Most every member of Spain’s 2008 European championship team points to June 22nd of that year as when it all turned around for them. On that day, Spain defeated Italy on penalty kicks in the event’s quarterfinals, overcoming one of their longest-standing bogeymen, and celebrated the win as fervently as they would a week later, when they beat Germany for the title. That win over the Azzurri started Spain’s transformation from chronic underachievers to champions, eventually becoming the international model for stylish, efficient soccer dominated by short passing and creative midfield play.
The visceral emotion of that match still comes through when one re-watches it today, though the reality is that most of the match was tense in a leaden way, and largely devoid of highlights. Italy was forced to bunker with Andrea Pirlo, their creative force, suspended for the match, and Spain was clearly fighting their own fears as much as the opponent. You’d be hard-pressed to show this match to someone new to international soccer today and get much of a reaction on one of the best international sides, unless they were a psychology major adept at reading body language.
The match from that Euro 2008 tournament that truly foreshadowed Spain’s world-beating flair and notoriety was actually the next match, a 3-0 semifinal victory over Russia. Until that match, essentially all the meaningful Spanish goals had been scored by their two starting strikers, Fernando Torres and David Villa. After a scoreless first half during which Villa left in the 34th minute due to a hamstring injury, Spain broke through with a dynamite Andres Iniesta cross to a darting Xavi Hernandez in the 50th minute, a superb Cesc Fabregas chip to backup striker Guiza in the 73rd, and then another perfect Fabregas layoff to David Silva for the clincher in the 82nd.
Spain were aided by a Russian team that played too openly, but the sight of diminutive midfielders running rampant, bewildering the defense with constant movement and team shape-shifting, making the pitch (and, soon, the world) theirs was indelible. As Spain prepare to defend their World Cup trophy in Brazil in a week — now older, wearier and seemingly more striker-less than ever before — those peak moments of positionless anarchy within a highly structured template of play remain the high water mark for which they strive .
Spain’s Euro 2008 triumph was steered by Luis Aragones, who recognized after an abortive 2006 World Cup campaign that he had to shift the style of his team away from the old La Furia values and work to the strengths of what he told Graham Hunter (from his book “Spain: The Inside Story of La Roja’s Historic Treble”) was “…a one-off generation. Everything was against me at times, except the fact that I had such a wonderful team.” As former Argentina and Barcelona coach Luis Menotti noted in a famous quote: “In the end…Aragones decided to be a bullfighter and not a bull”.
Spain’s evolving play and stature on the world stage grew exponentially with the World Cup victory in South Africa in 2010 under Vicente Del Bosque, followed by a repeat European championship in 2012 in Ukraine. This unprecedented international championship treble coincided with Barcelona’s ascent under Pep Guardiola, whose commitment to attacking football, creative midfield play and relentless experimentation revolutionized club football. A good core of Barcelona players have formed the heart of the Spanish side through the three championships, which has meant possession-based football and strikerless systems became more widespread, more emulated, and the subject of much debate.
Additionally, the success of the Spanish national team drew attention to the enlightened youth development practices that produced so many of the current national team players. Hunter has an entire chapter in his book on how the Spanish Football Federation, using a network of coaches and scouts, annually select 55 14- and 15-year-olds for the Under-15 age group (and a similar number for Under-16, Under-17 and Under-18 categories). The Under-19 and Under-21 groups work with a smaller pool of 33 to 40 players. The selected players, regardless of club affiliation, are required to spend 3 straight days a month in a national academy just outside Madrid, training, taking classes, and learning a code of conduct.
As a result, virtually every member of Spain’s European and World Cup championship teams in the last six years has come through this youth system, and most have won trophies as members of Spain’s youth teams. An obvious advantage to this infrastructure is the ability to inculcate values, style and (not to be underestimated) friendships and a sense of togetherness that can smooth over club rivalries and strengthen commitment to the national team. From Xavi and Casillas’ long-standing friendship rooted in their first experience with the Under-17 World Cup team in Egypt in 1997, to the current friendship between Barcelona’s Gerard Deulofeu and Real Madrid striker Jese Rodriguez built through their U-19 title run in 2012, player relationships have significant, tangible benefits in building a cohesive national team.
Since the 2010 Spain World Cup victory, Spain has won two U-19 and two U-21 championships, starring players like Deulofeu, Jese, Isco, Alvaro Morata, Thiago Alcantara, David de Gea, Iker Muniain, Juan Mata, Koke and Javi Martinez. Youth development isn’t always linear and projecting achievement for young players is tricky, but watching these impressive Spanish youth teams regularly over the years has been easy on the eye.
Combined with the club academies in Spain which also enjoy a strong reputation, youth development is good enough that Spain’s players get chances with their clubs early and often. Some of this, to be fair, is a result of the talent drain from La Liga as the Premier League acquires more senior Spanish players, but the ability of Spain to produce so many players capable of logging significant minutes for clubs in the top half of the table (as opposed to England, where many players are loaned to lower divisions) speaks to a successful system that gives players opportunities and optimizes the ability of the best ones to succeed — for country and club.
A three-time international champion led by one of the most respected coaches in football at both the club and international level, and a youth development system that is a model for other countries to follow. What’s not to like? As it turns out, as good as the Spanish players and the youth system are, the business of replenishing golden generations isn’t quite so simple.
You can have a model organization for club and country and the finest individuals in sport, but these are still people we’re talking about — people who get tired, get hurt, deal with club politics, get older, and whose pedigree and achievements ensure that other teams will do everything possible to knock them off the pedestal. As Spain’s (and Barcelona’s) players accumulated more mileage and faced increasingly prepared opponents, matches became more labored and possession goes nowhere.
Against a climate of ludicrous expectations, modest achievements (narrow wins or draws) are treated like defeats, defeats (Spain’s loss to Brazil in last summer’s Confederation Cup final and Barcelona’s 7-0 two leg trampling by Bayern Munich in the Champions League) treated like the end of an era and evidence of a bankrupt style. It’s one thing to experience a dip in play, another to be accused of betraying an entire country and philosophy.
Spain is still gifted with a core of special players, and a coach in del Bosque who tunes out media noise and pessimism like few others can. He always has had a more pragmatic approach than Barcelona: the infamous double pivot of Sergio Busquets and Xabi Alonso in midfield produced seven knockout matches without conceding a goal across the World Cup in 2010 and Euro 2012, though media and some players (most notably Xavi) have long argued the approach is too defensive. Del Bosque nevertheless commands substantial respect in the locker room for his ability to manage players and their respective club conflicts and egos.
This ability to finesse egos and the occasional tactical shift will be put to a huge test in Brazil. Many expected that del Bosque would add some younger players and possibly try them in different roles. But the final 23-man squad for Brazil features 16 players from the previous World Cup, and quite amazingly, has retained Fernando Torres and David Villa, strikers who were there for Spain when the run started in 2008, but whose best days are way behind them. Among the recent wave of younger Spanish stars, Bayern’s Thiago Alcantara was the best bet to earn a spot and a significant role, but his knee injury unfortunately kept him out. Del Bosque decided against adding young players who had strong seasons for their clubs, like Isco, Ander Iturraspe, and Dani Carvajal.
The result is a squad that is the most heavily-capped in the tournament (averaging 55 appearances per player), has the lowest number of different club teams represented, but has the most players at Champions League clubs, according to MatchStory. This is all good, in theory, to have a team with a style highly identified with one or two clubs, and with substantial international and high-level club experience.
The flip side of this argument is that a squad that has won this much and expended energy in so many high-level tournaments will be fatigued, possibly lacking in motivation, and even a little stale. The most interesting wrinkles that could be employed by Del Bosque to counter this involve the core of Atletico Madrid players on the roster — especially Diego Costa and Koke — as well as Javi Martinez from Bayern, who has been underutilized to date. But the coach may be limited by Costa’s questionable health, and veteran players like Xavi and Xabi Alonso may resist having their traditional roles reduced or supplanted.
Despite rumors that del Bosque is enamored with the Atleti players because of the effort they put into a historic season for their club, and the hunger they have relative to their teammates, he may decide that injuries (Fabregas, Alonso) kept his squad from delivering a proper effort at the Confederations Cup last summer, and that the core group deserves another final chance this summer with few changes.
Observing the full flowering of a unique generation of Spanish soccer — both at international and club level — over a period of seven years has been special. But rather than risk too much with renewal as the edges fray, ultimately Del Bosque has chosen to go with the bulk of the golden generation that got him to this point in the first place. Soccer fans will have to wait until 2016 (or later) to see if another golden generation can emerge for Spain to match this one, and those rooting for Spain in Brazil will hope they can make one last leap to place themselves on an even higher pedestal in history, at the home of the original kings of football no less.
The odds are not with them, but no matter what, Spain will go down with those that brought them there.
@bandwagonknick is a freelance writer, photographer, and soccer and basketball obsessive based in Massachusetts. He has written extensively about NBA and the New York Knicks.
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