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Football:
The Spanish therapy
Álvaro Amor Suquia

Int roduct ion
When I was 8 years old, I wasn't interested in watching football. I loved to play it,
but not to watch it. In 2008, my life changed because I became the lover of football
I am now. That year, the Euro cup was the main focus for the continent and the
Spanish national team, the national team of my country, was in the tournament.
For the last 24 years Spain had never classified to a final, and in 2008 they did.
The final was against Germany, one of best national teams in the history, so a
team with much experience in that type of matches. I wasn't nervous about the
final, because I wasn't interested at all, only in penalties against Italy. The day of
the final arrived and I suddenly started to be nervous, but I didn´ t know why.
When the match began the 11 players weren't alone, all of Spain was the team.
European people thought that Spain was going to lose, but Spain were confident
and the team didn't give up. Fernando Torres was to be the hero, even though at
the beginning of the match he hit the post. Then Spain started to attack like they
did during the Euro cup. Finally when the referee´ s clock was marking the 18th
minute of the match, Fernando Torres won the position against Phillip Lamp and
he raised the ball over the goalkeeper. In that moment, my heart was stopped, the
ball could have gone outside, but it entered in the goal near to the post. I jumped
like anyone else and I celebrated like everyone, It was impossible that my country's
national team was winning the final against Germany and yet it was happening.

After the second half, Spain became the Euro cup winners after 44 years without
winning a title. I started to cry and my parents asked, ?What happened?? and I will
never forget my feelings, ?I don't know why I am crying, but I know I am so happy!?
I said. My tears were the beginning of the love and respect I feel watching and
playing football, therefore this final was the only moment of my life in which I cried
of happiness.
Spanish national team is known as ?La Roja? and the under 21 national team ?La
Rojita?, this means the red and the small red in English. Spain has won 4 titles in all
its history, including 3 Euro cups and 1 World cup. By winning the World cup, Spain
entered in the list of 8 national teams who won the title, in this list we have: Brazil
who won it 5 times, Germany and Italy won it 4 times, Argentina, France and
Uruguay 2 times and England and Spain only one. In the twenty century, Spain
only won one Euro cup in 1964 and in 1984 they got into a final of the Euro cup,
but they lost against France.
Spanish people in the XX century were proud and happy to be from Spain so
football was reinforcing that feeling, but in the XXI century, specifically around
2012, many people from Spain started to be ashamed of being Spanish, because
corrupt politics who led us to crisis or the bull fighting, because many people in
Spain now care about animal rights and bull fighting is considered culture in Spain,
so it is just disgusting. Actually, when there is a European or World competition in
which Spain participates Spanish people support them with passion, this is the
magic of football in Spain.

Euro Cup 2008
In 2007 Spain fell into a huge crisis in which the unemployment reached more than 23%
(Gonzalez, 2008). Even though we were in crisis, in the summer of 2008, Spain was going
to play the Euro cup, the coach was, the Atletico de Madrid legend, Luis Aragones. In the
qualification for the Euro cup, Spain was playing horrible, losing the first matches, but the
7th of february 2007, Spain won against England in Old Trafford. This issue changed the
history of football, because since that match Spain had reached a world record as the
national team with more games in a row without losing 35 games (Ciudad del fútbol,
2017). The coach was criticized because the main star of Spain, the Real Madrid striker,
Raúl Blanco, was not called for the team.
Actually, not only Raúl was not called, many recognised players weren't in his list for the
Euro, instead of them, Luis gambled on young players like David Villa, Cesc Fabregas or
Fernando Torres, highlighting the stars from the Barcelona FC, the best team that time .
Everyone in Spain treated him as he was an ignorant, but in this tournament with this
young players, he created the best era of Spanish football, following the philosophy of
Barcelona FC, the ?tiki-taka? style.
Spain qualified for the Euro, and in the group stage Spain had Russia, Sweden and Greece.
The first match against Russia show the incredible shape of the team, winning 4-1 with a
hat-trick of David Villa. After winning the other games for 2-1, Spain passed into the
quarter finals, facing a hard team like Italy.

Italy was an expert in this type of matches and the young Spanish team didn't have any
experience. After 90 minutes between this incredible teams, the result was 0-0 and they
went to extra time. In the last minute of the extension, the 120th minute, Spain had the
chance to win but David Villa couldn´ t get the pass from Cazorla, so they finished 0-0, this
meant they would decide their participation in the Euro by penalties. After 4 penalties for
each team, Spain was winning 3-2, Casillas saved the penalty of Di Natale and Fabregas
scored the last penalty achieving victory for Spain.
In the semi finals, Spain faced Russia again, Russia had already eliminated Holland before
facing Spain so it was a hard match. In the 30th minute, David Villa, the star of the Spain,
got injured. Even though the star wasn't on the pitch, Spain won 0-3. But this injury pushed
Villa out of the tournament, so Spain was facing Germany without his main stricker in the
final.
(Sportyou, 2018)

World Cup 2010
Spain had been suffering difficulties since 2008, but in 2010 the economic
recession, which had lasted for 2 years, stopped (Castilla, 2017). Even though the
crisis wasn´ t worsening, Spanish people were disappointed with the situation of
the country and the politics, this was the beginning of the era we are living now.
Presently, some Spanish people are embarrassed to be from Spain because of the
politics and some unpopular beliefs and traditions of the country, like the bull
fighting. This fact wasn't enough to stop the support the Spanish national team
which in 2010 was going to play the World Cup. Spain arrived to South Africa's
World Cup as one of the favorites ones to win the title. In this team, we find the
same players who won the Euro 2 years ago, but the striker Fernando Torres, who
was called by the coach, was injured, so David Villa was the main star in the
Spanish offensive.
(Wikimedia commons, 2016)

In group stage the Spanish team got; Honduras, Switzerland and Chile, the most
dangerous of the group. We lost the first match 0-1 against Switzerland, putting
the Spanish team in a difficult position, therefore we needed to win the other 2
matches to get in the next round. We won 2-0 against Honduras with two goals of
David Villa who disappeared in the first match. We needed to won in the last
match against Chile who was the first in the group and the Spanish team did it 1-2
with another goal of Villa who was going to be essential for this title.We finished
the groups stage been firsts and we faced Portugal with one of the best players in
the world, Cristiano Ronaldo. Despite the fact that we faced Cristiano Ronaldo, the
Spanish team won 1-0 with another goal from Villa. In the quarter finals we faced
Paraguay, it was a hard match, Casillas made an incredible save in a penalty, but
again Villa gave the passport to next round scoring in the 83th minute.
In semifinals the new challenger was Germany, the team to face in the final of the
Euro 2008. The match was the hardest until that point, therefore in the German
team were playing footballers like Ozill, Muller or Neuer. We won the match with a
legendary goal of our capitan, Carles Puyol, an incredible header assisted by a
corner kick served by Xavi Hernandez.
After the title we won 2 years ago we got to a final again, after an incredible labour
of the Spanish national team and with Villa as the top scorer of the tournament.
We played against Holland in the final, highlighting players like Robben, Sneijder or
Van Persie. In the first 90 minutes of the game both teams were parallel,
highlighting the performance of Iker Casillas, the Spanish goalkeeper, who saved
two ?one against one? against Robben. The Spanish team arrived to the added time
and in the 116th minute Andre Iniesta scored the goal which gave us the most
important title of the history of Spanish football.

After the World Cup of 2010, Spain also won the Euro cup 2012 establishing
another record with 3 titles in a row (Ciudad del fútbol, 2017)
Even though Spain was on its best moment, in the World cup 2014 the Spanish
team did not pass the groups stage, losing against Holland and Chile. In the Euro
cup of 2016 Spain passed the group stage but in the second position and they lost
against Italy in the quarter finals.
Since 2010 the Spanish national team has been losing in the firsts rounds of the
tournaments, but the team was also supported by us, by the Spanish people. It
does not matter if we are in crisis or in a war Spain will be garther to support our
team in the victories and in the defeats.
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