RIO DE JANEIRO — The question on everyone’s lips is how many goals will Spain, the world and European champions, score against one of the footballing world’s genuine minnows, Tahiti, who are representing Oceania in the Confederations Cup.
Tahiti lost 6-1 to African champions Nigeria in their opening game, and Spain are arguably a slicker outfit, though they are expected to field a revamped line-up for the Group B match tomorrow morning (Singapore time).
Asked how many goals his team would score, Spain winger Pedro’s repeated diplomatic reply was: “I don’t know, I don’t know.”
“It’s true we’re the clear favourites … but all games are tough and you have to play them as such,” he added politely. “For sure, Tahiti will try to make it difficult for us. It’s an important game for us, and we have to respect the opponent. You have to play the game instead of saying we are going to win and score such-and-such number of goals.”
It would not be a surprise, given Tahiti’s scoreline against Nigeria, that Spain as the FIFA top-ranked team would run up a bigger scoreline.
While the 23 Spanish players are regulars at big European club teams Tahiti, ranked 138 in the world, have only one professional player — Marama Vahirua, a striker with Greek first division side Panthrakikos, and the only Tahitian to play professionally outside the island.
Of Tahiti’s 23 players, nine are unemployed — including coach Eddy Etaeta. Others have day jobs as delivery boys, truck drivers, physical education teachers and accountants.
“It’s not a simple game against Spain because they are world champions,” said Tahiti defender Nicolas Vallar. “We will try to do the best ... not to concede more than six (goals).”
The match will be played at Rio’s Maracana stadium that held the final game of the 1950 World Cup with a crowd estimated at between 170,000 and 200,000 though its capacity has been reduced to 78,000.
Thursday’s other match pits Nigeria against Uruguay, and Super Eagles head coach Stephen Keshi is demanding a performance of “greater intensity”. Keshi admitted that Monday’s win over Tahiti was not one out of the top drawer and is demanding a better showing from his wards against the Uruguayans.
“The performance against Tahiti was not as good as the performance we had against Mexico in Houston (a friendly game that ended in a 2-2 draw). Maybe they were thinking Tahiti is not too strong. We have to work on that against Uruguay as we hope to play with greater intensity,” Keshi said. AGENCIES
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