Spain: Co-favourites nourish title hopes despite abysmal past failures

If there exists something which can be described as the direct opposite to the successes of the German national team, then it rests with the Spaniards. While the DFB team almost always achieves top honours at FIFA World Cup finals, with a podium finish no fewer than nine times, the best result celebrated by the great European football nation, Spain, is a rather meagre fourth place –and that was 55 years ago (1950 in Brazil). But despite this lack of success in 11 participations since 1934, Spain, currently the sixth-best nation in the world (FIFA World Rankings as of November 2005), are again considered one of the favourites.

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The reason for the indifference with which the very critical Spanish fans judge these failures by their national team, soon becomes clear. Club football has long enjoyed priority on the Iberian peninsula, rewarded by Spanish teams triumphing in European Cup competitions. A total of 20 European trophies have been won by Real Madrid, FC Barcelona, FC Valencia and co. in the past.

When Luis Aragonés took over as national coach in August 2004, Spain had just returned from a miserable European Championship. A 1-0 opening win over Russia, a 1-1 draw against eventual champions Greece, and a 1-0 defeat by Portugal, meant Spain had to head home after the first round. A national disgrace, as in the quarter-final elimination at the 2002 World Cup by hosts South Korea, on penalties. Coach Inaki Saez was forced to resign after intense criticism of his defensive tactics.

The Spanish Football Federation RFEF (Real Federación Española de Fútbol) hired their long-term favourite candidate Luis Aragonés, by buying out his running contract with Real Majorca. Since then, the 67-year-old with the grey hair and the striking glasses, nicknamed “The Wise Man”, has been exploiting his far-reaching powers. He demanded humility from the football millionaires at Madrid and Barcelona: “We will start from the roots again.” He said on the pitch he needed “no artists, but most of all real workers”. Discipline, holding the ball, and initiative are his favourite words.

The players seem to have understood the message. Under Aragonés’ guidance the Spaniards have not lost a single match to the end of 2005, recording 11 wins and seven draws in 18 months. The one weakness of the team made the World Cup qualification unnecessarily difficult. They can assert great pressure, but squander too many chances in front of goal. That weakness led to unscheduled draws in Group 8, with the two against Bosnia-Herzegovina being particularly painful. Thus undefeated Spain could only finish in second place behind Serbia and Montenegro. But in the play-offs against Slovakia, the Spaniards came good, showed their real potential and assured their World Cup place with a 5-1 win and a 1-1 draw.

The currently most promising talent, 21-year-old centre forward Fernando Torres of Atlético Madrid scored most goals (seven) in the qualifiers, while captain Raúl González Blanco of Real Madrid, Spain’s leading international scorer with 40 goals, scored just three. The 28-year-old suffered a major knee-injury in the top league match against FC Barcelona in November that could endanger his participation in the World Cup.

Since EURO 2004 there have been minimal changes in the Spanish team. When he took over Aragonés promised to include more juniors in the future, but there are only a few players in the current squad from the junior teams that won the 1999 World Cup and finished runners-up in 2003. But not all the players are earning their money in the “Primera Division”. Half-a-dozen have been attracted to the British Isles: reserve goalkeeper José Manuel Reina (23), Xabi Alonso (24), Luis García (27) and Fernando Morientes (29) play with Champions League winners Liverpool FC; Asier Del Horno (24) is with Chelsea FC; and José Antonio Reyes’ (22) sporting home is Arsenal FC.

Iker Casillas (24), the brand ambassador of Continental AG, is the undisputed number one goalkeeper. In front of the player from Real Madrid, the three defenders are usually Michel Salgado (30, Real Madrid), the most experienced in the team with 48 caps behind Raúl with 92, Carlos Marchena (26, FC Valencia) and Carles Puyol (27, FC Barcelona). FC Valencia’s captain David Albelda (28) directs the defensive midfield, assisted by the never-tiring runner Xavi (Xavier Hernández, 25) of FC Barcelona. Vicente Rodríguez (24, FC Valencia) is a regular on the left wing, while Joaquín Sánchez (24, Real Betis Sevilla), the youngest player in the Spanish 2002 World Cup squad, is on the right.

There is a regular place now in the attacking midfield for Luis García, who took the fans’ heart by storm with his three goals against Slovakia in the first play-off match. The first alternatives for this position are Xabi Alonso, Alberto Rivera (27, Real Betis Sevilla) and Antonio López (24, Atlético Madrid). The standard attacking duo are Raúl and Fernando “Niño” Torres. Luis Aragonés has a homogeneous, hungry team considered by many as the “insiders’ favourite” for the World Cup title – despite that record of ominous weakness in major tournaments. But the coaching veteran is not bothered by the past. His expressed aim is the final! And his captain Raúl agrees with him: “We never had so many good players as in the last decade. We are travelling to the World Cup to win the title”.