I can finally post up my Spain 2012 things! Yeah, more things If you read my blog you will know I already have the Spain home shirt, the techfit home shirt, and both the Spain goalkeeper shirts, and now I can post the other things I have.

There was a delay in me posting them because the jacket I originally ordered was a ladies! I order these from Spain, and there was no indication that this was the women’s version, so I had no idea until it came. I had to contact the company (in Spanish) and organise a return, then returned the jacket and bought the correct mens version.

So, here are the cool things which I got…

The official Spain polo shirt. I love this, and it is smart too, I will wear this, but probably not too much.

Official Spain and Adidas gloves. I wore these the other day, they are nice for the winter, but I probably won’t wear these too much.

Spain captain’s armband. This is just for the memorabilia, I doubt I will wear it, or maybe I will with my Spain Goalkeeper shirts, just like Iker You may remember I have the same armband but a Real Madrid one here.

Finally my lovely, lovely jacket. I love this, and it was worth the wait. It actually cost me a LOT, because I basically had to pay the postage twice, so that was actually around €90. I do love it though, and I imagine I will wear it a fair bit for a long time, so it will be worth it. This jacket actually has a more polyester and waterproof feel to it, other than the womans version which I originally received, I think I actually liked that one better, but I couldn’t wear it, it’s for girls

España printing on the back.

So a while back I was talking about the Renford Rejects, and how it would be cool to have a Rejects shirt, but updated for 2011/12. I was deciding which shirt to use as the base, and I finally chose and have made a shirt

The biggest problem is the colour. They used black and purple striped shirts, which I could not get from anywhere. I tried every manufacturer, including the original manufacturer of the shirts they used on the show, and nobody seems to do black and purple stripes…Well the show is 10 years old or so!

So here is what I have come up with…

See below for more pics…

Continue reading »

The World’s best 11 was assembled today, which included 6 players from the Spanish national team, and a total of 9 from La Liga. The only players who did not come from La Liga were Vidic and Rooney.

Best 11 team

Iker Casillas; Sergio Ramos, Gerard Pique, Nemanja Vidic, Dani Alves; Andres Iniesta, Xavi Hernandez, Xabi Alonso; Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney, Lionel Messi

Leo Messi also won the Balon D’Or for the third year in a row, beating Ronaldo and Xavi who were second and third respectivly.

This is a very rare shirt at the moment, it is the Spain away/alternative goalkeeper shirt for 2012. You may have seen my post with the Spain Casillas 2012 Goalkeeper shirt which I love, but I like this one just as much.

Before I bought it I had not seen it “in the flesh” before, it has not been worn in any Spain game yet, so maybe I have worn it before Casillas has! I could not get it printed, I wish that I could, but I imagine it is because it is so new, I have not even seen the colour which the printing would be, I would imagine white as I think that would look best, but it may be golden yellow or something.

Here it is…

Want more pics? Here they are!…

Continue reading »

The groups for Euro 2012 have been drawn tonight, and there is the usual group of death, and a really easy group.

Group A is by far the easy group, I could not even guess which of the 4 teams will qualify, it could be any of them. If I had to guess I would say Poland and Russia. Group B is the group of death, you have to say Germany and Netherlands are the favourites in that group. Group C will see Spain play Italy, Ireland and Croatia, not the hardest draw for Spain, but not a walkover either. Group D sees England in a not so tough group, but will have to play Ukraine in their own back yard, who knows how easy that will be.

Something else which you have to look at is the games teams are playing first. Nobody wants to loose their first game, so it will be interesting to see what happens. Spain play Italy, both will want a win in their first game, but a draw would not be so bad. France will have to play England, and Netherlands play Denmark with Germany playing Portugal. The opening game of the finals will see Greece play co-hosts Poland.

Group A – Poland, Greece, Russia, Czech Rep.
Group B – Netherlands, Denmark, Portugal, Germany
Group C - Spain, Italy, Ireland, Croatia
Group D – Ukraine, Sweden, England, France

Here it is, my newest pride and joy in terms of football shirts, it is the new Spain Goalkeeper shirt for 2011-13, i.e. the one worn in the Euro 2012 competition.

As I have done for a few years now, I bought this direct from Spain, since you cannot get them here in the UK (not that I have ever seen). I could of got this last week, but I held off, because I wanted to wait for the place to get the official printing so I could have it printed, which this is.

Number 1 and Casillas of course Something interesting about the printing…Casillas has “I Casillas” printed (i.e. Iker Casillas) on this shirt, something he has never had before for Spain. I noticed that it was printed this way against England, instead of just “Casillas”. I am unsure as to why this is, and if he will have the “I Casillas” printing on his shirts in the future for Spain, but this one has that. I know some players do have this, e.g. A.Iniesta, and Torres used to have F.Torres; But Casillas has never had this to my knowledge.

Here is the back:

I really like the design. The numbers look plain and boring from a distance, but they are a little bit graphical. The actual shirt itself is a nice design, with the star for the World Champions of course, all these Spain shirts are made primary for the Euro’s, in the neckline it has the “Campeones De Europa” (european champions) wording with the years, and this shirt lacks the world cup winners gold badge the previous shirt had, something which will probably return for the shirt they have during the next world cup.

Here are some close up pics, so you can see all the details.

Continue reading »

It is remembrance Sunday this week, and England wanted to wear the poppy, as all of the premier league teams did last weekend and have done for a while. FIFA then banned them, citing “no commercial, religious or political messages can be worn”.

FIFA has sort of backed down on the matter, and have said (so far) that England can wear the poppy on a black armband. All that it has taken is a letter from the English FA, the Prime Minister to get involved and even a letter from Prince William, not to mention an entire country rightly outraged at this.

What do you think?

Big Big game on Saturday! It is England vs Spain at Wembley, with a 17:15 kick off. I tried to get tickets a while back, could not find a place which was selling the Spain tickets (in the Spain end) then yesterday I found that you can buy them on the English F.A. site! Too late now I think.

The Spain squad is pretty strong, a few names missing but otherwise it is a great squad.

Casillas, Reina, Valdes 

Ramos, Arbeloa, Puyol, Pique, Alba, Albiol, Monreal

 Xavi, Alonso, Busquets, Cazorla, Martinez, Fabregas, Iniesta, Navas, Silva

Villa, Torres, Llorente, Mata.

And the England Squad

Hart, Carson, Stockdale

 G Johnson, Jones, Cahill, Terry, Cole, Baines, Jagielka, Lescott, Walker

Lampard, Rodwell, Downing, Barry, A Johnson, Milner, Parker, Walcott

Bent, Sturridge, Agbonlahor, Zamora, Welbeck

Looks pretty poor in comparison

Spain will also play Costa Rica on Tuesday, and England will play Sweden.

It was announced today that Stuart Pearce has been named the manager of Team GB. There is a bit of controversy with the team, and the opposing home nations (all apart from England) do not want to take part.

What do you think? I personally think that they shouldn’t worry, because none have any players good enough! You could argue with Aaron Ramsey and Gareth Bale, but that is pretty much it. If you are to pick the strongest squad, then there would be nobody from N. Ireland and Scotland, and the team would be made up of almost all English players.

The team must consist of Under 23 players, however you are allowed 3 guest players who can be of any age. This means David Beckham could play, he wants to, and I hope he does It is a rare thing for a footballer to get an Olympic medal, especially an English one since there is no British team, so he should go for it. The other possibility is Ryan Giggs playing, which would be great!

The biggest problem with the Olympic Football is that the Euro’s are the same year. So the big names from England will be playing in that, and their clubs will not want them to play in 2 summer tournaments. That will mean the same for the Spain team, which has a few good young players in it. I suspect a team from outside Europe will win, because of Euro 2012; Argentina have won the previous 2 tournaments and the last time a European nation won it was in 1992, in Barcelona and it was Spain with a star studded squad. Spain also made the final in 2000 in Sydney but lost on a penalty shootout to Nigeria.

One of the stadiums being used for the Olympic football is our very own St James’ Park in Newcastle, and I will try and go to a game as long as some good teams are playing, Spain? You never know (not yet anyway!)

It was a great night tonight in the Euro 2012 qualifiers; Spain beat Scotland 3-2 with ease, and there were some results which pleased me.

Denmark beat Portugal to take the automatic spot in their group, Bosnia almost beat France, who got a penalty with 12 minutes to go and the game ended 1-1, so Bosnia will head to the playoffs. The result of the night has to be Sweden 3 – 2 Netherlands. A great victory for Sweden making them the best 2nd placed team, and automatically qualifying for Euro 2012.

Qualified

Poland
Ukraine
Germany
Russia
Italy
France
Netherlands
Sweden
Greece
England
Denmark
Spain (holders)

Playoffs

Turkey
Republic of Ireland
Estonia
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Croatia
Montenegro
Portugal
Czech Republic

The draw for the playoffs will be made this Thursday, and the games will be played next month. Unfortunately for the playoffs I think the “UEFA Cheat System” is in place, i.e. seedings and not an open draw. This will spoil the draw, so you can expect to see something like Portugal vs Estonia which is a disgrace really; It should be open and fair.

The night belongs to Sweden though, stopping Netherlands winning streak in the group.