Spain Rebuild Slowly but Surely After World Cup Blowout

When Spain’s players step off the team bus at the Amsterdam Arena early on Tuesday evening next week, it is doubtful that they will be burdened with the ennui that most assume to be part of being involved in international friendlies.

More than nine months on from the most chastening of World Cup openers for La Furia Roja in Salvador, it is safe to say that the memory of it still regularly haunts Spanish minds­—and never more so than when facing the Netherlands, the nation that meted out the punishment in Brazil’s balmy north-east. 

Perhaps a rebuild had been overdue, with Spain’s stunning performance in the Euro 2012 final against Italy turning out to be a swansong for a peerless generation, though we couldn’t be sure that was the case at the time. The job that Vicente del Bosque is occupying himself with now is radically different to the one he inherited from the late Luis Aragones in 2008.

While the initial brief was maintenance (generally one of football’s most thankless tasks), the emphasis is now slanted toward virtual revolution.

In the 24-man squad picked for the Euro qualifier against Ukraine in Sevilla and the subsequent friendly in Amsterdam, there are nine names who didn’t make the trip to Brazil last summer—Sergio Asenjo, Dani Carvajal, Marc Bartra, Juan Bernat, Mario Suarez, Mikel San Jose, Alvaro Morata, Vitolo and Isco. A 10th, Malaga’s Juanmi, was added on Monday as cover for Diego Costa.

Manu Fernandez/Associated Press/Associated Press

Accordingly, eight dropped out—it was of course a 23-strong group at the World Cup—with Pepe Reina, Javi Martinez, Cesar Azpilicueta, Xavi, Xabi Alonso, Juan Mata, David Villa and Fernando Torres not retained. It should be pointed out that Martinez is injured, while Alonso, Villa and Xavi all retired from the international game after the World Cup.

Some of the form displayed by Mata and Torres since the dawn of 2015 suggests that they might not necessarily be permanently ruled out, even if the latter is not expecting a recall. The wind of change, though, is unmistakable.

It has not been easy, with the October defeat in Slovakia (their first in a qualifier for eight years) suggesting Spain might be about to return to the ranks of mere mortals. Yet if there was ever a qualifying campaign in which a team could afford to forge a new identity, it is this one, ahead of the first 24-team European Championship, where one slip (or even two) would not be fatal.

The talent is there, and the commitment is clear. Asenjo’s rise is one example. Thought of by many as the nation’s future No. 1 when emerging at Valladolid, he was derailed by serious injury—and the arrival, in his absence, of the outstanding Thibaut Courtois—at Atletico Madrid, but he rebuilt his status at Villarreal, years after Reina did the same following his exit from Barcelona.

Miguel Angel Morenatti/Associated Press

Paco Alcacer of Valencia is another, with the 21-year-old’s goal in the October victory in Luxembourg meaning he had scored in each of his first three competitive appearances for the national side. Alcacer has only recently returned from injury and is an absentee from this team, but this is just what Del Bosque wants—quality players fighting hard to get into the squad.

The coach also has to develop untapped resources already in the fold. Koke and Costa, who were Atletico team-mates, both made the trip to Brazil. But neither was able to make the impact they wanted.

Costa’s first goal for Spain against Luxembourg should be the real start of an international career that has had an awkward beginning for various reasons, namely the fitness that saw him arrive in his homeland way off peak physical condition.

Koke, meanwhile, can flourish post-Xavi. The two are not directly comparable and maybe this is a good thing. The Koke-Costa axis promises to furnish Spain with a more direct alter-ego that will certainly have its uses.

Spain haven’t yet recovered from Salvador, and even a win in Amsterdam wouldn’t erase the scars. They do, however, have a plan to rebuild and deserve to at least be considered among the early favourites going into France's Euro 2016.