Spain could not quite fill their boots to the extent Portugal had managed in the afternoon, though at least they opened their World Cup account and heed the advice of former coach Luis Aragonés to play more attacking football.
Vicente del Bosque's side certainly created the opportunities to rack up a few more goals, and as David Villa missed a penalty and the chance of a hat-trick midway through the second half it is still possible that Spain may come to regret their profligacy. They may not be able to dominate Chile to the same extent in their final group game, they will need to be much more clinical if they are going to go any way to justifying their status as tournament favourites, and they will need more evidence that Fernando Torres is fully rehabilitated.
With his side needing goals in case Switzerland manage to join Chile on six points Fernando Torres made his first start of the tournament, though Cesc Fábregas, the Spanish Joe Cole, had to be content with a seat on the bench alongside Andrés Iniesta. Possibly encouraged by Portugal's example earlier in the day, Spain set off in a hurry. Torres had stubbed a presentable chance straight at the goalkeeper by the third minute and three minutes after that David Villa crashed a terrific shot against Noel Valladares's bar from more than 20 yards out.
Spain should have gone in front shortly after that when both Gerard Piqué and Sergio Ramos went for a far post cross that the goalkeeper had misjudged. It seemed certain that one of them would score but in jumping and missing Piqué seemed to put off Ramos, who could not keep his header on target.
Whether Spain needed goals or not, Xabi Alonso's attempt from 10 yards inside his own half was decidedly ambitious and hopelessly wide, though perhaps he, like Maynor Figueroa wanted to see if scoring from 60 yards was any easier with the Jabulani ball.
Honduras were not taking all this lying down, and had a chance of their own when Walter Martínez's delicate chip forward gave David Suazo a chance to beat Iker Casillas, though the goalkeeper reacted quickly to close down the striker's space. Seconds later Spain were in front, with Villa contributing a fine individual goal to the tournament's list of memorable scores.
Taking a diagonal pass from Piqué right out on the left touchline, Barcelona's £34m striker cut inside and immediately took two defenders out of the equation, before dragging the ball round Osman Chávez and hooking a shot into Valladares' top corner even while falling to the ground. Xavi himself could have doubled the score two minutes later but heading clearly isn't his forte, and though a perfect cross from Jesús Navas found him alone and not under any pressure in front of goal he contrived to miss the ball completely.
Torres can head the ball, yet when another searching cross from the right, this time from Ramos, gave him an ideal opportunity he made powerful contact but headed the ball straight into the ground. Xavi was running the game by the half hour mark, and Ramos, considering he was notionally operating as a right back, was turning up all over the pitch and at times turning up as a an extra striker.
Another neat passing move saw Navas cross low for Villa, only to see him miscue at the near post, but the striker was fortunate the referee was not looking when he deliberately flicked an opponent on the nose just before the interval.
All the Japanese official, Yuichi Nishimura, saw was overacting and was unable to form a conclusion, though had he seen the raised hand, no matter how slight the blow, Villa would have been in trouble. Spain were well on top by half-time, though possibly rueful that so many excellent opportunities had only brought a single goal. As it turned out Spain did not have to wait too long for their second. A quick break from defence presented them with several options, the best of which seemed to be Villa, waving for the ball in yards of space in the middle.
He shot from the edge of the penalty area and with the aid of a significant deflection off Chávez his drive beat Valladares straight down the middle. Villa will still claim the goal though, as the original shot was on target, just as he stepped up to take the penalty when Navas was caught in the area by Emilio Izaguirre.
A hat trick would not only have been the 50th in World Cup history it would have taken Villa's personal tally to a remarkable 41 goals in 60 games. Unfortunately he spent too much time sending the goalkeeper the wrong way and slid his shot the wrong side of a post, so he stays on 40, someone else will have to score the 50th hat trick, and Raul's all time Spanish record of 44 will last a little longer.
Pique, already bandaged up from the opening game, was in the wars again when he was caught in the mouth by a stray boot, this time appearing to lose a tooth.
Fabregas came on for the last 25 minutes and immediately saw a shot cleared off the line, before Torres, not as sharp as we all know he can be, made way for Juan Manuel Mata. Villa had two more decent chance to score a third, one from a Mata cross from the left, another from a Navas cross from the right, but on both occasions superb last challenges from Figueroa and Mendoza respectively came in at the last second to stop him in his tracks. Outplayed for most of the night, at least Honduras can take some ofv the credit for keepijng the score down.
© Guardian News and Media 2010
