Analysis Oyarzabal's little jump: precision recovered on penalties, that shared flat and a 47 standing
Opinion The moment to be more Luis Enrique than ever before a frenzied Italy
Chronicle Spain cries blood to reach the semifinals
Senén Cortegoso
is a close, affable guy, with that Galician style that has so much wisdom. Football took him out of public medicine, from Pontevedra to Tenerife, for a few months that were years. He spoke with us, journalists, at a time when journalists were not mistrusted like now. He spoke at breakfast or over drinks, because we all lived together in a resort on the outskirts of Chicago, not without the tensions that the leader of that counter-style selection needed so much. The best definition I found in
Morten Olsen
, former Danish coach: "Spain makes their opponents worse."
Luis Enrique
was part of
Javier Clemente's
tension ceremony
. Substitute in Real Madrid, he was a starter in a selection already without footballers of the autumn
Quinta del Buitre
.
As now, a part of Real Madrid was suspicious of that
Spain
, understanding the coach's decisions as a usurpation.
Luis Enrique
, impulsive and obtuse, has not changed in that, he felt misunderstood at the Bernabéu, but he was beardless and innocent. Senén Cortegoso was the one who picked up his dreams broken by the elbow of
Mauro Tassotti
, at Foxboro Stadium in Boston, on July 9, 1994. The cross between Spain and Italy in the semi-finals of the Euro invokes the word 'vendetta', in Italian, but it is a word for journalism. There is no revenge in Luis Enrique's mind, only illusions recovered after knowing that life, fucking life, hits the most innocent much harder.
Luis Enrique is treated by Senén Cortegoso, in Boston, in 1994. EFE
"He wanted to kill the referee and Tassotti. He was decomposed," Senén Cortegoso explained the following days, immortalizing the image with his Íñigo-style mustache while drying Luis Enrique's blood.
"When manipulating the nose, I noticed the 'cra, cra ...' The cartilage and bones were placed in him."
In an attempt to calm him down, the Asturian and the physio fell to the ground: "It's just that I had a hard time controlling him, I was out of my mind. He was strong and brave."
"There is no doubt that it was a penalty and expulsion," he added, "but they did not whistle anything. The dressing room was a funeral home."
Tassotti's
action
took place within the Italian area, when the result was 2-1 in favor of the 'azzurri'.
The Hungarian
Sandor Phul
did not attend the protests of the Spaniards or consult the linesman who had a direct vision of the action.
The Italy led by
Arrigo Sacchi
went to the semifinals and the final, where they lost on penalties against Brazil.
Roberto Baggio
, Spain's executioner in Boston, and
Baresi
failed
.
The 11 meters usually lead to the gallows of the aristocracy.
Ask
Mbappé
.
"The elbow sank my career"
Despite the pain of that action, the consequences were much worse for Tassotti or Phul than for Luis Enrique, who awaited a long career.
Joao Havelange's
old FIFA
showed his double standards, acting ex officio against Tassotti, whom he sanctioned with eight games, but awarded Phul with a semi-final and the final. Power is always protected. However, three years later, the Hungarian stopped showing an attack in the minutes of a match between Feyenoord and Manchester United, and UEFA sanctioned him with a one-year ban. Tassotti, a member of the great Milan of the 90s, lost the opportunity to play in the final of a World Cup at the age of 34 and did not wear the azzurra again: "It sank my career, I have always regretted it."
The people of Milan, the club of his life, protected Tassotti in his ostracism.
He was an assistant to
Carlo Ancelotti
and when
Andrei Shevchenko
started his career on the bench, he remembered his friend.
He is Ukraine's second coach.
That position led to the reunion with Luis Enrique, in the League of Nations.
The Spaniard took the initiative and went to greet him, a gesture that, according to Tassotti, was repairing for his conscience.
The friendship of Míchel, the discarded, and Luis Enrique
The United States, in 1994, was my first World Cup, after having followed the construction of an irreverent but exceptionally competitive Spain. As is the case today, it responded to the character of its leader. Not surprisingly, there is empathy between Luis Enrique and Clemente. "I stopped calling
Míchel
and I put Luis, and they gave me hosts for that," says the Basque, who did not feel very well that TVE signed the Real Madrid player to comment on the games together with
José Ángel de la Casa
, who joins him a great friendship. The same happened with Luis Enrique, who often stayed at Míchel's house, the part of Madrid that he has never wanted to forget.
Clemente
placed the Asturian on the left, in front of
Sergi
. Before playing with champion Germany, in the first phase,
Berti Vogts
said: "Spain has the best left wing in the World Cup." They tied (1-1).
Key characters in the future of Spanish football coexisted in the national team in many ways.
Pep Guardiola
, who did not play against Italy, was part of the critical consciousness along with
Txiki Begiristain
.
Fernando Hierro
took refuge from his problems in Madrid, like
Santi Cañizares
, key in the game that gave the ticket to that World Cup, against Denmark in Seville, and starter in the first match, against Korea, under the heat of justice from Dallas.
Andoni Zubizarreta
had just been fired from Barcelona after the Athens debacle, just two months earlier.
Julen Lopetegui
, the third goalkeeper, was the only one who did not play for a minute, along with the wayward
Juanele
.
"Julito, you are not Van Basten"
Clemente needed the press close by, even though his coffees weren't coffee for everyone.
The uninvited took notes hidden behind the columns.
There was caustic soda not only for journalists, but also for his footballers.
"Julito, leave that to
Van Basten
and you do your thing," he said to
Julio Salinas
when he was testing Chilenas in training.
The radio war was real, not serial, with
José Ramón de la Morena
on the ground and
García
at the controls from Madrid.
The young Luis Enrique vetoed both when a narrator said: "Luis Enrique is more useless than the first slice of Pan Bimbo."
Garci, Alfredo Landa and Paco de Lucía
José Luis Garci
accompanied Míchel,
Alfredo Landa
approached the concentration with sunglasses after jazz nights at Kingston Mines and
Paco de Lucía
gathered part of the Spanish at the Ravinia Festival. The quarters arrived, Boston, and we all went there, a heterogeneous tribe and not well avenged, but with a tingling in the stomach. Sitting on the platform, they held out their hand to me: "I'm
Vicente Verdú
.
"
The late writer told me about the story he wanted to build for
El País
, attracted by the contradictions of that selection. An elbow smashed it to pieces. I don't think I wrote about
vendetta
today
.
When seeing this irregular but effervescent Spain play and this ambitious and fast-paced Italy, who trace their way without the servitude of the great stars or the big clubs, to think about revenge is to think negatively compared to those who do it positively.
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