Spain Olympic Soccer Team 2012: Adjustments Spain Must Make After Japan Upset

It's only Day 2 of the Olympics, and already, we have a colossal upset on our hands.

Spain's under-23 team shocked the world in dropping its first Olympic match to Japan 1-0, just a few weeks after the national team took home the 2012 Euro crown. 

On Thursday, Spain did itself in by allowing a goal in the 34th minute to Yuki Otsu. That early goal was all Japan needed to come away with the win. Spain couldn't climb out of the hole, and even though it managed to maintain the score for the rest of the match, it let Japan control the tempo.

It was as though this club gave up as soon as the pressure hit on Thursday. But this isn't the first goal the Spanish are going to allow during the Olympics, and if they react this way—with such extreme passivity—every time their opponents score, these Games are going to end badly.

This is a nation that has been the king of football over the last several years.

It's won the last two Euros and the last World Cup, giving it a record three consecutive major tournament wins. Spain has been one of the strongest clubs in the world over the last four years. When it counts the most, it has been able to win.

But no one was expecting the London Games to be easy for this Olympic team, especially after drawing a first-game matchup against Japan, which finished fourth in the 2008 Games. Now that the worst has happened and Spain already has a loss on its hands, the pressure is on—and this team can't react to that pressure the same way it reacted during its first match.

By no means does this loss mean that Spain has no chance of winning the gold.

It just means it has less leeway as its second matchup against Honduras looms on Sunday. If this team plans on escaping with a point or three and keeping itself alive in the hunt for a quarterfinals berth, some adjustments must be made.

Granted, this under-23 team doesn't boast the same talent or experience as the national squad that has taken home the last two Euros, but it could learn a thing or two from those guys, who rarely even let the ball approach their own net.

Perhaps from here on out, Spain needs to better manage the expectations it is facing. When your country has rarely been challenged over the last several years, it's easy to get complacent. Maybe that's what happened against Japan. Maybe, when they went down early, the Spanish panicked and got off their game. They lost their confidence, which is something the Euro champion teams never allowed themselves to do. 

A mental edge may not seem like a big deal, but it's often the most sensible way to explain why top teams lose to underdogs. And after Otsu's goal, Japan has a massive mental edge. 

Japan did everything right on Thursday. It refused to get intimidated, it came out aggressive and then it played stellar defense until the final seconds ticked off the clock.

Maybe Spain needs to take a page out of that book if it hopes to continue its quest for the gold.