• Debut. Spain has a hard time stretching in the European

The young people call them partners and they accept it, although they are already close to their thirties and have a half-life in the national team. Gonzalo Pérez de Vargas and Álex Dujshebaev have always heard that they are the referents of the generation without a future, that success will forget them when their teammates retire and year after year, tournament after tournament, show that pessimism is just another age defect . Although after the Tokyo Games the Entrerríos, Sarmiento, Morros, Guardiola and company leave, they only contemplate to continue winning medals and perhaps in their illusion they are right. This Saturday, before a whole Germany, both demonstrated that they already lead Spain with the solvency of the veterans and no longer promise, they no longer wait, they already send.

With the 12 stops of the first - chosen best player of the game - and the seven goals of the second, the team got a victory (33-26) that, despite being only in the first phase of the European, puts him one step away from the semifinals . Thanks to the benevolent draw of previous groups, now Spain must only win against the affordable teams that are presented in the second phase and could even afford a defeat against Croatia, the toughest opponent that awaits.

An advantage obtained thanks to a regularity that is already very own, an advantage that has a third hidden cause: the coach Jordi Ribera. Since arriving at the national bench in 2016, after the failure to stay out of the Rio Games, the coach has instilled his character, studious, millimeter, serene, the team and in this tournament it seems that everyone returns to follow in his footsteps. If in the World Cup last year the road to the Games was blurred, now it is cleared again.

Against Germany, a selection with excellent pitchers, but without game directors because of the injuries - there were neither Strobel , nor Suton , nor Ernst , nor Wiede -, Ribera proposed a 5: 1 defense with Dujshebaev in the outpost and his players They didn't miss a movement. All displacements, all aid, were a book, a lesson on how to use that tactical resource. The meeting would be decided in 10 minutes and then there would only be the challenge of enduring. With five stops by Pérez de Vargas and four goals from Dujshebaev, Spain quickly opened the decisive advantage (8-2) and then entrusted himself to his seniority, that age he has left over. Although the German team threatened the comeback twice (10-9 in the 20th minute and 20-17 in the 40th minute), both kept calm and regained the necessary distance to ensure victory.

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