Spain put 10 past Tahiti

The heavily favored Spanish started with a reserve side against Tahiti on Thursday night. Unfortunately for their opponents, Spain's "reserves" included the attacking trio of Fernando Torres, Juan Mata and David Villa, as well as midfielders David Silva, Santi Cazorla and Javi Martinez.

The pregame festivities at the famous Estadio Maracana in Rio de Janeiro included the Tahiti team giving necklaces to the entire Spanish squad. The nice gesture, however, would not prevent Spain from shipping 10 goals past the Tahitian defense, with hat tricks from Torres and Villa.

Just five minutes into the match Torres scored the game's first goal. A low, near-post finish past goalkeeper Mickael Roche came courtesy of a Mata assist.

Surprisingly Spain struggled for nearly a half hour after the Torres goal to find the back of the net. The Spanish looked indecisive at times, unsure of how hard to take the game to their amateur opponents.

But just after the half hour mark the flood gates opened. Spain shipped three goals past Tahiti in eight minutes. Silva, Torres and Villa were the scorers.

Reaching double digits

Any hope Tahiti had that Spain would take their already-kind foot off the gas was squashed just four minutes after the restart by Villa. He and Torres added a goal each not long after, followed by a Mata goal in the 66th minute.

With just under fifteen minutes remaining, Torres surprisingly missed a penalty kick. Visibly frustrated, he barreled downfield seconds later when Spain regained possession and made up for the miss by scoring his fourth goal of the match. The run showed that despite their large margin of victory, Spain had another gear entirely they did not need to use.

A second goal right before stoppage time put the score into double digits and sealed the historic victory for the Spanish.

In the evening's later match, reigning South American champions Uruguay scored a 2-1 victory over the 2012 African Cup of Nations winner Nigeria.