Spain vs. Honduras World Cup Game Preview and Pick

Spain vs. Honduras Ellis Park Stadium, Johannesburg South Africa 10 AM EST Monday June 21, 2010 on ESPN
by Jason Green of Predictem.com

Match Odds: Spain 1.15 / Honduras 17.00 / Draw 9.00
Over/Under: 2.5 goals
Moneyline: Spain -1000 / Honduras +2000 / Draw +700

In a win or go home match for both teams on Monday afternoon Spain faces Honduras in a Group H match up. Spain was not only favored to win Group H, but they also had the best odds to win the whole World Cup. However, they were beat by Switzerland in their opening round match, which is, by far, the biggest upset in a World Cup that has been full of them so far.

Honduras is the weakest team in Group H and they also lost their opening round match. They are HUGE underdogs in this match, but they have some hope as the Swiss were also huge underdogs and they beat Spain.

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In their opening round matches both on June 16th Spain lost to Switzerland 1-0 and Honduras lost to Chile 1-0.

Both of these teams have 0 points after their losses and the loser of this match will not be advancing to the knockout phase.

In the match against Chile Honduras was dominated in terms of time of possession (64% to 36%) and were out-shot 22-7. If Honduras is going to have any chance in this match they cannot allow the Spanish to control the ball the whole match and they have to pressure them on defense. Honduras did play solid defense and they will have to do that against Spain, who have a good offense even though they went scoreless against Switzerland.

Spain absolutely killed Switzerland in the time of possession battle (74% to 26%) and had 16 more shots (25 to 9), but the Swiss simply great defense. The Swiss D thwarted the great Spanish front line and Spain can regain some confidence by scoring an early goal against Honduras.

Honduras does not have a great offense, so they will look to score off the counter-attack. They not only were held scoreless in their opening World Cup match against Chile, but they also did not score in their last 3 tune-up matches.

Spain Recent Form:
6/16/2010 Spain 0 Switzerland 1 (World Cup)
6/8/2010 Spain 6 Poland 0 (Friendly)
6/3/2010 Spain 1 South Korea 0 (Friendly)
5/29/2010 Spain 3 Saudi Arabia 2 (Friendly)

Honduras Recent Form:
6/16/2010 Honduras 0 Chile 1 (World Cup)
6/5/2010 Romania 3 Honduras 0 (Friendly)
6/2/1010 Azerbaijan 0 Honduras 0 (Friendly)
5/27/2010 Belarus 2 Honduras 2 (Friendly)

Spain's David Villa looked out of sync against Switzerland and played poorly on his line, especially in the first half. He was the top scorer in the 2008 European Championships and he will have to find his offensive magic and I think he will do that and score at least one goal.

Spain's head coach used a one-striker formation in the match against Switzerland and it obviously did not work. Look for Spain to use a 4-4-2 formation in this match to try to generate some more offense. Also to kick-start Spain's offense I think Fernando Torres will start as one of the strikers.

Honduras midfielders Winston Palacios and Amado Guevara will look to play good D in this match, but they also have to make it so Spain kills them in the midfield, as if they do not Spain will have a ton of offensive opportunities.

Honduras' G Valladares played decent in the loss to Chile and will have to play awesome in this match. He will not keep a clean sheet, as Spain's offense will come alive in this match and score at least a couple of goals.

The longer that Honduras can keep Spain from scoring the more of a chance they will have to win, as they will gain confidence and the Spanish will press.

Jason's Pick: The loss to the Swiss was a major shock, but the Spanish will make sure another big upset does not happen, as they will win this match. Spain will show how good their offense is by winning this match by a score of 3-0.

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