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
—
Training is sharp, particularly the night-time work, during which it’s dark and winter-cold. It is as if the change of light and climate has transported the players back into mid-season mode.
Neither Villa nor Torres is ‘in the zone’ in front of goal – whether in minimatches or the finishing drills. Juan Mata is, though, Joan Capdevila hits a couple of screamers and when Puyol loses a small-sided match he kicks the portable goal over in fury. There isn’t a hint of over-confidence.
Álvaro Arbeloa says: “World Cups often start with drawn matches because of so many teams having a fear of losing instead of looking to score and win well, but we don’t have responsibility to serve up good football. We are just here in search of victory.”
Del Bosque tells us: “I think the team is okay, confident in its possibilities but with the degree of self-awareness required for a competition like this. But in Spain it is on the tip of everyone’s tongues that we are phenomenal, we are the tallest, the most handsome … all that.
“We’ve seen at this World Cup already that there are very minor differences between all the sides and we may struggle to win this first game unless we do our jobs particularly well. However, there’s such euphoria at home that it is impossible to turn that tide.”