UEFA Nations League Spain's antidote to France
Nuria Martínez The player number 12 of the selection: "This is like a family"
Unai Simón
(Vitoria, 24 years old) is a tall boy, very tall, big, very big, and serious, very serious. "When I meet someone I am shy", he will justify himself later, although on the short walk on the way to the place of the interview, in one of the football 7 artificial grass fields of Interello, the sports city that Inter has for the quarry, forces a series of protocol questions, almost always returned with a monosyllable. However, as the tape recorder fills up, the Spanish team goalkeeper relaxes and talks. He handles a wide vocabulary, expresses himself well, calmly. He looks at France, yes, but first he looks at his people, and smiles when they ask him for what he knows they are going to ask him. Your calm,
Luis Enrique
, the mistake against Croatia ... Student, slow, of ADE (Business Administration and Management), when fame rises there is his mother. Mother there is only one.
Spain was the fourth team to win in Italy in an official match in the entire history of football. What does that tell you? We knew that she is the European champion, that she has great players and a great coach. A great team. And the same is getting your ego up a lot, but together with us and some others, they are one of the best teams in Europe. We knew who we were up against. Winning them leaves you very satisfied. This specific data I had no idea, I knew about the 37 games and such, but not this one. And it won't be because they haven't played games! Well, it gives a little more credit to the game, but we did what we had to do, excuse me, but you just said that Italy, along with Spain, are among the best teams in Europe. Did you really come here with the feeling of playing between equals? You did not breathe that in the environment ... Yes,We showed it in the Eurocup. There we deserved more, in the end the coin from the penalties came out tails, but ... Look, we know the noise around our team, we are very exposed, and people sometimes notice the players we bring, but the players we bring are good. And here there are no individualities, here there is a team. Those who have not come, those who have returned, or the new ones, case of
Gavi
and
Yeremy
, they come to add for the group. With so much equality you cannot rely on one or two players. In that sense, the job of the coach of all going together makes things work out. He was talking about the coach, what does it mean for you? For us, he is the leader, the architect of all these moments that we are living, and that could be described as successes, because we come from a Eurocup semifinal and we are in a Nations League final, a tournament played by the same teams as the Eurocup. To reach this final, Germany, Switzerland and Ukraine had to be beaten, and Italy in the semifinal. But going back to your question, which is about the coach, as I told you, he is the leader. The good thing about it is the personality. There is a lot of noise outside, but he has an idea in mind and he conveys it to us, and it convinces us. Because that's difficult, to convince these 23,and then to others, and those who come and go. That charisma and that ability to convince makes this selection so good. What do you think when you see him with the press? Because there is another Luis Enrique inside, honestly, I have not listened to many press conferences. From the comments something reaches you. I do not know that facet. I know the one you have with us. He is our coach, the person who leads this project, this group. He has an idea and we are going to death with him. Do you understand that he can fall badly, he can fall badly and he can fall good. Sometimes we focus only on the negative reviews, which are the ones that resonate the most. In football and in society it is seldom said "how good you are!" It is much more common to say "how bad you are!", But both he and I,Like any player or person who lives around football, he knows that there are positive and negative reviews, and everyone gets whatever they want. Many people give a lot of hype to those negative reviews, but there are also many people who support Luis Enrique, and who support us, and a large part of the Spanish fans go with him to death.
Pablo Garcia RFEF
How do you digest criticism? The most important thing is to be aware of how you have done your job.
Soccer is the job that most people think about, where you are most exposed.
But you have to know what you have done well or badly, and what they tell you from outside ... Criticism or flattery ... There are times when I am flattered and I don't understand why.
You have to be aware of what you have done right and wrong.
You listen to it, because in the end it comes to you, but the important thing is your own opinion and that of your coach, in this case, for me, those of
Luis Enrique
and
Marcelino
Is it very different what one and the other ask of you? Yes. In the national team we do touch football, possession, make the rival run, defend with the ball ... In Athletic it is not like that, it is an evolving touch football, in three quarters of the field, we do not risk so much in How do you manage that change? In the national team, many more balls pass through me, but the balls that pass are to be played with the foot, and the important thing in a goalkeeper is to stop. There the two coaches ask me the same thing. The change? Not all my life I will be with Luis Enrique, or with Marcelino, what you have to do is adapt.
Berizzo
,
Garitano
,
Marcelino
is not the same
. If you want to be the best goalkeeper for your team, you adapt to the coach. It is the law of the jungle. Live or die. Where does he get that calm, to say the least, when the strikers press him? This is what the coach asks of me, to fix players to generate a free teammate on the field. It's what you have to do, I don't know, it's not having balls or not ... No, it's the calm with which he does it ... No no, nothing calm, it seems calm, but ... He also tells me so my mother, how calm I seem, but no, no. What I'm thinking is 'give me a fast pass line this buffalo comes to press'. I'm starting to handle this with Luis Enrique, and I see it as one more part of my job and I handle it normally. That which for you is normal, seen from the outside, is vertigo. Well, but I still see your I work and say 'How can he do that so fast? 'Or I see my hometown baker and say' how can he get 200 loaves of bread so fast? ' But it is that in the end it is the work of each one. That surprises me, the baker in my town, who takes out a lot of bars every day, and it seems impossible to me.
Pablo Garcia RFEF
What remains of the child who started with six years? When I start I do it for fun, to be with friends and because I have a good time. Now I feel privileged in life, because I have a good time at my job. I am happy, because in the team, in Athletic, I am with my colleagues, I consider them that way, and I have a great time. The demands of professional football do not allow you to enjoy everything, but yes, we are colleagues and I enjoy it. Are footballers obliged to mature earlier? Fortunately, I think I have had an education in which my parents, my friends, My environment, they have always been very healthy, and I have always kept my feet on the ground. Do you think you are special? No, privileged yes, but special no. But the luck that I have is that I have my family, my friends, my girlfriend ... Those who are approaching you ... well.The legs that support this bench are family and friends. Who do you take down your fumes? Sometimes my mother, when I go to see them, she says to me; He has already come with the airs of Bilbao! I usually visit them once every two weeks, and well, they are my parents, what am I going to tell them. I also have a friend who puts the batteries to me. When I meet someone first, I consider myself shy, introverted, but with my friends I am a normal person. And they, when I release somebut with my friends I am a normal person. And they, when I release somebut with my friends I am a normal person. And they, when I release some
Perlita
, they say to me: “Where are you going, kid?” What do you do when you are not focused? I try to dedicate the fewest possible hours to the ball.
When I get out of football I try to distract myself with university topics.
When I get home from training, I try not to keep thinking about football, and you start doing anything: a walk, a getaway with my girlfriend, playing paddle tennis with friends.
Devoting 24 hours to the ball is not healthy.
We all need to disconnect, because if not, you go into a loop. France is scary. No.
France is a very good team, like Belgium.
It is a final and we are going to win it.
We will plan the game in the best possible way, going for victory and leaving everything on the field.
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