Spain faces Switzerland in Durban on June 16, 2010 for their first round football match of the 2010 World Cup football tournament hosted by South Africa. - AFP Photo

SPAIN OPENS WORLD CUP CAMPAIGN AGAINST SWITZERLAND

European champion Spain will be one of the last two teams in action in the opening flight of group matches, a position the perennial World Cup underachiever also hopes to be in at the end of South Africa 2010.

Spain takes on Switzerland in Durban on Wednesday knowing that if it plays to its vast potential it can add the world title to its 2008 European Championship crown.

“Spain performed excellently in the qualifying campaign but a World Cup is different,” goalkeeper Iker Casillas said Tuesday in reference to his team’s perfect qualifying record.

“We come with a lot of hope and desire to be world champions. If we play our game then we can win it.”

While big predictions have weighed down Spain in the past, now the team made up almost entirely of stars from Barcelona and Real Madrid is enjoying them.

Coach Vicente del Bosque was just trying to mind the euphoria that has come with the team’s tag as a favorite.

Both Spain and Switzerland have had a long wait to get their World Cup campaigns under way. They’ll be the last teams to play their first games in South Africa when they meet at Moses Mabhida Stadium.

For Switzerland, the Group H match still comes too soon, with its experienced captain Alex Frei and West Ham midfielder Valon Behrami both out injured.

“I have decided that Alex Frei is not yet fit to play,” said coach Ottmar Hitzfeld, adding that he would also leave out Behrami in an attempt to have both players fit for the following match against Chile.

Hitzfeld dismissed speculation that Frei’s World Cup is already over because of a right ankle injury as “absurd.”

Frei, whose 40-goal international tally is a Swiss record, was hurt in the final squad practice before flying to South Africa last week. Behrami strained a left thigh muscle in Switzerland’s final warmup game on June 5.

Striker Frei may not have been busy anyway against Spain, as Switzerland will need all its defensive skills to contain Vicente del Bosque’s attacking team and its swift passing game.

“We’ve spent a lot of time analyzing them and we know their play from the last Euro and World Cup,” Del Bosque said. “We have enormous respect for them.”

Spain has not advanced past the World Cup quarterfinals since it’s best finish fourth  in 1950. 

And while Switzerland has injury worries, Spain’s talented squad is at near full strength, with Barcelona midfielder Andres Iniesta declared fit by Del Bosque.

Liverpool striker Fernando Torres is recovering from a right leg injury and may not start but could come off the bench. In that case, Del Bosque will likely start Villa as a lone striker in front of a five-man midfield made up of Xavi Hernandez, Xabi Alonso, David Silva and Sergio Busquets along with either Iniesta, Cesc Fabregas, Jesus Navas or Pedro Rodriguez.

Spain’s defense should contain Carles Puyol and Gerard Pique as centerbacks with Sergio Ramos and Joan Capdevila as fullbacks, and Casillas in goal.

Spanish players say they are expecting a tough game against a defensive Switzerland.

BAFANA HAVE TO RISK ALL FOR VITAL WIN SAYS COACH

Parreira said it was imperative that the host nation won the match to avoid needing a result in their last group game match against France next week.

“We have to be decisive and go for it. There will be no sitting back waiting for (the other team’s) mistakes. We have to take risks, otherwise we’ll be going nowhere,” he warned his players on Tuesday.

“If we get just three draws we’ll get knocked out of the tournament. I prefer to take the risk to give us a better chance of going to the next round.

“We need to win, we don’t want to go to the final game needing to win,” Parreira told the pre-match news conference in Pretoria.

The coach said he would make one, maybe two, changes to the side that started Friday’s opening World Cup match against Mexico.

Leftback Tsepo Masilela, brought on at half-time at Soccer City on Friday, is expected to take the place of Lucas Thwala, but Parreira said he would not confirm the line-up until he had told his players overnight.

“But now is not the time to change the team. What we will do is make some tactical adjustments.

“We will have a different approach from the Mexican match, because they are the most daring team of the competition and we had to deal with them differently to Uruguay.”

He said he expected his side’s next opponents to play with three centre backs, as they did last Friday in their goalless draw with France in Cape Town, and look to use the counter attack.

“Diego Forlan is a player we can’t leave free,” Parreira said of Uruguay’s leading striker. “We have a plan for him.

Every time when we played against him when I was coach of Brazil, he scored.”

South Africa captain Aaron Mokoena told the same news conference he hoped for more vociferous home support in Pretoria.

“We want to hear those vuvuzelas,” he said in a reference to the controversial plastic trumpet blown throughout the World Cup games in South Africa.

PROBLEMS MOUNTING FOR UNDERDOGS HONDURAS

World Cup underdogs Honduras have more injury worries ahead of their opening Group H match against Chile after midfielder Julio Cesar de Leon pulled up in training, coach Reinaldo Rueda said on Tuesday. 

“He is depressed and a bit irritated because of this situation just a few hours from the start of the first game,”

Rueda, who is banned from the dugout and will watch from the stands, said of De Leon’s injury suffered on Monday.

A Honduran spokesman was not able to give details of the injury other than to say it was a “muscle strain”.

Forward David Suazo is also struggling after picking up an injury in his right leg during a friendly with Romania earlier this month.

Doctors will evaluate both players but should they miss the game De Leon, nicknamed “Rambo” after Sylvester Stallone’s tough-as-nails movie character, plus Suazo will be a big loss for Rueda.

Honduras, rocked in June 2009 by a military coup, are appearing in only their second World Cup after their debut in 1982 and will have to face Chile without Rueda in the dugout after he was sent off during the tiny Central American country’s qualifier against El Salvador last October.