Just days after Rafa Nadal lifted the Roland Garros trophy in Paris, declaring Prefiero morir siendo valiente( ‘ I would rather die being brave’) , Spain’s national football team –the defending World Champions- capitulated without passion or glory to a Dutch team that played with fury and style.
Nothing perhaps summed up the sheer humiliation of Friday’s game than the utterly dejected, almost haunted face of Iker Casillas after letting through the fifth Dutch goal in the most crushing defeat suffered by La Roja since breaking with decades of underachievement and winning the European championship in 2008.
Del Bosque told me not so long ago that he believes in players more than systems. And yet La Roja’s Word Cup opener developed into a game where the Spaniards neither as a team nor individually showed themselves able to react to the Dutch avalanche that rolled over them in the second half . Even before then, it was evident than in Diego Costa there was a problem of players and system. Spain played like a team split into two parts, its disfunctionality underlined by the way its creative passing and movement in mid field seemed to break down with an apparent anxiety to feed balls to the very mediocre lone striker. As for Costa, he showed little ability to combine with his colleagues in any effective way.
Costa’s poor performance did La Roja no favours, just when it needed to maintain the advantage produced by the lucky penalty against him. His very presence seemed to play havoc with the team’s sense of identity and self-worth, drawing regular jeers from the Brazilians in the crowd not just for his perceived patriotic disloyalty but also because he is clearly no Neymar.
By contrast Silva, despite missing a goal opportunity that might have changed things, worked heroically for much of the match, as did Iniesta. The same cannot be said for Pique and Ramos who seemed to play as if this was a minor league game, leaving Spain’s defence pitifully exposed to the Dutch onslaught led by Von Persie.
Del Bosque has shown in the past that if anyone is capable of lifting La Roja from its doldrums it is he. Remember Spain winning the World Cup after losing its first match to Switzerland? Remember Spain thrashing Italy in the finals of Euro 2012 after commentators had speculated that the Spanish ‘era of football’ was over?
Del Bosque’s instinct I think will be to start against Chile with most of the players that lost against the Dutch, including Casillas, but probably not Costa, trusting in the motivation there will be collectively in wanting to recover a sense of self-worth . But he may alternatively draw on his resources bringing in the likes of Mata and Cazorla and Javi Martinez , Pedro and Villa- all of whom can score the goals which Spain desperately will need.
If Spain manages to get through the group stage, it has the strength in depth to win against poorer opposition than the Dutch were last night. That may not be enough to retain the World Cup but I am not writing off Spain’s chances of making history in Brazil- not yet.
