Confederations Cup Preview: New Zealand – Spain

European champions Spain face a lot of pressure when they begin their Confederations Cup campaign against Oceanian champions New Zealand, this Sunday.

New Zealand were about to head for South Africa with a serious confidence issue, but the All-Whites almost managed a draw -or more- against world champions Italy in this week’s friendly. The Italians eventually won 4-3 but New Zealand must feel better about themselves following this match.

There is however one big problem to overcome, and that is the absence of captain Ryan Nelsen who couldn’t recover in time from a calf injury.

Not surprisingly, Spain are highly favored to collect their first three points of the tournament when they take on New Zealand.

Manager Vicente del Bosque has a full-strength squad to work with, many of which players that led their country to their first European trophy in decades. Up front, striker David Villa and Fernando Torres should provide the opposing defenders with some serious worries while the likes of Carles Puyol work to block the road to Iker Casillas’ goal.

Interesting detail is that not Real Madrid of FC Barcelona, but Valencia is the team that provides the most players for this selection, six in total.

New Zealand and Spain start their tournament at 8:30pm local time, in the city of Rustenburg.