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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Players who have girlfriends or wives around are given a few hours off to go see them. A group of six players nip down the central plaza to an Italian restaurant (most of the Barça contingent plus Javi Martínez). Torres goes for a wander and causes one or two heart flutters when he gets back to the army check point to discover that he does not know where his accreditation is. Credit to the Bafana Bafana supporting soldier, he knows precisely who El Nino is but just won’t budge an inch until someone from the federation comes out of the accommodation building and walks over to the security point to ‘okay’ Torres.
Meanwhile, Iniesta wanders downtown to the Mooi Rivier mall to idle around the CD library of the big audio-visual store. Unmolested, happy buying music, tranquil again.
Now it emerges from FIFA that Villa is not to be banned for the Group H decider against Chile. Just before half-time against Honduras, Izaguirre trod his studs onto Villa’s toe in search of a reaction. The Asturian gave the defender an open-handed clip on the face. Some referees would certainly have sent him off. However, Yuichi Nishimura doesn’t see it nor does he put it in his report. Case closed.
“It was an instinctive thing, I’m not proud – I’m going try to maintain better control if I’m provoked in future,” Villa reflects.
From their first day with the federation, Spain’s players are taught that it is a sin to be sent off. It is a betrayal of one’s team-mates; it decreases the chances of success; it may well mean another colleague takes and keeps your place in the team. It is a commandment: Thou Shalt Not Be Sent Off. Villa has been lucky.