Wasteful Torres raps Jabulani ball
Source: Agencies |
June 23, 2010, Wednesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
FERNANDO Torres became the latest player to complain about the Jabulani World Cup ball after the Spain striker fluffed several scoring opportunities on Monday.
Coach Vicente del Bosque included Torres, who recently completed recovery from knee surgery, in his starting lineup and if he had shown his usual lethal touch the dominant European champion could easily have matched Portugal's earlier 7-0 thrashing of North Korea.
"Personally speaking, I am very happy to have played but we need to practice a bit more with this Jabulani because we are having a bit of bother with it," Torres told reporters.
"But whereas the other day we couldn't score today we got two and we have to be happy that we managed to turn things around," he added, in reference to Spain's shock 0-1 defeat to Switzerland in last week's group opener.
Del Bosque and his players were disappointed not to have netted more goals, but said getting back to winning ways had lifted the group's spirits and removed some of the anxiety that crept into the squad after the Swiss game.
"We would have liked a bigger margin of victory but the win is positive for our mood and that's the route we have to follow," defender Sergio Ramos said.
"We played a great match against a team that was always going to sit back from the start," he added. "Fortunately, we now have our fate in our own hands against Chile and we'll be going for victory."
Meanwhile, Spain striker David Villa admitted he needs to better control his temper after he slapped an opponent in the face, but escaped punishment.
Villa tangled with Emilio Izaguirre late in the first half and was lucky to stay on the pitch after striking the Honduran defender.
"It's not something that I am proud of," Villa said. "They're just instincts... in this case I wasn't expecting him to tread on me," he added. "I was merely standing there and the reaction was to stick my arm out. I'll try in future to keep my cool."
Coach Vicente del Bosque included Torres, who recently completed recovery from knee surgery, in his starting lineup and if he had shown his usual lethal touch the dominant European champion could easily have matched Portugal's earlier 7-0 thrashing of North Korea.
"Personally speaking, I am very happy to have played but we need to practice a bit more with this Jabulani because we are having a bit of bother with it," Torres told reporters.
"But whereas the other day we couldn't score today we got two and we have to be happy that we managed to turn things around," he added, in reference to Spain's shock 0-1 defeat to Switzerland in last week's group opener.
Del Bosque and his players were disappointed not to have netted more goals, but said getting back to winning ways had lifted the group's spirits and removed some of the anxiety that crept into the squad after the Swiss game.
"We would have liked a bigger margin of victory but the win is positive for our mood and that's the route we have to follow," defender Sergio Ramos said.
"We played a great match against a team that was always going to sit back from the start," he added. "Fortunately, we now have our fate in our own hands against Chile and we'll be going for victory."
Meanwhile, Spain striker David Villa admitted he needs to better control his temper after he slapped an opponent in the face, but escaped punishment.
Villa tangled with Emilio Izaguirre late in the first half and was lucky to stay on the pitch after striking the Honduran defender.
"It's not something that I am proud of," Villa said. "They're just instincts... in this case I wasn't expecting him to tread on me," he added. "I was merely standing there and the reaction was to stick my arm out. I'll try in future to keep my cool."
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