Direct This is how we live it
Okay, qualification for a World Cup is at stake, and no matter how much this
World Cup
, the one in
Qatar in 2022
, is going to be played between November and December, and no matter how far it is, very far, all the Spanish fans want it to be. selection is in the World Cup.
Okay, to get to that World Cup it is necessary to qualify, and to qualify it is necessary to fill in the forms that are 90% of the matches in this phase.
Okay, there is a
European Championship two months ahead
and it is interesting to see how the coach is shaping what could be something similar to an eleven type.
Agree on everything.
But I also agree that a
Spain-Greece
like tonight, played in the middle of March, without an audience and with the victory taken for granted, it is difficult to digest.
Ah!
One last agreement: if that victory is not achieved, everything, the World Cup, the classification and even the European Championship, looks much worse.
A tie like that is an ugly thing.
And difficult to explain.
Very difficult, in fact, because there is a fact that should not go unnoticed.
Luis Enrique repeated to nine footballers regarding that triumph in
La Cartuja
against the
Löw team
.
And the two who did not repeat,
Sergi Roberto and Pau Torres
, are injured.
In his place came
Marcos Llorente and Eric García
.
The rest were the same.
Unai Simón
, who seems to have definitively removed De Gea's position.
Ramos and Gayá
in defense, and from there onwards, Rodri -already ahead of Busquets, or so it seems- Koke -who spent almost two years without going to start twice in a row-,
Canales, Ferrán, Olmo and Morata
.
That is to say, the same ones who danced for the
Löw team
, the same ones who displayed a vertiginous, vertical, extraordinary football.
But there were two differences.
One, it was November.
And two, that the rival team was not the same.
Worse in March than November
It may seem paradoxical that the team is worse in March than in November, but that's how it turned out.
Players like Eric García or Ferrán Torres are not finding continuity, players like Koke or Marcos Llorente are beginning to notice fatigue, and neither Canales nor Dani Olmo are going through their best moment of the year.
It may also seem paradoxical that Spain played much
better against Germany than against Greece
.
But it is even logical.
The Germans came out to play, open, relaxed, and the Greeks came out to destroy, with a fever higher than the Spanish, typical of those who know themselves inferior.
As it was, they did the opposite.
They generated tremendous illusion in November and thwarted it, in part, or in full, in March.
This is so.
Morata
was hardly saved
.
He did it with a superb goal, typical of a center forward of yesteryear, which in a way is the Madrid.
He bagged a beautiful service from Koke with his chest and without letting it fall, he slipped it into an unlikely hole.
It was at half an hour, specifically one minute after Dani Olmo crashed a ball off the crossbar.
That and a double shot by Koke at the dawn of the game were the only interesting thing about a forgettable first set to the limit.
The recklessness of Iñigo Martínez
And then the debate.
Those nine identical footballers compared to the November game could lead one to think: well, we already have the
structure of the Eurocup team
.
But no, because that would be as much as saying that Luis Enrique is an orthodox coach, and no, it is not convenient to trust Luis Enrique for something like that, because when the debut in the great tournament arrives there may be seven or eight new respects.
And more, seen what was seen on the field yesterday.
Suddenly things started to happen after the break.
First,
Ramos stayed in the dugout
after a really disastrous first half.
Later, an imprudence of his substitute,
Iñigo Martínez
, cost Spain the draw in the form of a penalty.
And, later, seeing that the game was going to be a fronton (even more so) Luis Enrique put
Pedri
and Bryan Gil
on the field
.
Two of the sensations of the League.
Later, he put in Oyarzabal and Thiago, with which he changed to the two interiors and to the two extremes.
Only Morata and Rodri survived from midfield forward.
Of all of them,
Bryan Gil was the best news
.
He overflowed, faced and generated the little danger that the team was able to generate, already imprisoned in the Greek networks, emboldened in that last section because a draw is great for them.
Not so for Spain, unable to go from uy to occasions.
A Spain that, in agreement, has margin to fix the setback, but, in agreement also, yesterday threw a good part of what was achieved against Germany to the ground.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
Know more
Spain National Soccer Team
sports
InterviewJosé Luis Pérez Caminero: "I never took football as a profession, day to day I didn't care"
Soccer World Cup 2022Wyscout, more than 200 players and two weekly meetings: this is how Luis Enrique's group of analysts works in the national team
Whispers of the sport The Spanish track of the 'Barçagate'
See links of interest
2021 business calendar
Spain - Greece, live
Asvel Villeurbanne - Real Madrid
Valencia Basket - FC Bayern Munich