Del Bosque ´cross´ but pragmatic about Spain loss

Spain coach Vicente Del Bosque said he was “cross” at his team’s shock 1-0 defeat to Switzerland in their opening World Cup game here on Wednesday.

And while the maiden defeat at the hands of the Swiss in 85 years of fixtures was an “obstacle”, he remained optimistic for the two group matches to come, against Honduras in Johannesburg on June 21 and Chile in Pretoria four days later.

The Spanish dominated open play, totalling 63 percent of ball possession and 42 minutes of actual playing time compared to the Swiss team’s 37 percent and 25, but fell to a snatched counter-attack goal from Gelson Fernandes in the 51st minute.

“We tried to play,” Del Bosque said. “They played very far back and tried to counter-attack. They defended very well.”

“We were playing to win and this victory has escaped us,” he said, adding: “We may not have shown our true personality as a team.”

Del Bosque acknowleged that it was not a great start to the tournament for one of the joint favourites alongside Brazil, who beat North Korea 2-1 in their opening game.

“It’s not a good sign to start off in this way but we have an obligation to cope with that and face the next two games trying to win.

“That’ll be our goal for the next two matches.”

Del Bosque added: “Of course, you can lose in football, but I feel we’ll try to get even. We must really give everything. It’s pointless standing there with our heads hanging low. The next matches will be good.”

The coach admitted that lady luck had played her part in the defeat, Spain’s first ever against Switzerland in 19 games dating back to 1925.

“Someone had luck against Spain today,” he said. “Despite Switzerland having a chance of a second goal late on, for the remainder of the match we spent our time trying to score.”

Spain, revitalised by replacement strikers Jesus Navas and Fernando Torres after a non-eventful first-half, had a hatful of chances in the second period, David Villa going closest with a shot coming back off the woodwork.

“We could have scored but today was not our day,” said Del Bosque.

“We’re in our first match. Today has offered up an obstacle, but we’ll try and surmount that in the course of the next two games.

“Nobody’s spoken about the final or becoming world champions.”