Image via RFEF.
Spain smote Saudi Arabia with such brusque intent on Sunday evening that by the time the first hydration break arrived, the thirst for a reaction had been quenched. Lamine Yamal pierced the Saudi defence time and again. When Mikel Oyarzabal touched the ball, it was a chance, if not a goal. This Spain was exuberant, quick, aggressive without recklessness. More than anything, it was familiar. What none of us realised at the time is that Spain managed to do all of it while under siege.
Their opening draw against Cabo Verde came out of the deep blue, and more than anything, baffled the Spanish public. La Roja have treated their country to success, but have done so playing with fluid movement and a pioneering spirit, the faces of Lamine Yamal, Nico Williams and Rodri Hernandez visible on the bow of the ship. When Cabo Verde massaged a slightly misshapen Spain attack into lethargy, committing just a single foul, it was met with a slightly perturbed Spain crowd, but no more frustrated than the Spain players themselves.
Image via RFEF. Lamine Yamal celebrates his opening goal.
It is a monument to the faith in this Spain side that it was not met with hysteria, but instead simple disappointment in that particular performance. ‘Upset’, shouted Diario AS, ‘Red Alert’ read Sport, and Mundo Deportivo were a little more emotional with ‘What a Comedown.’ It’s true that Marca permitted themselves a more melodramatic headline with ‘Historic Disappointment,’ but the most derogatory, meting out disdain in equal measure, came from BILD in Germany, who declared ‘A Group of Islands Embarrass Spain.’ Below the headlines though, and beyond the first few minutes of the nightly analysis of Spain’s problems over the airwaves, was a refreshingly mature perspective.
To summarise the general sentiment, Luis de la Fuente’s side had been unable to move the ball swiftly enough, and his selection of Gavi didn’t quite convince, but the return of Lamine Yamal to the starting XI, and Pedri to his best position, deeper in midfield, would remedy many of the ills in Atlanta. “A wake-up call is not a bad thing, quite the opposite,” shrugged former Spain…
..
