Penalty Prescience

Who knew Cesc was a regular Miss Cleo?

Built in retirement plan: I see a 900 number in your future.

After having a premonition, in which it was revealed to him that he would give Spain victory in a penalty shootout, Fabregas convinced Vincente del Bosque to allow him to take the fifth spot kick, instead of the second, as originally planned.  A line-up that obviously worked much better for Espana than Paulo Bento’s Portugal.

So, in the overall contest between two somewhat petulant former Arsenal players of average height, Fabregas came out on top, keeping Spain’s hope of a third consecutive finals win alive. 

Why Ronaldo shirked from taking his pen earlier is still unknown.  The player claims that Bento decided the line-up, though somehow I remain skeptical of the line-up being the result of some dictatorial determination from the manager.  If CR7 had wanted to take his penalty earlier, he would’ve been granted the opportunity to do so.  Instead, he wanted to hold out for the last spot, when, in reality, we all know that the first and fourth penalties are the most important.  

Note to Ronaldo: you can only get the glory if you take the pen, or, better yet, take your chance to put it away at the end of 90 as Messi would’ve.

But, while we laud Fabregas and discuss Ronaldo, it has been perhaps overlooked that Sergio Ramos’ cheeky take a la Pirlo was the real clincher for Spain.  Taking the fourth kick, he delivered where Bruno Alves faltered and provided Fabregas with the opportunity to secure it for Spain without having to see Ronaldo step up to the plate as it were.  And, on a lesser debated point, was the change up between Alves and Nani for the third kick an intentional ploy to confuse Casillas or just an inadvertent miscommunication of epic proportions?

In any event, Spain will need a more cutting edge to their tiki-totalitarianism against a quite adventurous and attacking Italian side.  To leave it to penalties again, well, would be a waste.