Football journalist and author Guillem Balagué discusses how Spain will respond to a disappointing draw with Cape Verde in their World Cup opener.
Luis de la Fuente's voice started lower than usual. Normally he is assured, polite and always on the verge of a smile that says, ‘I understand what you are saying, but I disagree’.
After the unexpected Cape Verde draw, his feelings were very much muted in the press conference after the game. Until someone asked him about the tactics, and it rose, as if the question had touched a nerve he'd been hiding till then.
He'd expected a Cape Verde capable of defending high up the pitch, man-to-man, brave, as he had one with the mighty Cameroon, the team left home after Cape Verde beat them 3-1 in the qualifiers.
That's probably why de la Fuente played an extra midfielder instead of a winger — even though he, of all people, knows this Spain is built on wingers. And when he realised the opponent had sat deeper than planned, he didn't make a move until the 71st minute.
The substitutions came late, when nothing was working, and with names that weren't at a hundred per cent: Lamine, Mikel Merino, Nico Williams. And then, pushed by the questions, he pushed back: "We haven't lost in 32 games!"
But inside the camp, the story they tell is a different one.
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The mood inside the Spain camp
It was known, before Cape Verde, that three out of the four wingers were struggling (Nico Williams has had a terrible year with injuries, Lamine has not played in two months and Víctor Muñoz arrived injured to USA). They won’t be available for 90 minutes against a Saudi Arabia side that will again defend very deeply and Spain will need to create lots in the wings.
Lamine has spoken: he wants to start, but he's not ready for ninety minutes. That is intelligent, players do not always admit or accept that. Nico has said he is still short of his spark and won't have it for a few more days, though he can give twenty good minutes, while Víctor Muñoz got injured again.
What contributed to the Cape Verde performance?
And then there's what Cubarsí said in the press room yesterday: there was no bite, no intensity in the first game.
The question being asked inside is why — on the opening day, of all days. Those close to the group say it's a good dressing room, tight-knit, the kind that looks after each other — but young, and it showed that they were playing the debut game in a World Cup.
They were told to go out and bite, and they didn't go out and bite. With no space, no real number ten (Pedri played there, but it's not his position, he's better deeper), no wingers, and convinced it was "only" Cape Verde, the calm turned into anxiety.
Oyarzabal, the nine of the team, spent the first thirty minutes without touching the ball. Cape Verde committed a single foul in the entire match. There were no crosses until Merino came on in the 71st minute, because there was no one to attack them. Shots from distance weren't finding the target. Everything was slow, no fluidity, no final ball — because only Cucurella understood you had to keep running in behind, over and over.
How have Spain responded?
In the following training session, the coaching staff saw the group arriving at training too serious, and they decided to loosen them up in the following days, including giving them a day off to spend it with the family, who are based in the hotel next to the one where the squad is.
The problems from the first match have been talked through, little by little, with the players — and among themselves too: the Barça contingent, the captains, the younger ones, who like to sit apart and talk football.
Spain v Saudi Arabia next up
An unexpected draw puts everyone on edge. Every player wants solutions now. The ones that did not start, want minutes. Like Dani Olmo, whom Lamine Yamal wants next to him as they have a deep football connection.
Meanwhile, manager Luis de la Fuente has to repeat, inside the camp and out of it, the same idea he offered after the Cape Verde disappointment: "We're very clear on who we are, there's no need to doubt, we know where we got it wrong." Which is another way of saying: go back to being the Spain that's been impressing the world for two years. The Spain of Lamine Yamal — even with only an hour of football in his legs and — I have the impression — with Olmo next to him.
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