Pau Torres plays 90 for Spain in the Olympics and Villarreal challenge Lyon in a friendly

Pau Torres played all 90 minutes next to Eric Garcia in the CB pairing for Spain as they drew Egypt 0-0 in the opening match of the Olympic Games. This is an extremely disappointing start for Spain in the tournament, especially when you look at the familiar names in the starting XI. Olmo, Oyarzabal, Asensio, Pedri, Merino, Ceballos, Torres, Garcia, Simon... there’s no way this lineup should have failed to score. In the other match in the group, Australia beat Argentina 2-0 and they are who Spain face next.

In Villarreal action, a far livelier game is going on as I type between Villarreal and Lyon. The score is 2-2 at halftime, with Moi Gomez and Boulaye Dia bagging the goals for us and Karl Toko Ekambi getting one for Lyon just before the half. Of transfer interest to some, Moussa Dembele started for Lyon in this one, while we put out Asenjo, Pena, Albiol, Mandi, Pedraza, Nikita, Coquelin, Capoue, Moi Gomez, Yeremi, Dia.

I’m glad to see Dia get off the mark, hopefully it translates well into the season. There are certain types of opponents that Paco and Fer just aren’t the right profile to go up against and I think Dia, at least from a style perspective, can give us something that looks a bit different. Nikita that you see on the roster above is Nikita Iosifov who will be assigned to the B team and who played last season for Lokomotive Kazanka Moscow.

I haven’t been able to catch the match today.... to be honest I kind of hate preseason. I get why it’s necessary but I’m always paranoid about guys getting hurt and overanalyze everything.