Spain

Spain Team Overview

Since the creation of the Real Federacion Espanola de Futbol the Spain National Team proved being able to give the world a lot of talented players and display great football. Despite the fact that Spain only once made it to the semi-finals of a World Cup and has only one European Nations Championship title. The Spaniards generally advance to the knockout rounds of the international competitions but are frequently are unable to move past the quarter-finals.

History

The early years of football for Spain’s National Team had a lot of ups and downs, and they continue today. In 1920 Spain had its first appearance in a game valid for the 1920 Antwerp Summer Olympic Games. The first game was against Denmark and 3,000 spectators went to the stadium in Brussels to see the young Spanish team win by a 1-0 score.

After that good start, Spain managed to end the competition with the Silver Medal. The Gold went to the host Belgium.

In 1921 Spain played its first home match. They beat Belgium by 2-0 in a game played in Bilbao. And in 1929 La Furia became the first non-British team to beat England. The match took place in Madrid.

Claiming that a boat trip to Uruguay would take too long and was too risky, Spain refused to play the 1930 FIFA World Cup in the South American country. But in 1934 they had to travel a short distance to play their first World Cup in Italy. Spain reached the quarter-finals when they lost 1-0 to the hosts.

The Spanish Civil Was and the World War II caused a hiatus in Spain’s international participation but they would come back in great fashion for the 1950 World Cup in Brazil. The team won all its first three group matches against the USA, Chile and England respectively and easily qualified for the final group stage. But then something went wrong and Spain didn’t repeat the good performance and ended up with the fourth place in the competition which would be the best World Cup participation for La Furia up to the present.

Spain didn’t qualify for the following 2 World Cups and in the 1960 European Championship, even though beating Poland in the round of 16 ( 7-2 on aggregate) the team refused to travel to the Soviet Union to play the quarter finals and Di Stefano and La Furia were eliminated from the tournament.

European Champions
In the 1962 World Cup Spain once again was not lucky and ended up in a very difficult group with tile holders Brazil and also Czechoslovakia, and Mexico. Coach Jose Villalonga couldn’t avoid the elimination in the group stage but he was ready to give Spain an important title. The team would beat favorites Hungary (2-1) in the semifinals before playing the final match against the URSS for 80,000 people at Santiago Bernabeu Stadium in Madrid.

Spain scored the first goal early in the match with midfielder Pereda, at minute 6. Two minutes later Soviet player Galimzyan Khusainov tied the game. The match was tense and it was almost certain to end up in a draw when at minute 84, after a center from Jesus Pereda, forward Marcelino Martinez scored the Champioship goal.

With the 1964 European Title, Spain qualified directly to the 1966 FIFA World Cup in England. But the team didn’t pass the group fase after 2 losses – Argentina and Germany – and only one win against Switzerland.

The 1982 World Cup
After another long period of ups and downs and not a lot of impressive results Spain was honored the opportunity to organize and host the 1982 FIFA World Cup. For the first time 24 teams participated in the competition. Spain was in a group realtively easy with Honduras, Yougoslavia and North Ireland but right at the first match the Spanish suffered an surprising 1-0 defeat to small side of Honduras. After beating Yougoslavia (2-1) and losing to North Ireland (1-0) La Furia managed to qualify for the second group stage just to have a disappointing performance against Germany and England respectively losing 2-1 and tying 0-0. The team was eliminated and coach Jose Santamaria lost his job.

Always So Close
After the bad participation in the 1982 World Cup in their own home grouds Spain wanted to recover its prestige in the 1984 European Championship but things didn’t look good for La Furia Roja. The team got to their last group match against Malta with an almost impossible mission: win the game by a 11 goal diferential. And the improbable happened. At minute 83 Juan Senor socred goal number 12 for Spain and the final score of 12-1 qualified spain for the final fase of the tournament. The team thrumbled in the next rounds but made it to the finals to face hosts France. Milchel Platini led the Frenchmen to a 2-0 victory leaving Spain with the second place. For the 186 world Cup, Spain kept coach Miguel Munoz and an inspired Emilio Butragueno gave the spanish a lot of hope after the team beat Michael Laudrup’s Denmark by an impressive 5-1 score with Butragueno scoring four goals. That hope only lasted until the next game when after a 1-1 tie in the regular and in the extra time Belgium and Spain would have to decide the game in the penalty shootout. Spain had all the chances to win if it wasn’t for Belgian goalkeeper Jean-Marie Pfaff who denied Eloy’s penalty and sent Spain home earlier.

Another bad performance in the Euro 88 and Spain got to the 1990 World Cup with a new coach, Martin Vazquez and Butragueno playing his last World Cup. The team did well in the group stage but when it came to the knock out round Spain was defeated by Yougoslavia(2-1). The need to renovate the team and the frustration with the past failures led Spain no to qualify to the Euro 92.

Gold Barcelona
The year of 1992 was not a total fiasco for Spain’s National Football Team. If on one hand the team was unhappy for not qualifying for the Euro, on the other hand the whole country was excited the city of Barcelona hosting the Summer Olympics. The young “La Furia” this time wanted to claim the gold medal they lost in 1920. Kiko, Luis Enrique and Guardiola led the team to the glory beating Poland 3-2 in the final match.

Late 90’s to 2006
In a attempt to continue the siccess of the Olympic team, Javier Clemente was announced as the coach to lead Spain in 1994 World Cup but the team didn’t pass the quarter-finals once again this time falling in a controversial game against Italy. And another quarter-finals flunk in the Euro 1996 caused Spain to once more time start a renovation in the squad for the 1998 World Cup in France. Some new talents were added to balance the experience of Zubizarreta and others.

Fernando Morientes, Kiko and Raul were the new rising stars responsibles for leading Spain offense. But things didn’t go as planned for the Spaniards and they didn’t even pass the group stage. This was enough for the Spanish Federation to fire coach Javier Clemente.

In the 2000 Euro another coach, more young players and the another quarterfinal elimination. Spain faced World Champions France and the game ended 2-1 for the Frechmen with Raul missing a penalty kick in the end of first half. And the curse of the quarterfinals continued.

That same curse would repeat itself one more time in the 2002 World Cup. This time the fans were really excited about the team finally moving to the semifinals as Spain was to face hosts South Korea in the quartefinal match. After a goaless 120-minute game the decision went to the penalty shootout. Sadness took over the Spaniards when young star Joaquin missed Spain’s fouth penalty kick and they saw Korean defender Hong Myung-Bo score the goal that would send Spain National Team home earlier once again.

The presence of new talents like Fernando Torres and Xabi Alonso made the European press to name Spain as one of the top favorites to win the Euro 2004. Also, the fact that the tournament would happen in Portugal was considered an advantage for the Spanish. But the team failed to move to the second round of the competition and that is considered the biggest disappointing performance since the 1998 World Cup.

Luis Aragonés was appointed Spain’s coach right after the team got eliminated from the Euro in 2004. He would be the responsible for rebuilding a team that would finally move past the quarterfinals in a World Cup. But Spain strugged in the qualifying stage and when they got to the 2006 World Cup in Germany, few people risked to give their opinion on how the team would perform. The group stage showed an efficient and convincing Spanish side who qualified after winning all its three games against Ukraine (4-0), Tunisia (3-1) and Saudi Arabia (1-0). But this time Spain didn’t even make it to the quarterfinals. France with a 3-1 victory send Fernando torres, David Villa, Raul, Xabi Alonso, Iker Casillas, Puyol and the rest of the good Spanish team back home after the round of 16.

Euro 2008 With a squad filled with stars Spain seems ready to shine in this edition of the European Nations Championship. The team qualified in first place of group F with 9 wins 1 draw and only 2 losses.

Spain goes to the final group stage of the competition with Russia, Sweden and title holders Greece.

The team looks good and will count on a solid defense with Iker Casillas, Sergio Ramos and Puyol leading them. A creative midfield with Fabregas, Iniesta and Xavi and a demolishig offense with David Villa, Fernando Torres and possibly Raul make Spain, once again, one of the favorites to take the title. The question is: Can they perform and this time move past the quarterfinals?

Stars of the Current Squad

Iker Casillas

• Date of Birth: January 28, 1978
• Position: Goalkeeper
• Height: 185cm
• He became Real Madrid’s goalkeeper at a very young age. After many years in the youth teams he stepped up to the national team. Today he is in the starter eleven without a doubt in Real Madrid and in La Furia.

Cesc Fabregas

• Date of Birth: May 4, 1987
• Position: Center Midfielder
• Height: 180cm
• He’s a promise come true. He makes everything easy. Being only 20 he already has a lot of experience in international matches. He was raised in Barcelona’s youth teams and now plays in Arsenal with big stars.

David Villa

• Date of Birth: May 20, 1980
• Position: Striker
• Height: 175cm
• This Spanish “Pichichi” now plays in Valencia, but he comes from Zaragoza, where he already showed his great ability to store. In Raúl’s absence he became the most important striker in Aragonés’ team.

Fernando Torres

• Date of Birth: March 20, 1984
• Position: Striker
• Height: 186cm
• He already seems like a player with years of experience in spite of being only 23 years old. The “Niño Torres” took charge of the Atletico Madrid, and its history, when it seemed to be lost. He’ll now face up to a bigger challenge of succeeding in the English football in Liverpool.

Team Legends

Zubizarreta

• Full Name: Andoni Zubizarreta Urreta
• Date of Birth: October 23, 1961
• Position: Goalkeeper
• Caps: 152

Luis Enrique

• Full Name: Luis Enrique Martinez Garcia
• Date of Birth: May 8, 1970
• Position: Midfielder
• Caps: 62
• Goals: 12

Nadal

• Full Name: Miguel Angel Nadal
• Date of Birth: July 28, 1966
• Position: Defender/Midfielder
• Caps: 62
• Goals: 3

Raul

• Full Name: Raul Gonzales
• Date of Birth: June 27, 1977
• Position: Forward
• Caps: 102
• Goals: 44

Telmo Zarra

• Full Name: Telmo Zarraonaindía Montoya
• Date of Birth: January 20, 1921
• Position: Striker
• Years on the team: 1954-1963
• Caps: 20
• Goals: 20

Butragueno

• Full Name: Emilio Butragueño Santos
• Date of Birth: July 22, 1963
• Position: Striker
• Years on the team: 1974-1993
• Caps: 69
• Goals: 26

Ferenc Puskás (also played for Hungary)

• Full Name: Ferenc Purczfeld Biró
• Date of Birth: April 2, 1927
• Position: Forward
• Caps: 4

Kubala (also played for Hungary and Czechoslovakia)

• Full Name: Ladislao Kubala Stecz
• Date of Birth: June 10, 1927
• Position: Midfielder/Forward
• Caps: 19
• Goals: 11

Di Stefano

• Full Name: Alfredo S. di Stefano Laulhé
• Date of Birth: July 4, 1926
• Position: Striker
• Caps: 31
• Goals: 23

Most International Matches Played

Most Appearances

Most Goals

Player Recognition & Awards

Team Honours

European Nations Championship

• 1964: Champions

Olympic Games: Football Tournament

• 1920: Silver Medal
• 1992: Gold Medal
• 2000: Silver Medal

Management

Head Coach: Luis Aragonés
“El Sabio de la hortaleza” (The Wise from the Fortress) is his nickname. With an image that fades away as La Roja’s football, Aragonés is not having a popular moment. After the World Cup, where his team started out very well and then lost iin 1/8 finals against France, the coach wasn’t able to find the way to get people interested with the team again. They are now in a transitional stage between young players and the left aside veterans.

José Luis Aragonés Suárez Martínez was born July 28, 1938, Hortaleza, Madrid is a former Spanish footballer and current manager. Aragonés has spent the majority of his career as a player and coach at Atlético Madrid. He was a prominent player and then coach of the successful Atlético team of the late 1960s and early 1970s. The club won La Liga four times, reached the final of the European Cup and won the Intercontinental Cup. Aragonés has coached the club four different times. He has also played for Spain, scoring three international goals.

Uniforms

Important Links

• http://www.rfef.es

References

• http://euro2008.uefa.com/tournament/teams/team=122/index.html
• http://www.rfef.es
• http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selecci%C3%B3n_nacional_de_f%C3%BAtbol_de_Espa%C3%B1a
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spain_national_football_team