Running right alongside Brazil 2014, this is my day-by-day story of how Spain won the last World Cup. You can catch up on previous posts.
These stories are from Spain: The Inside Story of La Roja’s Historic Treble, by Graham Hunter
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The day is not without amusement as Raúl Albiol tells me that he would like to find, and deal with, whoever wrote a front-page article suggesting Iker Casillas let the goal in against Switzerland because his girlfriend, Sara Carbonero, and her cameraman had a pitch-side position to the right of his goalmouth in the first half. The goal came after half-time. And it was The Times.
Raúl Albiol: “It is total crap that people are trying to drag Iker Casillas into some stupid row about his girlfriend being a TV reporter here at the World Cup. He is a great professional, our captain and one of the best keepers in the world. It’s hard to put up with hearing the nonsense being spoken about him.”
Far away from the microphones and the spotlights, something much more important is happening. After his injury in the first game, Iniesta would admit he “felt all the ghosts of his dreadful year re-surfacing”. The Spain physio Raúl Martínez has been trying to work on the midfielder’s psychology. The two have shared long conversations and Martínez has reinforced only positive sentiments.
For whatever reason the cogs suddenly fit together and Iniesta tells the physio that despite having to sit the Honduras match out, his mind is at rest. Before the second Group H match he goes to sleep without fear that his body is going to let him down. Instead he is convinced that if his team-mates do their job and defeat Honduras, he is now through the worst and ready to influence matters.
By the middle of the day, the bus is on the road. They lay their heads down in five-star luxury in Sandton, but they will play in the Rainbow Nation’s rugby stadium: Ellis Park.