All the titles that appeared in the Spanish press when the path of the Spanish soccer team until the Euro 2024 final, they predict the worst. Fearsome. Very hard. Unlucky. Painful. The journalistic experts considered that Spain, Luis de la Fuente’s teamhad had very bad luck: Georgiain 1/8; Germany o Denmarkin ¼ and Portugal y France; in semi-finals.
In three games, Spain has two points ahead of Germany, the other better team. What’s more, ‘The Red’ has been the only team to have added nine points in the qualifying phase. Plus, the selection of Nico Williams and Lamine Yamal It has been the only team that has not conceded a single goal. Much more: no one, absolutely no one, has displayed the brilliant, attractive and offensive football of the Spanish team.
There is something that I don’t understand and that I will never understand, even if I am very Spanish: if Spain is the best team in the Euro Cup, why should it be restless, worried, nervous? Why do we have to be afraid? Fear of who? Someone who plays worse than us?
“We Spaniards are like that, we always believe that what others do is better. And no, this team has many tools to beat you, different game proposals and always goes ‘forward’, always takes risks”
And it is, then, when I remember one of the thousands of phrases of Johan Cruyff, who, the day before a Champions League draw, when asked which rival he feared, always said: “If I’m fine, my team is fine, let them worry, let the others worry, who, for sure, won’t want me “It’s our turn in the draw.” That’s how Johan was when he wanted to show the confidence he had in his team and the indifference that the rival that could happen to him caused him. Well, with Spain being as sweet as it is, let others worry.
“Well, we all know what we Spaniards are like. “We always put ourselves in the worst,” he tells me. Kike Sánchez Flores, savior of the last Sevilla, when I call him from Assen (Netherlands) to tell me how he sees Spain. “We are somewhat fearful by nature. Thus, from the outset, we do not trust our own. We always think that we are going to fall in the round of 16 or the quarterfinals, we always believe that what others do is better than ours.”
Luis de la Fuente and Fabian Ruiz / EFE/FRIEDEMANN VOGEL
“The truth is that the selection of Luis de la Fuente “She has earned everyone’s respect, because she is the one that plays the best and the one that has the most variants, alternatives, in her game,” Kike continues. “She has many tools to beat you, she has different game proposals and, of course, she always takes the lead, she always takes risks.”
And, of course, Sánchez Flores celebrates that “Spain has two knives on the wings. That Nico Williamsthat Lamine YamalThey are prodigious, they play wonderfully and, in addition, they are fast and face the rival without fear. It is a pleasure to watch them play. Like Rodri y Fabian in the center of the field. And, on top of that, they don’t give us any chances. Yes, I am very Cruyff: let others worry.”
“Like everyone else, I love Nico and Yamal! They are two authentic wingers, the kind that no longer exist. They play in an old-fashioned way and, as soon as they get the ball, they take on their opponents, run over the ball and their crosses are half a goal.”
“Action and attitude. Very clear idea: go for the game from minute one. Mixture of many things, all of them good,” my other friend tells me, Llorenç Serra Ferrer, from S’Olivaret, its beautiful and charming rural hotel in Alaró (Mallorca). “But how can you not believe in this team, of course! It has been growing with the passing of the games. The team has grown in self-esteem, which is very important in football and in a long competition.”
Serra Ferrer believes that the team is very united, has a great atmosphere and its players are supportive and complicit. “Spain has everything but, above all, two stilettos at the ends. I love Nico and Yamal! Because they play the old way. There are no longer players like that, those who, as soon as the ball reaches them, accelerate and go straight for the goal. Overflow more devilish speed. That, to the rival, is disconcerting, because the opponents are used to danger coming to them when the full-backs go up and, suddenly, two children appear, because they are children, who penetrate any defense and give the pass of death to the center of the area.”
Lamine Yamal and Alvaro Morata in the match against Italy / PATRICIA DE MELO MOREIRA / AFP
But, of course, I make the last call and I start to doubt. Ángel ‘Pichi’ Alonsoan admirer of Johan Cruyff, supports the thesis of ‘Goal prophet’ Of course! And he shares everything that I tell him that Kike and Llorenç have told me. But… Ángel always has a but. “No, no, I love what I have seen of this Spain, but, yes, I have a ‘but’: I want to see how this team behaves, how it reacts, when it finds itself in difficulties, when a match becomes difficult for it.”
This great scorer, historical, veteran and expert television commentator, insists to me, despite his ‘but’, that he loves this team and its proposal, that of always going on the attack, of not locking in, of looking for the rival all over the place. field. “But football is not only that, it is a lot. Football also has moments of suffering, moments of disorientation, moments in which you have to know how to rest, slow down, control the game and the result in another way, with patience. And that is not easy at all. How to come back, these are things that a team must learn on the field, when the difficulty is presented to them in front of them. That is when you really see the teams and this one looks like it. It is. We will see.”
“Let me be clear: I believe in this team and I love their game plan. My only doubt, which is perfectly surmountable, is to see how this team behaves when the first difficulty appears, when the rival, which will not be Georgia, takes the lead on the scoreboard.”
Pichi remembers that against Croatia “we were a delight and very, very effective and, then, against Italy, we deserved a 4-0 or 5-0, because we created a lot of chances. I don’t think Georgia will test us, so when Germany arrives, we’ll talk again. If Germany takes the lead on the scoreboard, I want to see that team overcome that situation.” Ángel says that we are very young and that this magnificent team has not yet found itself on the ropes.
Well, we’ll see, but we’ll see him win. Let others worry.
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2024-06-28 20:30:48
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