I have lost track of how many times I have relished a game at this world cup and been left angrily disappointed by the negativity of one team and the frustration of the other.
Many of us looked forward to this game tonight as a skilful attacking showpiece, but in retrospect; Queiroz knows his team isn't good enough to compete with Spain; therefore, he set his team up to defend and counter attack. Now if your objective is to win, then this is a good tactic to employ, but football is the loser.

So many fans are left short-changed by these tactics and we are robbed of the spectacle of the greatest sporting event in the world.
No matter what the outcome of this world cup, unless all the teams grow cojones, this unique African world cup will be remembered only for it's negativity and poor refereeing decisions, not to mention the infamous Jabilani.

I wish I could speak more of the game, but after 5 minutes, Torres was ineffective, Villa was stuck to the left touchline, Ronaldo was repeatedly fouled before showing what he can do, Ramos was disappointing, Xavi and Iniesta failed to penetrate the solid Portugal defence, and we were left with another anti-climax for the first hour.

Every time Torres got the ball, he was out wide where he could do no damage to the Portuguese defence. Torres is a centre forward and this is where he causes problems, so when Llorente replaced him on the hour mark, Carvalho and Alves had new problems, Llorente is a big strong target man and he stayed in or around the 18 yard box, which kept Carvalho and Alves busy, and allowed Villa to move around more and create his own brand of problems for Portugal. It came as no surprise then that all of a sudden, like the flick of a light switch, Spain were a real threat to Portugal, and no sooner had Llorente missed a golden opportunity to score from 6 yards, than Spain created a passing master class in the opposition box, which culminated in an exquisite back heel from Xavi into Villa, who’s second attempt flew in off the underside of the cross bar to break the deadlock and open the game up.

At the same time as Spain made their switch, Portugal made a switch that was as ineffective as Spain’s was effective, taking off Almeida and switching Ronaldo to centre forward. There were near misses for Villa and Ramos, but the rest of the game was mostly keep ball for Spain. Capdevila was guilty of a foul on Ronaldo at the edge of the area that went un-punished, then the victim of an elbow by Costa that got Costa sent off. No doubt the elbow and consequent sending-off will be debated as it looked inocuous from the angle we saw it from.

Overall, I’m happy to see the team who wanted to play football come out on top, especially because it’s Spain, the next match will be more open against Paraguay, so maybe we’ll finally get a feast of football.

Vaya España.