The unsuspected curse of South Africa: three victories, three selectors and 12 hard years without going past the round of 16

• Future A matter of spotlights: the future no longer only depends on what Luis Enrique wants

• Intrahistory The most cursed batch in Spain: the first failure of Sarabia, the stands of Rabat and the call of the King

Three days before the second game of the group stage against Germany,

dropped by for training for the Spanish team at the Qatar University sports complex.

Andrés is already 38 years old, which is 18 more than

's birthday the next day (November 25).

The one who is now one of the stars of the national team could hardly look at the face of who has been his idol since she could remember.

And that could have been, more or less, since that 2010 World Cup in South Africa, when he was only seven years old.

It is the only time that the canary, like

,

,

,

or

, have seen Spain pass from the round of 16.

They, turned into leading actors in Qatar despite their youth, were unable to save that fence either.

Morocco, like Russia or Chile, the executioner in the 2014 group stage, are part of this unsuspected black legend that has been dragging the team for 12 very long years, after three disappointing World Cups.

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On the grass of the Education City Stadium, after the worst penalty shootout in the history of the Spanish team, a handful of dreams and hopes were buried.

Illusions that seemed to emerge with that tremendous opening 7-0 against Costa Rica, and even with the visit (a priori) talisman of Iniesta.

Unfortunately for Spain, the clock continues without stopping.

Since June 29, 2010 (12 years and 4,543 nights), the national team has failed to get past the round of 16.

The last time was in South Africa, on the grass of the Green Point stadium in Cape Town, separating Portugal from that

in full with a goal from

and a good dose of suffering.

We will have to wait at least another four years to cut that sharp thread.

No one would have guessed then that the distance between the sky and the ground would be so small.

Anyone would say that it is even a curse.

Since that eternal whiplash from Iniesta in the 2010 final, Spain has only won three games in its three subsequent World Cups.

In 2014 against Australia (0-3), in an already inconsequential duel.

In 2018 to Iran (0-1).

And in Qatar, to Costa Rica, with that historic 7-0 that turned out to be the beginning of the end.

Three wins in 11 games.

Only 27% success on his adventures.

The rest: five draws (with two fatal penalty shootouts) and three losses.

Del Bosque, Hierro and Luis Enrique

None of the three selectors who have gone through the bench since then have been able to exceed the bar.

himself , mastermind of the conquest of the planet at Soccer City in Johannesburg,

did not manage it during that terrifying tournament in Brazil 2014. There Spain was eliminated a few hours after some teams had just completed their first match.

Only six days had passed since the opening game.

That crash led to a Spanish catharsis.

, also present in South Africa,

,

and

experienced it live.

Four years ago, Russia 2018 began with the grotesque dismissal of

, just a couple of days before the debut against Portugal.

It was

, then sports director of the RFEF, who sat on the bench during the World Cup.

He attended that tragic penalty shootout against the local team, at the Luzhniki Olympic Stadium in Moscow.

Spain derailed against forecast in the round of 16.

Hierro protests to the referee Al-Ghandour in 2002.EFE

That border has become a cursed dike.

Just like in the 90s they were the rooms for a handful of generations.

The Education City Stadium in Doha, where that young Spanish team digested the tragedy last night, with Busquets (and maybe some others) saying goodbye without consolation, is already part of the most tragic story of the Spanish team in the World Cups.

Morocco turned out to be the performer with the least pedigree, with the Russia of 2018 at least being the host.

In the 21st century, Spain has only been able to get past the round of 16 in South Africa and in that distant championship in Japan and Korea in 2002, where penalties and refereeing by the repudiated Egyptian

shattered the last dream of

footballer

That Yugoslavia by

, in Italia'90;

the France of

,

and

, in Germany'06;

an unexpected Russia, in the 2018 World Cup;

and now, three decades after that cursed passage in Verona, against the Balkan team, the eternal stain of Morocco with a batch that will be remembered forever.

Another scar that will never go away.

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