On Sunday, June 9, Spain landed in Stuttgart without making any noise. Those of Luis de la Fuente had chosen one of the resorts most luxurious in Germany, that of Der Öschberghof, a venue that was outside the catalog that UEFA offered to the national teams. When the federal logistics managers set foot in Donaueschingen for the first time, SV Aasen’s three football fields were covered in half a meter of snow. Away from the noise of the Euro Cup in this hidden town in the Black Forest, Luis de la Fuente’s Spanish team has turned the tables, going from not being considered or a candidate for the title, to being a favorite after its dazzling performance in the group stage with nine points out of nine possible.
1- THE BANDS
Nico Williams and Lamine Yamal met through Alejandro Balde, the Barcelona full-back, who had met both of them in the youth teams and at Barça. He introduced them, but it was the ball and the coexistence that has made the two players who have revolutionized the Spanish style of play today inseparable. Companions in games on the video game console, Lamine has provided the freshness, the healthy naivety of the teenager who continues jumping onto the field like someone playing in the schoolyard. His naturalness when facing full-backs like Gvardiol has dazzled in the Euro Cup. He is not in a hurry, he never gets wrinkled and always has everything that happens on the attack front in mind, being a better passer than finisher. “I like playing with Nico because he forces more players to watch him and that gives me more options to play one on one,” he warned in a game analysis that is as simple as it is significant.
If Lamine is the self-confidence, Nico is the electricity. A winger with lime-stained boots raised in San Mamés in the shadow of his brother. The ten dribbles he performed, overpowering the Italian defenders in the second game, marked a record in the tournament and triggered his impact in this European Championship. The crossbar prevented him from making his debut against Italy as a scorer and now he arrives marked as Spain’s great offensive threat. In addition, he acts as Lamine’s older brother, a harmony as natural as it is genuine from which the team will take full advantage because it allows him to alternate it with his classic associative possession game that deciphers defenses by playing from the inside.
Nico Williams: “Great game, we want to do something big” / EFE
2- THE DEFENSE
Spain is the only team that has not conceded a single goal in the group stage. De la Fuente’s men maintain a clean sheet after facing teams as powerful as Croatia and Italy. And that must be attributed to the team’s choral attitude. Something that statistics demonstrates with data. In the first two games, against Croatians and transalpines, Spain had made 35 fouls. 26 of them on opposite terrain! Pressure after a loss has not only become a preventive measure for the team, it is an identity trait that rival players have come to highlight before games. Recovering the ball in the opposite field, with the rival defense out of place, offers a sea of offensive possibilities that the Spanish know how to exploit. The first goal in this Euro Cup, against Croatia, came with a recovery that ended at the feet of Fabián who, taking advantage of the fact that the Balkan centre-backs were out of place, filtered a pass that left Morata alone in front of the rival goalkeeper to open the scoring. Morata is the team’s first defender, just as Unai Simón is the first attacker. The games demonstrate both things.
David Raya flew against Albania to avoid a tie / AP
3- THE ENVIRONMENT
It is rare to see bad faces in this selection, although when there has to be them, there are them. In training Morata, Laporte, Carvajal or Unai Simón have no problem raising their voices and attracting attention to maintain tension. “If there is something in which this team is similar to that of 2008, it is in the atmosphere, in the enthusiasm. Every training session is an opportunity to enjoy being surrounded by great footballers,” confessed Jesús Navas, the last remaining world champion in this team. The Sevilla player has built a very special relationship with Lamine, whom he advises on how to move because before being a full-back, Jesús played as a winger. Navas is asked many times before games about how he experienced some of the historic matches of the World Cup in South Africa, and when the Andalusian speaks, “everyone listens with wide eyes like children who are being told a story,” he confesses. a staff member. The chemistry that has been generated between young newcomers like Lamine or Fermín, and veterans like Carvajal or Rodri, is decisive in explaining the success in managing the group.
Lamine, Nico, Cucurella and Morata shine in Spain’s one-on-one in the group stage / EFE
4- ‘THE GROUP’
The Spain that is in Germany is full of old acquaintances from the lower categories of the national team who have been under the command of Luis de la Fuente. The one from Haro has sacrificed the possibility of using players with more charisma like Sergio Ramos to maintain the balance and low profile of a team in which the team is its strength. Mikel Oyarzabal, Rodri, Mikel Merino, Ferran Torres, Dani Olmo… There is a ‘core’ in the group of footballers who, in many cases, not being undisputed starters in the national team, explain the character of this team. Oyarzabal warned before the tournament: “That team atmosphere is important, but on the field if you have to talk and say something to someone, you tell them. And if he gets angry, then he fixes it. “We have to be friends, but we must not forget that we also have to be competitors for the good of the team.”
De la Fuente and Lamine talk during a Spain training session / PABLO GARCÍA / RFEF
5- A TEAM OF NOMADS
Two out of every three players in this team have played outside of Spain. Footballers who have left very young to see the world and mature like Merino did in Dortmund or Dani Olmo in Croatia. People who have left their comfort zone to learn other cultures, other languages, other customs. David Raya, Dani Carvajal, Jesús Navas, Laporte, Le Normand, Grimaldo, Cucurella, Rodri, Fabián, Dani Olmo, Mikel Merino, Joselu, Morata, Ferran Torres, Ayoze… A very experienced team despite its youth as Mikel Merino explained: “Traveling so much explains why this team is doing so well. We have left our comfort zone and that has made us stronger. I see Spain as a team with substance, a mature team despite its youth because it is carrying out the games in the best way and is solving them. It doesn’t matter who is in front and how they play. “This team is prepared to beat anyone.”
2024-06-27 07:01:22
#reasons #Spain #favorite #candidate
