On the 11 July 2010, Spain and the Netherlands contested for football’s greatest tournament ultimate prize in Johannesburg, South Africa. In the dying minutes of extra time, with a pass from the boots of Cesc Fabregas, Andres Iniesta scored the goal that meant that Spain were FIFA World Cup Champions.
Since their victory La Roja also retained the European Championship and are heading to Brazil holding the highest-ranked position in the FIFA standings.
Spain will be playing Group B with the Netherlands, Chile and Australia. 
Coach: Vicente Del Bosque
Vicente Del Bosque took over from Luis Aragones after the 2008 European Championship. Since then, Del Bosque became the first, and so far the only coach to have won the EUFA Champions League, the European Championship and the FIFA World Cup. His next goal will be to become the first coach since Vittorio Pozzo to win back-to-back FIFA World Cups.
Del Bosque has been praised by fellow coaches and teammates as an amazing coach but as an even greater human and friend. His greatest challenge will be to manage and balance a combination of young talented players like Koke, Diego Costa and Cesar Azpilicueta with more experienced players that have won nearly everything with La Roja, such as Iker Casillas, Andres Iniesta and Xavi Hernandez.
The Spanish coach has remained loyal to the Tiki-Taka playing style and is set to a 4-3-3 line up. With a sure spot for captain Iker Casillas in goal, followed by Sergio Ramos and Gerard Pique in the centre of the defence. The sides will be covered by Chelsea starlet, Cesar Azpilicueta on the right and Barcelona star, Jordi Alba. The midfield is where Vicente Del Bosque will struggle most to find the starting line-up players. Cesc Fabregas, Xabi Alonso, Andres Iniesta, Javier Martinez, Santi Cazorla, David Silva, Xavi Hernandez, Juan Mata, Sergio Busquets and Koke will have to battle it out to make it into the top 11 squad. The only area where Spain seems to have issues is in the attack, where the minimal participation of Spain most awarded forwards in the past few years, Fernando Torres and David Villa added to the physical complications of Diego Costa and Pedro Rodriguez might cloud the scoring chances for Spain.
Spain qualified for the Finals with only three goals against and were runners-up in the Confederations Cup, in a match where they lost 3-0 against a brilliant Brazil. And since then they have played friendly matches prior to the FIFA World Cup against Bolivia and El Salvador, beating both teams by the exact same score of 2-0.
Key Player: Sergio Ramos
Sergio Ramos at his only 28-years-old has played a monumental part for his country’s national team and his current club Real Madrid, winning the Copa del Rey and scoring two goals in the semi-finals stage of the UEFA Champions League against Bayern Munich, and later scoring the equalizer in the last minute of regular time in the final of the same competition. That goal would lead Real Madrid to a crushing victory of 4-1 over rivals Atletico Madrid, and to becoming the UEFA Champions League Champions.
Ramos seems to be in the best form of his career and is fit, motivated and the first choice to team up next to Gerard Pique as centre back, since the retirement of legend Carles Puyol.
Player to Watch: Diego Costa 
Former Atletico de Madrid and newest player of Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea, Diego Costa became one of the players of the season in La Liga by scoring over 30 goals in all competitions.
Costa had a critical part in his former Spanish team’s success but in the final stages of the season he suffered repetitive injuries in his thigh that kept him away from playing La Liga final match against Barcelona and UEFA Champions League final against Real Madrid.
The ‘Beast’ is hungry for playing time and goals. He played against El Salvador in the last warm-up match for Spain and managed to score one of the two goals for Spain, and he is looking fit and ready for the World Cup.
How Far Will They Get?
Before the crushing success after 2008, Spain struggled to make it through to the quarter finals and always slipped up at this stage, being a disappointment for decades. Before the success in 2010 the best record ever held by Spain took place 64 years ago when they obtained fourth place in the FIFA World Cup also held in Brazil. But nowadays Spain have become a football power and great things are always expected from this team. They will be going into the tournament as the highest ranked team, followed closely by Germany, Brazil, Portugal and Argentina and that makes Spain the team to beat in the coming FIFA World Cup. Spain will play their first match against the Netherlands this June 13, a game that might determine the rest of the Cup for both teams.
