and desperate to score the goal, this is the result of a catastrophic proportion because Switzerland coach Ottmar Hitzfeld planted a well thought out scheme to stop the Spanish offense to take advantage of the spaces left by the Swiss.