Australia will be up against Spain as the two teams meet in their final Group B fixture at the FIFA World Cup 2014. The match will be held at the Arena de Baixada in Curitiba on Monday, June 23.
The result of the match will be inconsequential as far as qualification to the Round of 16 is concerned with both teams having failed to qualify. Netherlands and Chile have qualified for the second round of the ongoing edition of the World Cup from Group B.
However, the match on Monday is expected to be a feisty encounter. The defending champions will be looking to prove to the world that they are still a very good team and the two defeats they suffered in their first two games at the Cup was just a blip.
The Australians on the other hand will look to build on their performances from the first couple of matches. The Socceroos have been thoroughly entertaining in both their matches and could have won both the matches in question if they were a tad better at taking their opportunities in front of goal.
The Australians had lost to Chile 3-1 in the first round of matches while the Netherlands beat them 3-2 in their second group match which was clearly the most keenly contested football match at the finals this year. Socceroos skipper Mile Jedinak claimed ahead of the game that the team will be playing a high energy high tempo game against the deposed champions on Monday.
Tim Cahill is suspended for the fixture against Spain as he serves a yellow card ban while Mark Bresciano is a serious injury doubt for the match. 25 year old Swiss based left winger Oliver Bozanic looks to have forced himself into Ange Postecoglou’s plans as he played a starring role against the Dutch after coming on a second half substitute.
Spain suffered utter humiliation when they were shown the door with a match left to play at the Group stages. There will be a lot of hurt pride when the holders take the field on Monday.
One would expect the Spaniards to have a different approach to the usual tiki-taka style that brought them a lot of success in the past decade. After all, it did not work as they were decimated by Holland in the opener and failed to score against Chile in the second group match.
It is expected that the old guard will make way for the younger stars against Australia as the likes of Xavi, Iker Casillas, Iniesta, and Xabi Alonso are set to be benched in favour of Koke, David de Gea, Javi Martinez, and Juan Mata.
There is plenty of talent in the La Roja, but they need to tweak their philosophy if they are to continue to shine in the world stage following a catastrophic world cup campaign.