DOHA, Qatar — When Spain broke their 44-year trophy drought by beating Germany 1-0 in the Euro 2008 final, Luis Enrique had just put himself through physical and mental torture. Spain’s current manager, with a team of friends, ran, walked, hobbled and dragged himself across 251km in the blistering heat of the Sahara Desert to complete the infamous “Marathon des Sables.”
Carrying 35kg of supplies, with water and food being the main constituents, he, like all the competitors, slept in open-sided tent structures across six agonising days and nights during which pain, tiredness, blisters, sunburn and psychological strain were his constant companions. He completed the marathon, of course, because he is one tough, fanatically driven, natural athlete who admits he thrives on adversity. In fact, he prefers it.
The winners that year were both Moroccan, for the first time, and the section of the Sahara where this event was born (and continues to baffle any of us whose greatest challenge is 25 solid minutes on the gym treadmill) is in southern Morocco. But now it is Morocco’s Atlas Lions who Luis Enrique must beat to progress in the World Cup and they could be a stringent test of every physical and mental fibre he has.
The fact that the 52 year old will be out of contract whenever Spain’s tournament is complete means that Morocco could feasibly put an end to what have been four enjoyable years of “Lucho-ball.” Away wins in England and Italy, a 6-0 thrashing of Germany (Die Mannschaft‘s record defeat), another 6-0 hammering of Croatia, the first competitive win in Portugal since 1934, a European Championship semifinal, a Nations League final, plus another semifinal in that tournament to come next June.
Not bad, Luis Enrique, not bad. But this, in football terms, is the Holy Grail.
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The only two times Spain won the World Cup, at senior and Under-20 level, endurance, discomfort and suffering were the order of the day.
In 1999, Xavi, Iker Casillas, Carlos Marchena and company took the U20 title in Nigeria. Their experiences in summary: there was a shooting outside their Calabar hotel when they arrived; cockroaches, lizards and rats everywhere in their hotel; they were forced to sleep two players to a bed; Xavi got so ill he shed kilograms in weight he couldn’t afford to lose; and coach Inaki Saez was informed that his mother had died.
Then, in 2010, the real thing. In South Africa, like now, Spain’s players slept in university accommodation. Unlike now it was utterly basic: tiny rooms, two-bar heaters on the wall, no central heating, a tiled floor, a single bed, a TV up on the wall with a screen just about bigger than an iPad or PC. And cash robbed from a couple of the rooms in Durban.
The tournament itself was a struggle on muddy, unpredictable pitches. There was a 1-0 opening match defeat to Switzerland, Andres Iniesta’s emergence from a deep and devastating year of depression, then tension and nerves amongst the squad during the all-or-nothing group games against Honduras and Chile like none of Vicente del Bosque’s players had experienced before or since.
But they thrived. They won. They became legends.
There are, at best, three candidates from Walid Regragui’s team (goalkeeper Bono, full-back Achraf Hakimi and midfielder Sofyan Amrabat) who might slide into the best Spain XI. However, the Atlas Lions are compact, aggressive, quick on the counter, confident and now — thanks to Switzerland in September and Japan the other day — Morocco also have the exact template of how to hurt, and possibly beat, Luis Enrique’s team.
La Roja remain good enough in terms of talent, playing ideas, domination of the ball and desire, to knock Morocco out and progress to either another Iberian showdown with Cristiano Ronaldo‘s Portugal or a rematch with Switzerland — sides against whom they’ve played a grand total of nine times in the last two years.
And, let’s not beat about the bush, Spain should do just that. The trouble is that, on potentially its last outing, “Lucho-ball” is just a touch deflated.
