Day 15, World Cup 2010: Chile 1 Spain 2

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

Chile v Spain

Uno y dos y tres … ganar y ganar y ganar!

In the hours before this match, every one of the Spain players confront the fear that this might not be their night and their World Cup could be over. They all know that it will be regarded as a calamitous failure should the champions of Europe fail to get out of their group.

They shirk away from the thought of the rabid nation that would await their early return. But their real fear is that of letting themselves down. They know they are potential winners here. Fear crackles everywhere.

One senior player, whose identity I will preserve, turns to another en route to the match and tells his team-mate: “I’m crapping myself.” His colleague is shocked. “The silence on the bus ride from the hotel to the stadium was terrible,” Del Bosque will subsequently recall.

David Villa: ¨The hours before that game were the most nervous I can recall since I joined the national side.”

Gerard Piqué: “There was so much silence, everyone was lost in their own world, thinking about what they could do to help the team get through.”

Xavi: “You could see it on everyone’s faces, this was an extraordinary tension.”

Del Bosque’s team talk is shorter than a drunken Scotsman’s temper.

“Okay, I say this every day but more than ever now, don’t get suckered into making mistakes. And let’s be united out there. If there’s one guy with the ball there must be two around him. And just one detail. There are many, many lads back home for whom you are examples. Let’s go out there and just do this for them.”

Thirteen seconds. Everyone clusters and bows down into the huddle.

One voice: “Uno y dos y tres.

Every voice: “Ganar y ganar y ganar!

Del Bosque heads out to the tunnel and for a split second Xavi and Casillas want their voices to be heard.

“Never mind what we won two years ago, never mind going home with honour never mind playing football with a smile on our face. This is life or death, this is the match of all our careers. We must win.”

It is an asphyxiating match for the European champions, until a sublime intervention from David Villa.

Chile playmaker Jorge Valdívia, talented but sloppy, is robbed by Xabi Alonso, deep in Spain’s half and with hardly any effort. Worse for Chile, Gary Medel, a midfielder who is playing centre-back tonight, fed Valdívia and has continued his run in search of a return pass. Chile are exposed and Alonso sees it instantly. He clips a long pass to Fernando Torres and, seeing El Nino is going to win his race with Gonzalo Jara, goalkeeper Claudio Bravo decides to sprint out to rescue his defender. Well outside his area, Bravo slides into a powderpuff clearance, but Villa has anticipated what is unfolding. He is on the run down the left wing and as the ball drops to him 40 metres out he uses his left foot to crack a volley, while he’s in full-flight. The ball arcs beautifully from left to right, bounces just once and curls into the far panel of the empty net.

Thirteen minutes later, Chile are trying to begin a move down their left, but the ball played to the full-back Jara is loose and Iniesta is on it. He intercepts, bursts forward, feeds a pass to Torres on his right and the Liverpool striker puts a perfect service back into the midfielder’s path. As Iniesta glides on to it he sees Villa out to the left of the penalty area and fizzes the pass; Chile’s defenders commit thecardinal sin of following the ball. Villa opens his body and returns the ball intoIniesta’s now clear path and the midfielder uses his instep to cushion a volley intothe far panel of Bravo’s net.

While the players are celebrating, the Mexican referee is across the pitch sending off Chile’s Marco Estrada. During the move, once Torres had fed Iniesta, the striker continued his run, looking for a back-post cross, but Estrada clipped his ankle and Torres went flying. It looked like an inadvertent error. Moreover, it was off the ball and during the move Spain scored. Nevertheless Senor Marco Rodríguez won’t budge on his decision, the referee’s second red card of the tournament stands.

Spain are 2-0 up and they are playing 10 men. When they concede a deflected goal within two minutes of the start of the second half, it simply makes things unnecessarily uncomfortable.

Then, with about 15 minutes left, Marcelo Bielsa starts gesticulating to his team: ‘This will do!’ Chile are told to defend at 2-1 down, and, although it is horrible to watch, that is what they do. For what feels an interminable time (“the most placid 15 minutes of our tournament” Del Bosque later calls it) Chile not only retreat behind the halfway line but a good 15 yards inside their own half. If Spain do not attempt to cross halfway, Chile simply let them have the ball for as long as they wish. They refuse to compete.

Previous Group H results mean that Switzerland, drawing 0-0 with Honduras at that moment, will not only have to win but to score two unanswered goals to qualify. However, if Switzerland score once, win 1-0 and Chile concede a third goal, then Chile are out. A far more threatening and more likely scenario. Captain Casillas tells his defence that if Chile don’t want to venture past the halfway line then Spain will remain group winners: there is an impromptu concord. Switzerland are effectively conspired against and it makes an unedifying, if understandable, spectacle.

Chile 1 Spain 2

Chile: Bravo, Isla, Medel, Ponce, Jara, Vidal, Estrada, M González (Millar 46), Valdívia (Parades 46), Sánchez (Orellana 65), Beausejour

Goal: Millar 47

Spain: Casillas, Ramos, Piqué, Puyol, Capdevila, Alonso (Martínez 73), Busquets, Iniesta, Xavi, Villa, Torres (Fabregas 55)

Goals: Villa 24, Iniesta 37

Read Next Day 14, World Cup 2010: Ramos, a footballing Errol Flynn Read Next Day 16, World Cup 2010: "Fernando has got his tea waiting"