Spain Utterly Destroys New Zealand

This just in -- Spain's national team is pretty good.

Sunday in Rustenburg, South Africa, Spain opened its Group A campaign in the 2009 Confederations Cup with a 5-0 obliteration of New Zealand. This was a mouse vs. a steamroller. Spain, the reigning European champions, probably could have picked its final score and after the way it started, the final score line looked closer than the game actually turned out.

Liverpool striker Fernando Torres set the tone early with a hat trick inside of the first 17 minutes with barely breaking a sweat. Shortly after the third goal, the worldwide broadcast went out briefly, probably the only highlight for New Zealand all day.

Cesc Fabregas and David Villa closed out the scoring for Spain, which appeared to take its foot off the gas early in the second half.

As much of a romp as this looked on paper coming in, it might have been even worse once the match begun. Spain did whatever it wanted, as the over matched All Whites basically watched as their meager defenses were torn to shreds on the left flank, beginning with Torres' first goal in the fourth minute. This match was like if you played it on "FIFA 09" on rookie level difficulty -- that's how easy Spain made it look.

Spain, the early tournament favorites, improved their unbeaten streak to 33 games, two short of the all-time International mark set by Brazil in the early 1990s.

Maybe the only downside from the match was the slew of fans disguised as empty seats. Wonder if organizers were happy that the No. 1 ranked team, according to FIFA, drew a sparse crowd on the tournament's opening day? Granted, New Zealand isn't exactly a draw, but the presence of Spain should have put some more fannies in the seats.

And if there's another question, why can't we just fast forward to the June 28th final and let Spain and Brazil duke it out for some pre-2010 World Cup bragging rights. Isn't that what everybody wants to see at the World Cup dry run anyway?

For now, enjoy Torres' hat trick.