The Confederations Cup, effectively a warm-up tournament for the World Cup, rarely captures the imagination but fans in the United States aren’t lacking enthusiasm for the tournament after their team produced a major upset by defeating European champions Spain 2-0.

Goals from Jozy Altidore and Clint Dempsey ended Spain’s world record run of 15 successive victories and their 35-match unbeaten sequence, a world record streak they share with Brazil. That run has taken Spain to world number one in FIFA’s global rankings.

So a major upset — but just how big a surprise was it?

Our man at the game, global soccer editor Mike Collett, poses the question by putting the U.S’s victory in historical context — North Korea beating Italy in the 1966 World Cup probably takes the prize for this reporter and the fact that the Confederations Cup is a lesser tournament than the World Cup probably weakens the case for this win being among the very greatest upset ever. But regardless of the global-historical rating there is less doubt that, as Mike argues, the win is the biggest for United States since the 1950 shock over England in the World Cup finals.

The U.S have pulled off a few surprises since then, though, and Kartik Krishnaiyer at MLS Talk lists the main triumphs. As Kartik notes, a 3-0 win over Argentina in the 1995 Copa America was a particularly impressive result for a team which had yet to make a real impact in a World Cup. But probably the best U.S result, up until Wednesday, taking into account the importance of the match, was the 3-2 win over Portugal in the 2002 World Cup.

The inevitable question then arises, could this result mark the turning point for soccer in the United States?

Certainly those sceptics who discount the United States as an emerging force in the game solely because they play most of their football against supposedly weak opposition in the CONCACAF region, will be given cause to think again. I’ve long argued that the U.S are at least on a level with the second tier nations in Europe — the Swiss, the Scandinavians, the Belgians, the Austrians and the most of the teams from Eastern Europe and results in friendly games back up that view.

It should also be pointed out that CONCACAF isn’t entirely made up of ‘minnows’ — the likes of Costa Rica, Honduras, Mexico, Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica are, when things are together on and off the field, teams capable of holding their own against most international sides.

So in terms of the credibility and reputation of the U.S team, this win should earn some additional respect for Bob Bradley’s side — especially if it is followed by a decent display in Sunday’s final against Brazil or South Africa.

Whether there is any knock-on effect for the domestic game is another matter entirely. It will take more than a single surprise result to change the habits of American sports fans and people with no interest in the game aren’t suddenly going to start attending Major League Soccer matches because of a win over Spain.

But — and this is where the fortunes of the US national team and those of MLS do intertwine — the result could serve as a wake-up call to those thousands of fans of international soccer, living in the U.S but with little interest in the domestic game. I am talking primarily of the still largely untapped Latin American market which produces impressive television ratings for international games but also of those young fans of the English Premier League and Champions League who just haven’t been turned on to MLS or the US national team.

If Bob Bradley’s team can build on this result, complete their qualifying for the World Cup in style and then make an impact again next year in South Africa, those fans will be tempted to start following the domestic competition much more actively, especially if some of the best American players can be persuaded (financially of course) to return to or stay in MLS.

Until then, don’t bet against some more surprises from this American team. It may lack big names, outstanding talent and be a little short on flair but as they showed against the Spaniards they have determination, solid organisation and impressive fitness — all qualities ideally suited to the specific demands of tournament football.

PHOTO: Jozy Altidore (R) celebrates with team mate Charlie Davies after scoring for the U.S. against Spain in their Confederations Cup semi-final at the Free State Stadium in Bloemfontein, June 24, 2009. REUTERS/Jerry Lampen

Pau Gasol's triumph with the LA Lakers has prompted more articles in the Spanish media celebrating the country's incredible run of sporting success.

Gasol was a vital cog in the Lakers machine this season and joins a long list of Spanish champions in individual and team sports.

Spain's soccer team, after winning Euro 2008, has cemented its hold on the number one ranking by extending its unbeaten run to 33 matches, Barcelona strolled to the Champions League title last month with a humbling of holders Manchester United, Rafael Nadal is the top-ranked men's tennis player and Spain Davis Cup champions, Jorge Lorenzo is joint leader in the MotoGP world championships and Carlos Sastre won the 2008 Tour de France, the third Spanish victory in a row.

"Another success for Spanish sport," Nadal wrote of Gasol on his website on Tuesday. "It's hard to take in everything that we are achieving," he added. "We should be very proud."

"Gasol has passed a new milestone for Spanish sport, even if there are not that many goals left to achieve," said sports minister Jaime Lissavetzky.

Writing in Marca newspaper on Tuesday, columnist Santiago Segurola said the Barcelona Olympics in 1992 were a turning point for the country, changing the way people outside Spain viewed the nation and laying the foundations for today's sporting achievements.

While Spain might not be the strongest sporting nation overall, it was among those that produced the widest variety of champions, almost all in sports with huge media impact, he added.

However, the recent success of athletes like Gasol and Nadal could be a mixed blessing for the team bidding to bring the Olympic Games to Madrid in 2016.

It helps raise the nation's global profile but also serves to underline the relative weakness of Spain in the key Olympic sports of athletics and swimming.

"We are enjoying the luxury but lacking in the basics," Segurola wrote.

Spain's performance at the last Olympics in Beijing, where they came 14th in the medals table behind the likes of Jamaica, Netherlands and Ukraine, underscored their athletes' deficiencies, Juan Bautista Martinez wrote in Tuesday's La Vanguardia.

But at a time of economic crisis, with unemployment soaring and firms closing down, sport had become a kind of motor of society that had helped lift damp spirits, he said. "When everything is going down the tubes, sport comes to the rescue."

Whether or not Madrid pips Chicago, Tokyo and Rio de Janeiro to win the right to host the 2016 summer Games, the elusive dream for many Spaniards remains winning the soccer World Cup for the first time.

If Fernando Torres, David Villa, Xavi and Andres Iniesta maintain anything like their current form, South Africa next year could well be the icing on the cake for this over-achieving nation of 40 million people.

PAU: Los Angeles Lakers center Pau Gasol reaches for a rebound in the 3rd quarter during Game 4 of their NBA Finals series against the Orlando Magic in Orlando, Florida June 11, 2009. REUTERS/Kevin Kolczynski

INIESTA: Barcelona's Andres Iniesta holds the trophy after their Champions League final victory against Manchester United at the Olympic Stadium in Rome, May 27, 2009. REUTERS/Darren Staples

Turks have nicknamed Luis Aragones “dede” or “granddad” since he became Fenerbahce coach last July – at first to convey the respect they’d show a wise and experienced elder, but nowadays to express their fury at a man they view as an incompetent geriatric.

Calls for his resignation have increased since Fenerbahce lost the Turkish Cup to bitter Istanbul rivals Besiktas last week. A victory could have sweetened Aragones’ severance package from his contract, but would no longer have saved his job, Turkish media said.

The 70-year-old Spaniard arrived in Turkey on a high, having just led Spain to victory in Euro 2008, their first major title in 44 years.

But his spell at Fenerbahce has gone from bad to worse. The Istanbul side, Champions League quarter-finalists in 2008, failed to reach the knockout stages of this season’s competition and finished bottom of their group with just two points.

With two matches left of the Turkish league, Fenerbahce languish in 5th, 10 points behind leaders Besiktas, and heading for their lowest league finish since 2003.

Aragones’ gruff manner and often lethargic mood pitchside have won him few friends in Turkey.

Club president Aziz Yildirim has acknowledged fans’ despair and pledged sweeping changes to restore the team’s spirit, and get them back into the Champions League. Aragones’ fate has not yet been officially announced but among rumoured replacements are former coach Christoph Daum, who won two league titles with the club.

PHOTO: Fenerbahce’s Spanish coach Luis Aragones waits for the start of their Turkish Cup final against Besiktas at the Ataturk stadium in Izmir, western Turkey, May 13, 2009. REUTERS/ Murad Sezer

Anyone remember Arsenal’s Steve Morrow being dropped by Tony Adams in the 1993 English League Cup final? Well this guy in Spain got injured all by himself….

This is from our main website.

Real Betis striker Sergio Garcia will be out for a month after injuring his knee while celebrating scoring the opening goal in the 3-3 home draw against Numancia.

The Spain international slid to his knees after netting in the ninth minute on Saturday, and had to be substituted soon after.

The side’s top scorer with nine goals twisted the lateral ligament in his left knee, the club said on their website.

This week’s two World Cup qualifiers between Spain and Turkey have prompted the Spanish media to look back at a dramatic moment in the history of the two nations’ soccer teams.

It came at the end of the last of three matches the pair played in early 1954 to decide which would qualify for the World Cup in Switzerland later that year.

Spain won the first game 4-1 in Madrid but Turkey shocked the Spaniards by winning the second 1-0 in Istanbul. That meant they had to play a decider in Rome, goal difference not being taken into account in the rules of the time.

After the clash in the Italian capital ended in a 2-2 draw, the stalemate had to be resolved by drawing lots and a 14-year-old Roman named Luigi Franco Gemma, the son of an employee at the stadium, was picked to draw one name from the pot.

Adrian Escudero, scorer of Spain’s second goal in Rome, takes up the story:
“We shut ourselves away in the dressing room feeling utterly dispirited, thinking that there was nothing more we could do, that everything had gone so badly that the kid wouldn’t pick our name,” he told Friday’s As newspaper.

“And of course he picked Turkey. The disappointment was tremendous. We felt helpless. It was dramatic.”

As said the Turks invited Gemma to go to Switzerland as their mascot but did not say whether he accepted.

They went on to lose twice to eventual winners West Germany, 4-1 and 7-2, but did manage a 7-0 victory over Korea.

Drawing lots is a highly unsatisfactory way of resolving a qualifying group but one that could make for some great television.

PHOTO: Spain’s Fernando Torres juggles with a ball during a training session near Madrid. March 25, 2009. Spain will face Turkey in a 2010 World Cup qualifier match on March 28, 2009. REUTERS/Sergio Perez

The Spanish press have one question on their minds following Real Madrid’s Champions League humiliation at the hands of Liverpool.

Why has the club that dominated Europe from 1998 to 2002 failed to make it past the last 16 of the Champions League in five years, despite spending (wasting?) tens of millions of euros in the transfer market?

Amid pictures of a tearful-looking Iker Casillas and a jubilant Fernando Torres (the former Atletico icon’s success is a bitter pill for the Real faithful to swallow), the consensus seemed to be that the club’s institutional problems were a big factor.

In Vicente Boluda, Real currently have a stop-gap president following the resignation of Ramon Calderon in a vote-rigging scandal.

Calderon took over from Florentino “Galacticos” Perez in 2006 but was unable to replicate his predecessor’s European triumphs.

The revolving door to the coach’s office has added to the lack of coherence and questions have been asked about the power wielded by some of the club’s longest-serving players, especially Raul, Guti and Michel Salgado.

A comparison with Liverpool is telling: Since Rafael Benitez (a former Real reserve team coach) was appointed in 2004, Real have had eight coaches, culminating in current boss Juande Ramos.

Writing in Wednesday’s El Pais, Jose Samano said elections must be held sooner rather than later so a new president can breathe life into the club.

“Madrid have hit rock bottom,” he wrote. “They have been there for a while on the institutional side and now they have fallen off a cliff in the sporting arena.”

“Objective: win the league” was the message on Real’s website after the Liverpool defeat but even if they manage to haul in leaders Barcelona it will hardly be enough to placate their hugely demanding fans.

Time for Florentino to make a comeback?

PHOTO: Real Madrid players walk off the pitch after their Champions League defeat at Liverpool, March 10, 2009. REUTERS/Max Rossi

A few weeks ago the La Liga title looked a done deal but Juande Ramos has steadied the ship and Real Madrid now find themselves four points behind Barcelona with the two teams still to play each other at the Bernabeu on May 3.

Can Real complete an unlikely comeback?

Vlogonthepitch host Owen Wyatt and Kevin Fylan discuss.

David Beckham was roundly booed when he was booked for dissent in Seville on Wednesday but most of the local fans had their tongues firmly in their cheeks given there is a good deal of affection in Spain for the former Real Madrid midfielder.

His feat in equalling Bobby Moore’s England outfield appearance record of 108 is impressive to the Spanish, whose most-capped non-goalkeeper is Beckham’s former Real colleague Raul with 102, followed by Fernando Hierro on 89.

“Beckham is a real gentleman and definitely one of England’s all-time greats,” said Manuel Conde, 27, an unemployed Real fan from Cordoba.

“He always gives everything in the matches and he’s the complete player. It would have been better if he’d stayed in Madrid,” he added.

“Beckham is very handsome and he is playing well in Milan,” said a beaming Ana Sanchez Bernal, a 20-year-old sports science student from Seville and a striker on a local ladies’ soccer team.

Real-supporting student Fernando Pinelo had a more down-to-earth view of the Beckham phenomenon but was nonetheless full of praise.

“He’s not really a football player, more of a merchandising tool,” the 27-year-old said while sipping a beer in a bar near the Sanchez Pizjuan stadium after Spain’s 2-0 win.

“Maybe as a player he’s not one of the best anymore but I like him as a person,” he said. “He’s always very generous with the fans.”

My former colleague Simon Baskett, who covered Beckham during his four years at Real, once described him as Bobby Moore, Princess Diana and Paris Hilton all rolled into one.

Although he struggled with Spanish, never advancing much beyond his two favourite phrases “impresionante” and “muy bueno,” it seems he is one English visitor to Spain who is widely remembered with fondness.

A great many people, most of whom never saw Bobby Moore play, have decided that it is an insult to his memory that David Beckham will equal his outfield record of 108 England caps if he plays against Spain on Wednesday.

But if Moore , who died in 1993, had been around today you can be sure he would have been the first to sincerely congratulate a fellow gentleman of the game. The Golden-locked hero of 1966 would have recognised much of himself in Goldenballs.

Beckham has been and continues to be a magnificent servant not only to England but to football as a whole.

He did not award himself 107 international caps, he was picked, by a succession of managers. When he was dropped by Steve McClaren in the former manager’s attempt to make a mark after his appointment, Beckham didn’t sulk, complain or sell his “inside story” to the tabloids.

He merely went away, trained hard and played to the best of his ability, until he was recalled. Many ageing superstars over the years have declined to warm the bench of their national side, their egos not allowing memories of their greatest days to be tainted by exposure of their fading talents.

Not Beckham. He has said time and time again that he will never “retire” from international football. He rightly points out that it is the ultimate sporting honour and that he will do anything and everything he can to help his country.

Listen to the likes of Aaron Lennon and Theo Walcott, young guns who have forced Beckham to spend most of his recent England matches on the sidelines.

They cannot say enough in praise of the way he has helped them settle and develop in the national team, all the while knowing that every improvement they show lessens the chance of him regaining a starting berth.

Remember Old Trafford in 2001 when he tore around in a frenzy in one of the all-time - yes all-time - great captain’s performances before applying the coup de grace with his last-gasp free kick to secure the draw against Greece that sent England through to the 2002 World Cup? That is called playing for your country.

He gives generously off the pitch too. Some might not like his celebrity lifestyle but not those touched by his work for UNICEF, not the thousands of youngsters who have been through his soccer schools and not the young fans, most not even born when he made his debut, who ensure Beckham’s name raises the loudest cheer when the teams are read out at Wembley.

True, he has had his lows. The 1998 red card, the broken toes, the penalties, the quarter-finals, and he will never captain England to glory in the World Cup.

But he can still dream of a cameo should they upset the odds in South Africa next year.

Amid the shame and pain, the beers and tears of England over the last 13 years, David Beckham has been a glorious gift to the nation and absolutely deserves to stand shoulder to shoulder with the man who hoisted the Jules Rimet Trophy 43 years ago.

For more blogs on other sports than soccer, check out http://blogs.reuters.com/sport/

Barcelona look unstoppable this season but did Sporting Gijon coach Manolo Preciado tempt fate when he said it was crazy to think La Liga was not already in the bag?

Pep Guardiola’s team swept aside Sporting 3-1 on Sunday to make it 10 consecutive league wins.

After Sunday’s game, when Samuel Eto’o’s double took his tally for the season to 21 and Barca’s right-back rapier Daniel Alves scored a screamer of a third, Preciado was full of praise.

“We came (to the Nou Camp) with the idea of frightening them a little, but it was them that frightened us,” he said. “When you are in the stadium you see the true significance of this team. They are the best in the world. They have everything — fighting spirit, physical strength, attitude, play etc. They were far superior to us. (more…)