De Gea, a symbol of reconstruction

Neither good or bad. Neither here nor there. The game saw one decent spell for La Roja: between the 15th minute and half-time which saw our hopes raised despite a slow start in both halves. However a poor overall second half with the exception of the final burst was the general overview of Spains return to Paris. It would have been just another run of the mill match had it not been for the performance of De Gea taking over from Casillas. Everyone agrees that De Gea is the future national team goalkeeper, but what wasn’t known is that future has arrived now. Is this definitive? Del Bosque hasn’t confirmed what will happen on Monday, but De Gea has certainly made a claim for his place in the team.

De Gea’s performance was symbolic of the transition which the national team is undergoing. The match did portray a degree of transition and in truth, this change starts now. With no Xavi or Xabi, the team was forced to adapt to suit the needs of each player. Diego Costa played too; he is also part of this reconstruction as his previous performances were so inconsistent. It’s great to see him match-fit again and am not sure if the French defender Sakho would share that sentiment. What a battle! After the uncertainty shrouding his fitness at the end of last season he’s back to his best. Del Bosque did comment after the game that the team still can’t connect with him. That is the task ahead of this side.

In the end we lost. We lost for two reasons: we failed to create a single scoring opportunity and gifted the French team with a soft goal. France scored with Cazorla injured and off the pitch beside the bench. To hope that the French team would have held up play until he was back on the pitch is slightly absurd. The French team also had a perfectly legitimate goal ruled out by the linesman. France won and won well. They looked fast, dynamic transmitting a positive overall team performance. Spain still look like a team in convalescence but at least managed to overcome this first test without any major disasters.

from Últimas noticias | Diario AS http://ift.tt/1pwqsKH

via IFTTT