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Torres on fire with fastest hat-trick of career
(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-06-16 08:11
 RUSTENBURG, South Africa: Spain's Fernando Torres was the fans' favorite on Sunday with his name scrawled on banners and printed on replica shirts even before his team played New Zealand in the Confederations Cup. The blond-haired striker then scored a 17-minute hat-trick in Spain's 5-0 rout of the Kiwis in Group A and said he loved the fact that the locals had adopted him and Spain as their favorites. "I would like to thank all the Africans here," Torres said. "It's great. It almost feels like home and it's good to be in a team which is winning fans all over the world. "It is good to have them feel happy now - and also we want to make them happy at the World Cup next year." Named man of the match for his stunning performance, Torres said he had never scored a faster hat-rick in his professional career. "To achieve that for the national team is even better," he said. "But I owe it to my colleagues because they worked so hard. We felt very at ease in the match, the altitude had no impact, it was no problem playing at 1,500m. It was a very good experience." It was not so good, however, for New Zealand coach Ricki Herbert whose team were destroyed by Spain's opening burst of four goals in 24 minutes. "We were a bit tentative for the first 25 minutes against the best team in the world and we got punished for a lot of things," Herbert said. "But we made some changes and things improved in the second half. The guys have taken it on the chin, there was some individual errors but we can come back from that. Luckily with the earlier result in the group, not too much damage has been done yet. "Spain must be the favourites to go on and win the tournament I would think, they have Champions League holders in there and they are the European champions." The Group A victory, Spain's 13th consecutive win, extended their unbeaten run as they look to overturn Brazil's world record 35 matches without defeat between 1993 and 1996. Yet despite them being the world's No 1 ranked team and packed with star names, the Royal Bafokeng Stadium here was half empty, something that will worry FIFA with the World Cup in South Africa less than a year away. Spain opened their account after six minutes when Fabregas slotted the ball to Torres on the edge of the box and he cooly curled his shot into the top right hand corner. It was 2-0 eight minutes later after Villa cut the ball back for Torres who side-footed it past flailing goalkeeper Glen Moss. The Liverpool striker collected his hat-trick on 17 minutes when Villarreal's Joan Capdevila crossed from the left and he outjumped the defence to powerfully head home. It was his second hat-trick for his country - the other coming against San Marino in qualifying for the 2006 World Cup. New Zealand's confidence was shattered as their defence, missing injured Blackburn star Ryan Nelson, was run ragged. With Spain keeping possession and pressing forward, Fabregas got their fourth on 24 minutes with a simple tap-in after Capdevila squared the ball into his path. The only other time the two teams have met was at the FIFA U-17 World Cup in 1997 when Spain won 13-0 and All Whites coach Ricki Herbert looked a worried man in the dugout with another double figure demolition appearing possible. He took off striker Jeremy Brockie, replacing him with Jeremy Christie to shore up the defence, and the tactic worked with the score remaining the same at the halftime whistle. But it didn't stay that way for long with Villa scoring the fifth just three minutes after the restart following a comical miskick from defender Andy Boyens gifted him the ball and the Valencia striker made no mistake. Reuters/AFP (China Daily 06/16/2009 page24) |
