Hola, Sudafrica! Substitutes Bring it Home for Spain

Never again am I turning off a soccer game before the final whistle is blown. Today I turned off the Spain-Estonia game 12 minutes before the 90-minute mark (they ended up playing 4 minutes of extra time as well) and Spain scored TWO GOALS! Not one, but TWO!

I was a little off with the alignment and lineup as well. The official starting lineup and subs were as follows.

Strikers: Villa (Cazorla, 67'); Torres (Guiza, 58'); Silva (Mata, 79');

Midfield: Xavi, Senna, Fabregas

Defense: Albiol, Pique, Marchena, Capdevila

Goal: Casillas

So Del Bosque wasn't lying when he said there were going to be some changes to the lineup. The changes did not effect the outcome of the game, but it definitely was not as pretty as their trounce against Belgium. Torres and Villa both had several chances to open up the scoring early on but were systematically denied by Pareiko, the Estonian goalie.

Cesc Fabregas opened up the scoring 33' in with a great one-two wall pass from David Silva, a lead that Spain kept comfortably until halftime. There were several moments where Casillas was tested by the Estonian strikers, but the defense (despite the fact that Puyol didn't play- don't even get me started on how I feel about that) firmly held their ground and gave Casillas a pretty easy game.

Tonight, however, was the night of the substitutes. Santi Cazorla (Villarreal) and Mata (Valencia) both scored goals tonight, Cazorla about 10 minutes after he entered and Mata scored his in extra time. I did not see those goals because I turned off the game. Never ask my why I did that because I won't be able to tell you.

I also don't understand why every time I watch the national team, Torres can't score, but when I can't watch, he scores the fastest hat trick in Spanish national history. I'm convinced that either he doesn't like me or I'm just bad luck for this team. I'll go with the former. Santi Cazorla, who I have always sort of liked, despite him playing for a rival of Barcelona, scored as well, so of course I missed his goal.

Cazorla's goal originated with Fabregas, who served the ball to Cazorla in the 18-yd box where Cazorla zipped past Estonian captain Piiroja and ripped the ball into the back of the net. Mata's time to shine when Cazorla served a ball to Mata at the back post where Mata controlled and zipped the ball past the keeper.

It is now mathematically impossible for Spain to not qualify for the World Cup. They join nine other teams who are already headed to South Africa next summer. Ghana, South Africa, North Korea, South Korea, Australia, Holland, England, Brazil, and Japan have already qualified.