Winning a World Cup is not about being the best team in the world. It’s about raising your game two or three times over seven matches one summer every four years. On the flip side, it doesn’t matter if you really are the top side on the planet, either. You still have to suffer like everyone else.
Of the four semifinalists in South Africa, just one, Holland, has won all five games in regulation time. Uruguay has won three and drawn two. And the two nations tipped by most to win it all, Germany and Spain, both lost once in the group stage.
“The best is yet to come,” Spain coach Vicente del Bosque said after the 1-0 quarterfinal win over Paraguay Saturday. “Today we again did not play very well, but we showed that we have the resources to take on anyone, including Germany.”
Del Bosque presides over arguably the most talented squad in the World Cup and certainly among the four left in the competition. In taking Spain into the final four he has matched the country’s best-ever result. But now he has to deal with something “La Roja” has not faced in a long-time: expectation.
Spain’s World Cup history can be compared to a golfer who makes his debut on tour by shooting three-under par and finishing near the top of the leaderboard, only to fail to make the cut for the next 30 years. It reached the quarterfinals in 1934, controversially losing a replay to eventual champion Italy. It returned 16 years later – following the Spanish Civil War and World War II – and finished fourth, becoming the only country not to lose to Uruguay, the eventual winner.
You could almost imagine at that point Spanish football honchos thinking to themselves this World Cup thing would be a piece of cake. Particularly since a Spanish club, Real Madrid, was easily the best in the World throughout the 1950s. But Spain failed to qualify for another World Cup until 1962. Indeed, from 1950 to 1986, when it reached the quarterfinals, Spain either failed to qualify (four times) or was eliminated early. Things have improved since then, with three quarterfinal finishes. But it wasn’t until Spain won the 2008 European Championships that you felt the nation was finally punching its weight.
Opinions vary about why it took so long. But most would cite the dominance of club soccer (Barcelona and Real Madrid are two of the biggest in the world) as well as enduring regional nationalism from the Basque Country to Catalunya, which often has robbed the national team of passion and support. (After the Euro 2008 final, when Xavi, Catalan born and bred, draped himself in the Spanish flag, it carried plenty of symbolic weight.) Yet perhaps the biggest hurdle was psychological: Spanish players had grown up with the notion that La Roja was about choking and underachievement, unlike their club sides.
Having shed that complex, Spain entered this World Cup with a different one: the pressure of being overwhelming favorites, alongside Brazil. When the Swiss upset them in the group stage it could have signaled an unraveling under the burden of expectations. But to Spain’s credit, it held on.
“Losing to Switzerland was possibly good for us, because it reminded us that we can lose games too,” Xavi told Spanish reporters last week. “And, by coming back, we showed we can rebound from adversity.”
And that’s what Spain has done, winning each of the next four games. Performances have been more efficient than entertaining. On several occasions it took a strong finish to make up for a slow start.
Some of this has to do with the fact that Fernando Torres, the star striker, has had a very disappointing World Cup. Torres has substituted before the hour mark in each of the past three games and it’s no secret that Spain looks more fluid without him. Given the quality of the supporting cast and the fact that David Villa has kept up his consistent goal-scoring despite being deployed wide to make room for Mr. Torres, Spain has gotten away with it.
It has also managed to mask some of its other deficiencies. In particular, the back four – where Carles Puyol has lost a step and rightback Sergio Ramos is much more of a force going forward than defending – has looked vulnerable.
Del Bosque has looked to protect by playing two holding midfielders – Sergio Busquets and Xabi Alonso – as a shield in front of the defense. But this has come at the expense of creativity and incisiveness in midfield. And there remains the enduring problem of having three outstanding, creative playmakers best suited to central midfield, but a formation that can only accommodate one. Xavi has gotten the nod in the middle, with Andres Iniesta shunted to the wing, as often happens when the two play together in Barcelona, and Cesc Fabregas morphing into second-half super-sub.
Of course, having an overabundance of options is the kind of problem most World Cup coaches would love to have. And you do get the sense that this team is just on the verge of turning the corner, bringing its results in line with its performances. Provided it walks the fine line between keeping the memory of past underachievement under wraps and not getting carried away with the knowledge that in 180 minutes it could be crowned champion of the world.
(This article is provided by NewsCore, which aggregates news from around News Corporation.)