It’s extremely unfortunate that just when Spain desperately need a jack-in-the-box, it’s a few jackals who’ve popped up instead. That “jack-in-the-box” can be defined as any player with the golden ability to suddenly shock opponents with a crucial, match-turning goal.
Not simply because, right now, that’s La Roja’s glaringly obvious Achilles heel. But especially because their Nations League semifinal opponents this week are Italy. Notoriously savvy, and ruthlessly organised defensively at the best of times, Italy have played out 1-1 or 0-0 draws in seven of their last 14 matches against Spain. It’s squeaky tight between these two.
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La Roja’s likeable, decent and relatively new coach Luis de la Fuente (don’t worry if you’ve not heard of him because his talent makes up for his lack of celebrity) needs one of his guys to produce clutch goals, so that he’s not clutching at straws as far as his job security goes. The jackal reference is because, just two matches into the Basque manager’s tenure in charge of the national team, a group of journalists on a popular Spanish radio show hosted a discussion where several of them elbowed each other out of the way to testify that unless the ex-Athletic Club “Lion” (the Bilbao club’s nickname) won this match, and in fact this tournament, it was likely he’d be sacked.
The “El Larguero” reporters, on Cadena SER, claimed, without quoting anyone directly, that some Spain players and “some in the Spanish Federation” viewed De La Fuente as having been “overwhelmed” by the matches against Norway (a 3-0 win) and Scotland (a 2-0 loss). They reckoned his job was already on the line. Having had two, I emphasise, two matches in charge at that point.
