September 7, 2010

An Unsure Place in History for Spain

By ROB HUGHES

LONDON — The pace of modern life, the rush to make the next buck, makes it difficult to properly appreciate a global champion.

Two months after winning the World Cup, Spain’s soccer players touched down in Buenos Aires this week. On Monday, they were guests at a reception hosted by Argentina’s president, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.

The head of state of Argentina, a nation steeped in the sport, had granted the Spanish squad an unprecedented reception at her official residence.

While the Spanish players sipped orange juice, Argentina’s national players were hard at training, intending no doubt to knock the new world champions off their perch in a prestige match before 65,000 fans at Monumental Stadium on Tuesday night.

“There are no points at stake, but this is a match that breathes football,” said the Spain midfielder Xabi Alonso. “We are the champions of the world, but they will want to look good playing at home and with their new coach.”

The Spanish players, rightly, swelled with pride. And even FIFA, the world governing body, published a technical study acclaiming Spain as “the team of the century.”

Vicente del Bosque, the coach and manager of this team, is not so easily flattered.

“The worst that can happen to this group,” he said on arrival in Buenos Aires, “is to believe that we are the kings of the world.

“We’re just a group of players and a coach, except that we are the world champions. Now that we’ve finished with the objective of winning a World Cup, we have a responsibility to move forward. We’re preparing to validate our European title, but I think Argentina has the talent and, now, the organization, to be on our level.”

The friendly in Buenos Aires was scheduled on the same night that 46 other European nations were playing for points in the 2012 European Championship qualifiers.

Spain is the champion of that, too, but it has to fit in these extra commitments to show off its talents on other continents.

It is an honor, and an obligation. And Spain’s players know just how good Argentina’s individuals can be. Just ask any of the seven Spanish national team men who play in the same Barcelona side as Argentina’s Lionel Messi.

“With Messi,” Spain’s Andrés Iniesta said to Argentine reporters at the airport, “I’d prefer to have him on my side. Leo is a unique talent, a destabilizing threat.”

The question that many were asking at the World Cup this summer is whether Barcelona, a club team, plays at a higher level than almost all the national teams in the world. Since Spain and Barcelona are virtually synonymous, their style and their capacity must be on the same level.

Messi is the exception. He belongs to Argentina, but he was schooled in Barça’s remarkable academy from early adolescence.

A glimpse of Lionel Messi and David Villa, the best of Argentina and the most outstanding striker in all of Spain, suggests what heights they might reach together. But it is, so far, just a glimpse. Although Barcelona paid €40 million, or $51 million, to buy Villa from Valencia in June, the demands of nations have interrupted the Spanish league after just one game of the new season.

Messi and Villa can at least travel back together from Buenos Aires.

They can discuss on the 15-hour flight the FIFA contention that Spain is “a complete team, arguably contenders for team of the century.”

The author of FIFA’s technical study, Jean-Paul Brigger, praises Xavi Hernández , Iniesta and Alonso. “They cover huge amounts of ground in midfield,” he wrote. “But they play fabulous football too. It looks pretty and even playful, but it’s actually very hard work indeed.” No arguments there.

However, FIFA fails to state which century it applies to the current Spanish side. If it is the new one, then obviously a team that has lost only twice in 57 games spanning almost four years — and one that has scored 126 goals while conceding only 27 — is out there in pole position in the global game.

Today’s Spain, however, cannot yet be measured against the great Brazilian sides of the 1950s and the 1970s. It may not, yet, be comparable to the Argentine side featuring Diego Maradona in the 1970s, either. And who is to say whether Spain’s passing and movement will change the entire world game, the way the Magical Magyars of Ferenc Puskas, Nandor Hideguti and others did before the 1956 Hungarian uprising against Communism tore that team apart? In truth, comparing teams of different eras is nothing more than a mind game.

Spain is the best right now, but Del Bosque, with 44 years as a player and coach, refuses to relax. “I think our success is due to a solid base rather than a good generation,” he says. “We have not changed at all since the World Cup, which we won through technical and human effort.” Others, he suggests, are changing. Argentina has moved from the devil-may-care, all-out attacking under Maradona two months ago to what Del Bosque sees as a more considered approach under the replacement coach, Sergio Batista.

“We’re not so far from each other,” Del Bosque said before the game on Tuesday.

“I think Argentina now has an organized game, and they have talent. If the two things work, they could beat us.” Spain, in other words, must work to remain the team of the moment, never mind the team of the century.