with seven homers and 31 runs batted

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It is January 27, 2006 and UEFAs members are all gathered together in Switzerland for the draw of the 2008 European Championships. For the draw that day Spain are placed in pot two and ranked by the co-efficients as the thirteenth best side in Europe. They are given a group led by Sweden. It is now the summer and the Spanish are in Germany for the World Cup. They never look like a power and are thrashed by France in the last 16. Three months later a team featuring Iker Casillas, Sergio Ramos, Carles Puyol, Xavi, Xabi Alonso, David Villa and Fernando Torres lose 3-2 to Northern Ireland. A month later they are beaten 2-0 by Sweden, trailing for 80 minutes of the match. Spain are nobodies on a track to a major tournament in third gear, preparing to fail once again at a major tournament. Coach Luis Aragones thought differently. He saw the special players he had and demanded they change their style. It was the first seed that was planted that led to the losers becoming winners. "Aragones changed our style, no longer regularly crossing from those wide areas. It was then when he decided to put his faith in the smaller players, said midfielder Marcos Senna. Spain made it to Euro 2008 and when David Villa scored a 92nd minute winner against the aforementioned Sweden in the group stages, people still didnt believe in their credentials. They always fail and will again was the public sentiment. It is June 22, 2008 and Spains quarterfinal game against Italy has ended 0-0. Time for penalties. Their record from the spot in such scenarios was 2-4 in major tournaments. Losers again. Cesc Fabregas, only 21, changed everything when he slotted home the winner that night in Vienna. Sure, Spain were delighted to win but the overriding emotion was relief. Relief that led to belief. Russia, beaten already in the group stages, were easy opponents in the semifinal and then Germany were defeated 1-0 on a sublime pass from Xavi and a clinical finish from Torres. From losers to winners inside two years. Vicente Del Bosque took over from Aragones after Euro 2008. "Some said it was the worst time to inherit the squad, it was the best," he would later say. Now they were winners, under the guidance of the brilliant Del Bosque, Spains integral players took over and their outstanding football brains became the difference. At the 2010 World Cup they lost to Switzerland in the first game but as European champions they didnt think of themselves as flops. David Villa and Andres Iniesta got them into the knock-out stages and against Portugal in the last 16, another tight game, one moment of brilliance was the difference. Iniesta danced outside the box, saw a gap between the channels for Villa to run on to but it was a tad too slow. "I had seen the pass by Andres, meant for Villa, so I just backheeled it," Xavi would say. Villa did the rest. 1-0 Spain. Helped by the brain of the master. It would be 1-0 Spain again defeating Paraguay in the quarterfinals, a game that was far from easy and again won on the field and in the mind. Iker Casillas saved a penalty from Oscar Cardozo but it was not on instinct. Spains intelligence rose again. Casillas recapping the game said; "Pepe (Reina, backup goalie) is obsessed with how the opposition takes penalties, with his help I knew he would go that way." Reina added: Cardozo, in tight matches, always went to his safe side." Spain would win 1-0, again led by Iniesta and finished by Villa, to finally get beyond the quarterfinals. Through their brilliance on the field and their preparation off it they were knocking down barriers past Spanish teams fell over. "We broke old ways of thinking (that day), that we were inferior to others," said Del Bosque. The semifinal against Germany was equally as tight. Spain controlled the game, showed Germany what they needed to do to improve, but they still couldnt score. Xavi recalled: "At half-time Puyol said we had taken three or four corners already and said if you put it near the penalty spot, then we could cause problems." In the 73rd minute at Durban that day, Xavi produced another stunning assist in a major game, and Puyol did exactly what he said. 1-0 Spain. Another victory won by their brilliance on and off the pitch. By now Spain were easily the best team in the world. They just needed a game to prove it. And 116 minutes. Iniesta, fittingly, delivered the knock out punch and Spain were champions of the world. They had conceded fewer goals than any previous winner. They had changed the game and set the standard. Since losing to Sweden almost four years earlier they had trailed just five times, none more than 46 minutes, losing just once to Switzerland. Qualifying for Euro 2012 was much the same. They went down a goal to the Czechs but came from behind to win, as they always did. They were huge favourites for Euro 2012 despite star striker Villa being ruled out injured. Del Bosque used it as an opportunity to try something new. The great innovators, who were being copied by everyone - after all, winners are always imitated - were changing their identity again. Fabregas, as a false nine, scored three minutes after Italy opened the scoring in the first game and Spain would never trail again. The false nine gave them great mobility, dropped deep, controlled the space, and stopped the opposition starting transitions. France were destroyed in the quarters, and then came another tight game with Portugal. 0-0, time for penalties. Del Bosque recalls the moment as easy as many of his players wanted to take one. "We made one late switch, replacing Iniestas order with Fabregas, because he wanted to take the last one, remembering four years earlier." Intelligence once again coming to the fore. Fabregas scored the final penalty and Spain went on to crush Italy in the final, again with Xavi starring with two more brilliant assists in a monumental match. Spain were accused of being boring throughout that tournament but this team was a team to watch with a smile on your face; not with frustration. They had made something very difficult look easy, had produced ball treasurers and space invaders that forced their opponents to re-think their own styles. Major tournaments like the World Cup care little for reputations; they create them. And in a knock-out tournament, where one game, one mistake, one decision can change a game it was Spain that dominated three of them in a row. During that, they not only changed their own reputations but they changed how the game was played. A decade before their success it was thought that players below six feet tall were not strong enough to deal with physical demands of the direct play that was so evident in the modern game. Then came the little masters from Spain. Their place in football history is secure. Yes, they were successful but they were also pioneers led by true footballing greats. Greats like Iker Casillas, a magnificent goalkeeper and captain who united a team divided by Barcelona and Real Madrid and no longer tolerated the antics that held the team back. Greats like Carles Puyol, a man who was never physically gifted to play at the highest level of his profession but who was a winner and who read the game brilliantly. Greats like Xavi Hernandez, simply one of the best players to play the game, and arguably the best player Spain has ever produced. The true conductor of the orchestra, the cleverest of all of midfielders, whose tactical awareness and vision we should talk about for the rest of our lives. Indeed, it isnt just Xavi that we should recount stories about. We are key witnesses; the guardians of history and in years to come will often be able to tell generations to follow just how this Spain team were. That book closed on a raucous night at the Maracana on Tuesday. It was not the death of tika-taka, far from it, instead it was simply the end of a team thats core players struggled to still play together. Many of their core players were off form and they were not a team built to play from behind against talented teams. From that loss in Sweden in 2006 to the start of this World Cup, the World and European champions had trailed in just seven of 54 competitive matches, winning 47 of them and losing just once. Chasing a game against a top side, their pivot of Sergio Busquets and Xabi Alonso struggled for the second straight game. Casillas, past his prime and not sharp could do nothing. Xavi, dropped, watching on the bench was powerless. It was a sad ending to a wonderful chapter in the sport. Sure, Spain will come again. At 30, Iniesta must surely delight many a neutral who desires to see him play in another World Cup, and legitimate world class players like Gerard Pique, Sergio Ramos, Sergio Busquets and David Silva will not be going anywhere. They will be joined by many young stars that they have coming and it will not surprise anyone to see this team win another major tournament in the next decade. However, theyll never be like they were. Our parents had Brazil 1958-1970 and we had Spain 2008-14. We should never forget them. nfl jerseys china . The Bulls sent forward Luol Deng to the Cavaliers for Bynum, who was suspended by Cleveland for conduct detrimental to the team on Dec. jerseys from china . The team of Lars Nelson, Daniel Richardsson, Johan Olsson, and anchor Marcus Hellner cruised to victory in the 4x10 km event, winning in a time of one hour, 28 minutes, and 42. http://www.cheapauthenticjerseysnflchina.net/. Its the fourth meeting of the season between these teams with each game being decided by a single goal. wholesale nfl jerseys .Y. -- For Bills safety Jairus Byrd, there was nothing like the sight of watching Jets backup quarterback Matt Simms trot out on the field early in the fourth quarter Sunday. wholesale jerseys . - Country singer Vince Gill and Kristen Laviolette have been appointed to positions on the Nashville Predators Foundations board of directors.I always enjoy going over the baseball transactions every day just to follow the career paths of players or coaches, or even managers, I may have dealt with in the past. The other day, one name in particular caught my eye: Roy Howell signed on to be the manager of the Seattle Mariners Triple-A farm club in Tacoma. Of course, I had to make sure, it was the Roy Howell I was thinking of and it turns out it was. Roy Lee Howell came to the Blue Jays in their very first season in 1977. He had the fiery red hair and, later, the beard to go along with his gamer personality. Howell, a third baseman by trade, was the fourth-overall pick of the Texas Rangers in the 1972 draft. In the spring of 1977, he lost the Rangers third base job to longtime Rangers star Toby Harrah. Pat Gillick quickly pounced and pulled off his first significant in-season trade in franchise history on May 7 of that year, getting Howell in return for pitcher Steve Hargan, infielder Steve Mason and $200,000. Howell never had great numbers, in fact, his batting average peaked at .316 in 1977 and his best production year was 1979, when he 15 homers and knocked in 72 runs. But that first year with the Jays, he had a game for the ages at Yankee Stadium, no less. Howell slugged a pair of home runs, two doubles and a single, driving in nine runs as the Blue Jays came up with, by far, their biggest victory of their inaugural season pummeling the Yankees, 19-3. Those nine runs batted-in in a game is still a franchise record. Remember that 1977 was the year the Yankees won their first of back-to-back World Series. Howell spent four years with the Jays, then moved on as a free agent to the Milwaukee Brewers and finally to the San Francisco Giants. He came into managing late. Only three years ago in 2011, he became the skipper of the independent Pennsylvania Road Warriors of the Atlantic League. After that, he worked his way up in the Mariners organization as a hitting instructor. He wasnt actually supposed to be the skipper at Tacoma this year, but then fate stepped in. John Stearns, who was coaching on the Ms big league staff had to step down for health reasons. Rich Donnelly, a long time Major League coach, who had just been hired at Tacoma was promoted to Seattle to replace Stearns and, just like, that Howell, at age 60, was the new manager of the Rainiers. I looked back at that 1977 Blue Jays roster and its interesting, if not ....., how many got involved in coaching or managing after their playing days were done. The most prominent include Alan Ashby, who went on to become an even better broadcaster, Phil Roof, Ernie Whitt, whos managed the Canadian mens team among others, Canadian Dave McKay, who worked for many years in Oakland and St. Louis with Tony LaRussa. I counted nine in total, including Doug "tthe Red Rooster" Rader, who had big league managerial stints with Texas, the White Sox and the Angels.dddddddddddd Rader was also a coach on LaRussas staff in 1992, when they lost to the Blue Jays in the ALCS. Who knows? Maybe in the next couple of years Roy Howell will get his Major League shot. - Drew Hutchison will be starting for the Blue Jays Friday afternoon at Dunedin against Clay Buchholz and the Red Sox. If Hutchison continues to pitch the way he has this spring and holds his own against the BoSox, you can pretty much guarantee he will make the opening day roster as the number-four or five starter. Ricky Romeros big test is Tuesday at Lakeland against Detroit. Though Ricky has pitched well in two extended relief outings this spring, this will be his first start where he should face predominantly Major League hitters. If he gets through the outing unscathed, he will definately be in the conversation for the fourth or fifth starters slot. - The other day, a Tampa Bay Rays prospect by the name of Jeremy Moore crashed a monster home run off Marcus Stroman over the "batters eye" in dead centre field at Dunedin and drew the praise of skipper Joe Maddon. I wanted to learn a little bit more about Moore, so I did a little digging. He was a sixth-round pick of the Angels in 2005, a speedy outfielder who could handle all three positions well. Though he seemed to be progressing well through the minors, he was bothered by a bone spur and other issues in his hip. That seemed unusual for somebody so young, but doctors felt the beatings he took as a four-sport star in growing up in Louisiana, including football, had done the damage. Moore ultimately had to undergo hip surgery at age 24, though, thankfully, not hip replacement surgery like Bo Jackson. Moore missed the entire 2012 season before signing a minor-league deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers. After batting .211 with seven homers and 31 runs batted in last season in his comeback year, the Rays saw enough in him to sign Moore in January. Though he may be a long shot to make the Tampa Bay opening day roster, he has hit four homers this spring and has the versatility the Rays covet. Impressing Joe Maddon doesnt hurt either. Jeremy Moore is the kind of player you really pull for. - Andrew Marchand of ESPN New York pointed out that the Blue Jays could be on hand in New York for "Derek Jeter Day." Sunday, September 21, the Blue Jays are in New York and that is the Yankees final Sunday home game of the regular season. Nothing is official yet, but the Yanks did hold "Mariano Rivera Day" on the final Sunday of last season. So there is a chance, the Blue Jays will be part of the grand farewell of one of the Yankees all-time greats. Cheap NFL Jerseys Wholesale Jerseys Wholesale NFL Jerseys Jerseys From China Wholesale NFL Jerseys Cheap NFL Jerseys Cheap Jerseys Cheap NFL Jerseys China ' ' '