Ladd McConkey – NFL Draft Sleeper Alert
Jay Felicio
Spain World Cup Team Preview
Spain
FIFA Ranking: 7
Manager: Luis Enrique
Federation: UEFA
Group: Spain, Germany, Japan, Costa Rica
Odds to win World Cup: +850, DraftKings Sportsbook
Odds to win Group E: -105, FanDuel Sportsbook
Odds to advance in Group E: -750, DraftKings Sportsbook
How did Spain qualify for the World Cup?
Spain won six of eight qualifying matches to earn an automatic bid to the World Cup. While six wins in eight matches sounds good, Spain’s qualifying was a bit nervy as they drew to Greece to open qualifying and needed some late heroics from Dani Olmo and Alvaro Morata to earn the easy birth.
Who is Spain’s most important player?
Pedri
When a 19-year-old player is starting for Spain in the World Cup, you know he’s amazing. Pedri is one of football’s brightest young stars and considered the next Iniesta for Barcelona and Spanish football. Pedri is a CM known for his attacking brilliance, intelligence, technique and versatility. Pedri is the player who will control Spain’s tempo and as Pedri goes, Spain will go. If you are a casual football fan, get used to hearing this name for years to come.
What are Spain’s strengths, weaknesses, style of play and form?
Spain will play their traditional 4-3-3 but with a true striker and not a false-9 (a false 9 is when the striker plays further back as more of an attacking midfielder). During Spain’s football dominance, they taught the world their Tiki-Taka style of play, after years of disappointment, this current team is reviving it. Expect Spain to have long stints of possession and dominate the time on the ball. When they lose it, expect Spain to press with great intensity to force quick turnovers to once again start their slow offensive build up.
Spain’s biggest strengths are their midfield quality and their ability to play as a true team. When you watch Spain play, you are watching a team in perfect harmony with each other.
Their biggest weakness is at striker. Alvaro Morata will be their starting striker, but Morata is known for his lack of success in major tournaments both domestically and internationally. After Morata, Spain does not have much depth behind him at Striker so if Morata is in poor form, expect them to play a false-9 with Dani Olmo.
Spain have not played since late September where they lost to Switzerland 2-1 and beat Portugal 1-0. They have a World Cup tune-up against Jordan Nov. 17.
What is Spain’s World Cup Outlook?
The expectation in Spain for every World Cup is to win it. They are broadly listed as the fifth favorite to win the World Cup. While Group E will be easy for Spain to advance through, the real challenge will be whether Spain will win the group over Germany. The strategy to win Group E is an interesting one. Whoever comes in second is expected to play Belgium (heavy favorites to win their group) in the Round of 16, but ultimately do end up on what should be the easier side of the bracket. The winner of Group E will get an easier round of 16 matchup against Croatia, Morocco or Canada (assuming Belgium wins their group), but then will most likely have to face Brazil in the next round. Whereas the runner-up, if they were to beat Belgium, get an easier matchup against what will likely be Uruguay or Portugal.
Best Spain World Cup Bet
Spain -2.5 vs. Costa Rica, +135, OR Spain vs. Costa Rica UNDER 2.5 Goals (+110, DraftKings Sportsbook)
This is a mismatch. Costa Rica will park the bus like you’ve never seen a team park the bus in their opening round match, which leaves us with two potential outcomes. First, if Costa Rica concedes early, Spain will likely score 3-plus goals as Costa Rica will be forced to open up the game more and attack. The other outcome is that Spain scores very late or doesn’t score at all. I expect Spain to score early and lean Spain -2.5. Spain’s futures feel a bit overvalued, and you can’t get much value picking Spain and Germany both to advance at -400.
Spain World Cup Roster
Goalkeepers: Unai Simon, Robert Sanchez and David Raya
Defenders: Dani Carvajal, Cesar Azpilicueta, Eric Garcia, Hugo Guillamon, Pau Torres, Aymeric Laporte, Jordi Alba and Jose Gaya
Midfielders: Sergio Busquets, Rodri, Gavi, Pedri, Carlos Soler, Koke and Marcos Llorente
Forwards: Alvaro Morata, Ferran Torres, Pablo Sarabia, Dani Olmo, Nico Williams, Yeremy Pino, Marco Asensio and Ansu Fati
Group A | Ecuador Senegal Netherlands Qatar
Group B | Iran Wales USA England
Group C | Mexico Saudi Arabia Poland Argentina
Group D | Tunisia Denmark Australia France
Group E | Japan Germany Costa Rica Spain
Group F | Croatia Morocco Canada Belgium
