For a manager who is able to bathe in the luxury of an unprecedented three consecutive major tournament wins for his team, Vicente Del Bosque’s World Cup squad selection is not without controversy.
The striker positions, in particular, presented a dilemma for the veteran Spain coach as he was forced to choose between a group of players out of form and suffering from fitness problems.
The three strikers selected – Atletico Madrid duo David Villa and Diego Costa and Chelsea frontman Fernando Torres – were all far from shoo-ins, with each of them looking unconvincing for different reasons.
Torres showed the good, the bad and the ugly elements of his game after being recalled from an 11-month international wilderness during Friday night’s 2-0 warm-up victory over Bolivia.
As well as opening the scoring with a confidently-taken penalty, the Chelsea striker led the line with pace and determination – qualities which greatly endear him to Del Bosque.
But he also frequently contrived to break down spells of possession with clumsily heavy touches, and produced a horrible miss when his attempted chip sailed ten feet over the bar.
Like Torres, veteran Villa is a beneficiary of Del Bosque’s famous loyalty, with the 32-year-old earning selection despite struggling for goals in recent weeks –he hasn’t scored since March 8 – and looking a shadow of the player who became his country’s all-time leading scorer.
But the most interesting selection is Diego Costa, the confrontational striker who this time last year was a Brazilian and was not being seriously considered as a World Cup prospect for either country.
Until this season, Costa had never scored more than 10 league goals in a campaign and was largely regarded as a hard-working, whole-hearted but somewhat of a journeyman having played for seven clubs in eight years.
His flurry of goals to ignite Atletico’s title challenge at the start of the campaign turned that perception on its head, sparking a tug-of-war between his birth nation and his adopted nation which Spain eventually won, leading to his selection for a sure-to-be acrimonious return to Brazil.
Costa’s final few weeks of the season were far from glorious though, as a lack of form and a hamstring injury prevented him from seriously contributing to Atletico’s charge for silverware but Del Bosque has opted to remember the Costa who terrorised La Liga’s defences during the first few months of the season.
It’s a big risk, and Del Bosque can only hope it doesn’t backfire.
