Spain for one hundred percent – Newspaper Kommersant No. 218 (7419) of 11/24/2022
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Unlike the German national team, another giant from group E in his opening match generously showed not his shortcomings, but his merits. Having played insanely bright, insanely fresh football, the Spaniards defeated the Costa Ricans with an amazing score – 7:0.
The first half of this match barely exceeded the middle, and the Al Thumama stadium stands seem to have exhausted the whole set of sounds with which people are used to expressing delight and pleasure. They were screaming. They groaned. They groaned. And not even after the goal, but when he saw how Jordi Alba was torturing the defender who was next to him with feints, how he was throwing the ball between his legs, as if near Alba it was not a football professional, but some kind of teapot, which it was not clear how skidded to Doha – well, too chic! They, the stands, already seem to be even a little tired of this delight, and the Spanish team did not let them rest, calm down.
The list of giants who disappointed with their game, made me doubt that they are real giants, has been growing at a frightening pace in the Qatari championship in recent days. But the Spanish team was not going to replenish it, joining the competitors in the group – the Germans who had just lost to the Japanese team.
She was exactly the Spanish team that was expected in Qatar. Youth and wisdom exactly in half. Techniques, dexterity – in bulk, tons. There is trouble with forwards, professional scorers, but they don’t give a damn, because everywhere, on every part of the field, and in front and even behind, there are players with a bright head and skillful legs, at any moment ready to aggravate, invent something beautiful and useful. And still do not care about the schemes and conventions of arrangement. These players will still be constantly changing places. And if you already had time to think that Dani Olmo was assigned a position on the edge of the attack, to the right of Marco Asensio (it’s at the right corner of the goalkeeper’s area that he receives a long pass from 19-year-old Pedri, slightly missing the far corner), then don’t be surprised if through a minute later you will see him on the left, where Ferran Torres has just been, and a minute later – in the center.
He found himself in the center of the penalty area when another Spanish combination taxied to a subtle pass to him from another talented teenager – Gavi. Olmo was not very comfortable: the gate was behind his back, and because of the rebound, the ball did not lie directly on the leg, but jumped. But it took the Spaniard moments to process it, to turn around. And soon the ball was already in the net of Keylor Navas, and the Spanish national team celebrated their entry into the prestigious club.
Until now, only five teams – German, Brazilian, Argentinean, Italian and French – have managed to score a hundred goals in the World Cup. Now the Spaniards are in this company: Olmo’s goal was just the hundredth for them.
And soon the Spaniards drew a combination that was a living embodiment of the style so loved by their coach Luis Enrique. This is no longer the old tiki-taka, but something more advanced and complex. It’s not necessary to prepare an explosion with an endless small spread, but you can, as Sergio Busquets did, immediately transfer the ball to the left of Jordi Alba, who is a couple of tens of meters away, and he instantly, having already calculated everything in advance, will send the ball to the penalty line, knowing that Marco Asensio, who for some reason is completely denied center-forward skills, shoots on the move no worse than, say, Robert Lewandowski would shoot, and Keylor Navas, a formidable goalkeeper, cannot cope with such a blow.
And then Alba, who had already exhausted the Costa Rican defenders, finally ran into a foul in the penalty area from Oscar Duarte, and the unfortunate Navas missed the third goal – from the penalty spot from Ferran Torres. And it seemed that the Spaniards might stop there. But no, this team, which itself gets high from its coolness, cannot stop even at 3:0 in its favor, seeing that the enemy is already on its knees.
Ferran Torres produced another Spanish masterpiece after the break. He was with the ball about five or six meters from the gate. Brian Oviedo came close to Torres. Navas was already here as well. Behind, their partners hurried to the rescue. It was such a trap from which there was no escape. Ferran Torres, spinning and breaking through the gates abandoned by Navas, got out of it effortlessly.
But this was not enough for the Spaniards. Luis Enrique fielded understudies, including understudies as young as Pedri and Gavi – Alejandro Balde, Nico Williams. And nothing spoiled, beauty did not disappear anywhere. And the fifth goal was just as magnificent as the fourth: Gavi, receiving a pass from Alvaro Morata, hit the ball falling on the lawn with the outside of the foot and drove it into the corner, hooking the post.
And even in the end, the Spaniards continued to create their football miracles, not wanting to lower the curtain. They scored the sixth goal after a rebound from Navas was picked up by Carlos Soler, the seventh – after the ball was neatly rolled into the corner by Alvaro Morata … The Costa Rica team is not the team to consider it a terrible opponent. But still, it was absolutely impossible to imagine that she could lose to someone with a score of 0:7.
And it must be assumed that those who were lucky enough to attend the second game in Group E terribly did not want to spoil their impressions of it with the thoughts that Spanish magic was being tested on a team of such a level, that the tests were much trickier ahead. At such moments, filling your head with them is a great stupidity, even if a solid share of relevance in these thoughts, whatever one may say, is present.
First tour
Spain-Costa Rica 7:0
Olmo, 11; Asensio, 21; Torres, 31 (pen.), 54; Gavi, 74; Soler, 90; Morata, 90+2
November 23rd. Al Thumama Stadium. 40,013 spectators.
Match statistics
Spain Costa Rica
Shots on goal 17 0
shots on target 8 0
Corners 5 0
Offsides 3 7
fouls 8 12
Warnings 0 2
% possession 82 18
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