I love the European Championship. Like fústar, Fergal and Gobsheen I fell in love with it in 1988 – watching that glorious tournament in disbelief as Ireland competed with the stars I knew and admired (even managing to 'get results') before making their graceful exit after the group stages (almost the quarter-finals really) along with England, Denmark and Spain. Euro '88 will always be with me.
For Ireland, there was a sense of triumph in defeat. For England it was, simply, a disaster. For Denmark it was the end of an era and for Spain it was…well…it was exactly what we had come to expect.
Spain, the cliché goes, are world football’s perennial under-achievers. It's even a cliché to mention this as being a cliché. It's also true. They enter competitions as clandestine favourites, as outsiders, certain semi-finalists if not finalists - people touting them as dark horses and the most likely unlikely team to take the grand prize.
In Spain's favour "they" say that La Liga is one of the strongest in the world, more often than not after Real Madrid have won the Champion's League and UEFA competitions have been dominated by Spanish sides. They point to their customary immaculate run in the qualifiers, their impassioned Latin-blooded supporters (who'll carry them over the finish line), and, of course, the fact that it has to be their turn this time!
Those who write them off usually highlight the tremendous pressure the team is put under by the many Spanish sporting dailies (who always seem to insinuate that Spain merely have to show up and the cup is theirs) that need to fill their column inches with team news and other minutiae. Detractors also note that Spain have never been good on the road, a point traditionally illustrated by the scarcity of Spanish footballers plying their trade in overseas leagues.
For once, all these constants, these footballing norms have been turned on their heads. Firstly, La Liga was, this season, generally agreed to have been anything but spectacular (with Real Madrid finishing the "least worst" as champions) and European club competitions barely seeming to register Spanish representation at all in the latter stages.
Secondly, since the national team hardly romped through the qualifiers (losing twice and drawing once) the press, from what I have read, don’t appear to be automatically hailing the cup as Spain's. This helping of pre-tournament humble pie is rare but welcome.
Thirdly, in the past few seasons Spain has, at last, succeeded in exporting talent – with the likes of Fernando Torres, Çesc Fabregas, Almunia, Arteta and Reina sprinkling their Iberian galactic dust on the notoriously Spanish-unfriendly Premiership (other notables such as Alonso, Arbeloa, Garrido and Piqué deserve honourable mentions too). This Spanish Diaspora may help to break through the notoriously strong regional identities that have stunted both the growth of the national side and the development of any sense of unity. The tables are certainly turning, but is it enough?
At this point I have to say that I lived in Spain for nearly three years. I found the press machine, the irrepressible pre-tournament arrogance and the unquestioning adulation of stars because they were stars all too much to take. I rejoiced when Cyprus beat them 3-2 in Nicosia. I delighted when Nigeria beat them by the same scoreline in the World Cup in France (I think I remember the commentator actually suggesting during the match that the game was an aberration and simply could not be happening, something had to be wrong, Spain could not lose to Nigeria!). I used to balk at their huge, arrogant, self-important chins - those Colonel Tapioca chins sported by Luis Enrique, Julio Salinas, Miguel Nadal and Seve Ballesteros: I loved to see them taken down a peg or two.
Maybe it comes with age, or maybe it’s because I don’t live there anymore, but those feelings have now faded somewhat. Somewhere, in the back of my mind, I feel "It's OK to support them this year. I can cheer them on, they’ve finally learned their lesson" – but then I think how insufferably arrogant they’ll be if they win it and it's hard to balance things out.
Anyway, as I'll be reporting on their Euro 2008 games (as the Super Euro Soccer Party Spanish representative) I'll finish by asking the usual question.
Could this year finally be their turn?
That’s priceless. It’s like Brecht’s Galileo!
“Here have a look in my telescope, Church fathers”, says he, “and you’ll see the proof of what I claim. Copernicus’ heliocentric model of the universe is correct!”
“We don’t have to look”, say they, “For we know that this cannot be. Whatever we see in that tube of yours would have to be a mere illusion. Like Spain’s defeat to Nigeria centuries from now”.
RE: “Colonel Tapioca” - wasn’t he a General?!
June 6th, 2008 at 1:53 pmOn a more serious note, Guillem Balague has an original & interesting theory about consistent Spanish failure…
I’ve never actually heard that view articulated. The fact that they have the players to do it is generally accepted as a given.
It’s a very similar situation with England - where (one could argue) the actual “world-class-ness” of the national squad is consistently overestimated. Who, for example, was the last English “all-time great”?
I should add that I’m not sure what to make of Balague’s theory (maybe he’s underestimating the team) but it’s certainly a refreshing take.
June 6th, 2008 at 2:15 pmDamn! He was a general and he was Alcazar! I can’t believe I mixed them up! Still, you got the reference… by his chin shall you know him
June 6th, 2008 at 10:29 pmBalague is always much more balanced, a real commentator. I see he’s now writing for http://www.as.com too
Alcazar had the chin you speak of in spades. He was all chin.
Tapioca (his main rival) had a more discrete one - sunk into the folds of his flabby face:
I’m not sure where Balague’s chin fits in…perhaps somewhere between the two.
June 7th, 2008 at 12:10 amIs Raul not considered to be world-class? Is Raul to be captain, in the starting eleven, is he injured? Apologies for all the questions, Sky taking my sport away from me, and a lack of tv over the past weeks, leaves me unaware.
The last true, all-time-great for England surely has to be Gascoigne. But that is easy to say, and besides, how many countries ever produce a true all-time-great? If we are to be sensible about it we can say very few indeed, for these players are few and far between.
June 7th, 2008 at 11:26 amMM,
Raul didn’t even make the squad - so Aragones (at least) doesn’t consider him world class anymore.
It’s reasonable to ask how often all-time greats are produced (or what countries produce ‘em). I’d imagine that Balague’s point was that having such a player in an already competent team gives you the extra push needed to win major competitions.
Actually, when you break it down like that it seems a pretty unremarkable and obvious point! Greece, for example, proved that you don’t need great players (or even very good players) to win things.
Still, it’s hard to argue with the suggestion that Spain have never really produced someone of the class of Platini, Van Basten, Gullit, Zidane, Baggio, Hagi etc, etc. What that actually means RE: their failures is, of course, another matter.
June 7th, 2008 at 2:17 pm¡Este no puede ser! exclaimed a similar Spanish commentator when the Spanish International Handball team were defeated by the French…seems they have difficulty accepting that the days of the Conquistadores may have ended some time ago.
As for the General Alcazar chin, it’s a rather unfortunate Iberian characteristic which implies smugness. Its bearers face a similar fate to a child born with one eyebrow permanently raised.
June 11th, 2008 at 3:04 pm