Updated:25/01/2022 00:45h
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During the matches of the handball team, the players run, stop or score. On the bench is the serious and concentrated face, knees bent, of Jordi Ribera who feeds the close-ups with time stopped. Behind them, there is a retinue of professionals who neither score, stop nor direct the match, but without whom it would be more difficult for Spain to be so close to reaching the semifinals in this European Championship.
When the players start to stretch, Juan Caamaño and David Barrufet They’ve been awake for a few hours now. The delegate and the manager of the team work today, but for the future, already thinking of the best possible combination to travel from Bratislava to Budapest in case it is fulfilled on the track today against Poland (3:30 p.m., TDP) and go to the semifinals.
They are attentive in case it is necessary to relate with the sponsors or with the International Handball Federation; or modify the training schedules or indicate an injury to the organization or arrange for Daniel Sarmiento to join the tournament, in less than 18 hours, with a PCR done because Ian Tarrafeta and Joan Cañellas have tested positive for Covid.
They will also be the last to go to sleep, prepared the next day with all the necessary material for training and matches: competition clothing, shoes, paste (the ointment used by the players to secure the ball and not slip), bibs, medical material , food supplementation, physiotherapist stretchers or even the 18 balls (with two more as spares) with which the players train every day. “About 550 kilos of material,” admits Caamaño, delegate of the selection, to this newspaper, excel document and millimetric inventory so that nothing is missing. Even more: «We have a meeting every morning and we even control the places where they can go out and buy what they need at any time: toothpaste, slippers, additional cereals… We anticipate problems that may arise. There are nights that, at most, are three or four hours of sleep. There is another inventory, just as scrupulous: that of the meals that the team eats. “The organization keeps an approved record, but you have to know what the players eat in case there is food poisoning and correct the problem quickly. And the doctor is also on constant alert in case there is any prohibited substance that could affect anti-doping control, “continues Caamaño.
yesterday, neither Emilio Martin ni Francis Daniel Llorente, the physiotherapists, had a rest day. While the technicians Cesar Montes and Jordi Ribera they organized training on the track, they attended to three players in the recovery phase; Ignatius Torrescusa, the physical trainer, kept one of the goalkeepers tense; Dr. Juan José Muñoz was preparing injury reports to send to the Federation for an insurance issue.
On Sunday, the players finished the game against Norway around 10:15 p.m., eight or nine went through the stretchers of Martín and Llorente. It depends on your hands that the body of young people is like new in less than 48 hours and that of veterans as little punished as possible. A European is a month and a half between concentrations and tournament and with matches of maximum demand every two days.
In between, the work of Fermín Iturri, in charge of monitoring and capturing in short videos everything that Jordi Ribera needs to analyze the rival and explain it to the players: «He also records all the training sessions. And compiles the technical and tactical analysis; that is, all the effectiveness data, saves, shots from one side or the other… We arrived with videos of each rival, but it is better to analyze the last games, already in situ. We have all the rivals of the other group cut as if we were going to reach the final, with the possible teams of the semifinals or fifth and sixth place. He also sleeps for a few hours, he goes with three computers… »Caamaño jokes.
But handball is not just numbers. “In fact, they are sometimes misleading. What gives you more data is the individual visualization of the opponent. And for that, Ribera. «From 24 hours, he will work from 16 to 18 every day. It is no coincidence that everything is so clear. He is a tireless worker. He does not reach everything, but he surrounds himself with what for him are the best. Nine years ago, this team consisted of five people. Now we are about ten. The preparation is specific, the videos are exact, instead of one there are two physios…. There is a point of professionalization and it is very difficult for something to escape. Norway or Germany have a technical team of 16 or 17 people, almost as many as players. It is what we have to get to, “he observes.
So that the players continue in their hermetic bubble (“neither walks nor coffee on a terrace, one day after another with group dynamics and board games,” adds Caamaño), Pablo Lozano ensures that the press can have access to all without pricking her. They all form a cohesive group so that the protagonism is only in the players on match days. And these, as concentrated as possible on passes, goals and stops.
«On the track, enjoy enjoying the game… well no. You’re always on the lookout for anything the fan doesn’t see, like a player’s shirt or shoe ripping. When you win, you do feel that there is a reward. And the players thank you very much for your work, ”says Caamaño, pending everything so that only the players are seen.
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