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By Martin Samuel at Ellis Park, Johannesburg
Off the mark: David Villa scored a sublime goal to give Spain the lead This was the performance that confirmed Spain's potential to be winners of the World Cup and raised the possibility they could go home within the week. It is a weird one, alright.
Spain murdered Honduras at Ellis Park on Monday night. Had them for breakfast, lunch and dinner, could have won by double figures. But they didn't. David Villa missed a penalty, Fernando Torres missed at least three. It was arguably the most convincing 2-0 victory in the history of the tournament; an annihilation, a walkover. And Spain could live to regret it.
Having lost their first game, they remain vulnerable. Goal difference could divide the qualifiers from those in the departure lounge in Group H.
It is complex but there is every chance Spain could come second, even if they defeat Chile in the final game. And who would they be likely to face? Brazil. So Spain 1 Chile 0, Switzerland 3 Honduras 0 and the 2008 European Championship winners would face the hottest team in the competition in the last 16. Not unthinkable, is it?
For now, let us look on the bright side. Spain were brilliant yesterday, until they got in front of goal. Their passing was sublime, their imagination awe-inspiring. But they could not score.
Star man: Villa celebrates his first-half strike Villa did, twice, but he should have had more - double, probably. Even one of those he did get was a deflection. That came in the 51st minute, Spain's second, the one that should have eased the pressure and opened the floodgates.
Xavi played Jesus Navas in on the right, Torres made a fine decoy run, the ball was cut back to Villa whose shot struck a charging defender and skipped over goalkeeper Noel Valladares.
Within 10 minutes, Navas had been brought down by Emilio Izaguirre and Villa was standing over the penalty spot, awaiting his hat-trick. He missed. How costly that will prove remains t o be seen, but what a shame if it is. The tournament would be poorer without these players.
At the double: The Barcelona star scored his second just after the interval Unlike England, Spain are in South Africa trying to erase memories of 1966. That was the tournament in which they arrived as champions of Europe, lost their first game and were eliminated at the group stage.
Supporters are a superstitious lot and Spain's defeat to Switzerland in the opening match of Group H did not go down well at home. The fact that no World Cup-winning team has ever lost its initial game at the tournament hardly bodes well either.
First things first, though, and Spain's initial problem is getting out of the group, with Chile on six points already and Switzerland hopeful of joining them with Honduras to play last.
Spain's maximum points total is six, too, so there is every possibility this is going to turn into a scoring competition. Their wastefulness in the first half, then, would have been enormously frustrating for coach Vicente Del Bosque. The first one arrived in the 17th minute, a thing of beauty from David Villa, who collected a crossfield ball from Sergio Ramos on the left, burst between two Honduran defenders, skipped round another and, now slightly off balance, still managed to strike a powerful right-footed shot which defeated Valladares and officially announced Spain's arrival at this tournament.
At times it seemed as if Spain were trying to keep pace with their Iberian neighbours Portugal who, earlier in the day, had put seven past a North Korean team whose strength was supposed to be defensive resilience. Honduras have a bit of that, too, but it was more Spain's profligacy that kept the score down.
There had been no respite almost from kick-off and within five minutes, Fernando Torres missed what should, by his standards, have been a hat-trick of first-half goals. Villa, a brilliant foil using every inch of the pitch by drifting left, put in a nicely placed cross and Torres mis-hit it gently on the turn.
A minute later, Villa struck a shot from almost 30 yards that thumped the crossbar.
Sergio Ramos headed over from a Xavi cross, then the diminutive Xavi failed by the narrowest margin to get his head to a ball from Jesus Navas when unmarked six yards out.
It was Torres's failure to deliver that was most curious. He rose alone to meet a Sergio Ramos cross but buried the ball into the turf and, given its nature, over the bar. From the resulting goal-kick, capitalising on a woeful backpass, Torres shot over with spectacular abandon. It was not his night.
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