Spain has progressed from the middle of the mess to the medal games of the World Cup. The country’s football association has often kept the team together in different ways.
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Spain, who advanced to the top four in the World Cup for the first time, entered the tournament after a turbulent year. Last fall, 15 players refused the national team invitation as long as Jorge Vilda coach the team.
The players were dissatisfied with Vilda’s team atmosphere, selections, treatment of injuries and training.
Three of the 15 players returned to the national team on the eve of the World Cup. For example, what was considered to be the best topper in the world was still left aside Mapi Leon.
Spain’s tournament started with crushing victories over clearly weaker Costa Rica and Zambia, but According to the New York Times the team was seething.
The Spanish Football Association had chosen the university town of Palmerston North on New Zealand’s North Island as its host. The choice was logical, as Spain would be able to play all their World Cup matches on the North Island until the semi-finals.
The team had also arrived on time. After three weeks, however, the players and their families wanted to move out.
According to the New York Times, the Spanish felt there was very little to do in the evenings in Palmerston North.
Although the first real test was against Japan, the Spanish Football Federation accepted the players’ request. 23 players and 31 team support staff and their equipment were moved to Wellington in the middle of the tournament. In addition, the association tried to provide accommodation for the players’ friends, families and relatives.
According to the New York Times, the solution was logistically drastic and therefore far from ideal from a sporting point of view, but the federation wanted to keep the peace in the national team.
Even before the World Cup tournament, the association had tried to keep the team together with the strength of a bigger background team. For the first time, on-site nutritionists and podiatrists will be involved, for example.
In addition, the players were encouraged to bring family and friends to the venue at the expense of the association: the association paid each player a grant of around 14,500 euros for travel costs to the other side of the world.
The Spanish newspaper El Pais has reported that dozens of parents, relatives and children have sat behind the players’ tunnel in Spain’s games. They have organized things to do in a WhatsApp group, the name of which translates into Finnish as “free trips”.
“You don’t have to be best friends with a teammate”
According to The Athletic many of the team’s players did not talk to each other at all for three weeks before the World Cup. That’s when Spain started preparing for the Games.
One of the people who started the boycott email, topper Ona Batlle summed up the team’s situation before the games so that the players know why they are in the tournament.
– You don’t have to be best friends with a teammate to work together on the field, Batlle said.
According to The Athletic, it was precisely the fact that the team understood that, despite all the contradictions, they were able to commit to a common goal.
Japan still beat Spain 4–0. The loss was the country’s worst in 11 years.
However, Spain performed convincingly against the Netherlands. The team had been so focused that there was no The Athletic by noticed at all the earthquake in Wellington before the match.
– The earthquake today was Spain, Vilda laughed after the match.
Spain has already been talked about as a championship candidate before the Games, but the team’s volatile situation has made experts think.
Now, however, the team has a seam to make more history. Even the place in the top four of the World Championships was historic. In Tuesday’s semi-final against Sweden, the Spanish women’s national team’s first prestigious final is at stake.
In Tuesday’s semi-final, Spain and Sweden will meet at 11:00. England and Australia clash on Wednesday at 1:00 p.m. will show both matches live on TV2, Areena and the app.