Spain’s coach says team won’t get a big head
Reporting from Johannesburg and Durban, South Africa — Despite its European title, the record-tying 35-match unbeaten streak it carried into last summer and the No. 1 world ranking it had four months ago, Spain somehow still manages to sneak up on people.
For a time it looked as if it might not even get out of group play at this World Cup — and two weeks later Spain is in the final.
But if winning hasn’t changed Spain, Vicente del Bosque, the team’s unexcitable coach, promises the long-overdue recognition of others won’t change it either.
“We will try to keep our eyes wide open and not be blinded by success,” he said after Wednesday’s 1-0 semifinal win over Germany. “I can only say what it means to be in the final. Spain certainly deserves to be on top.”
But asked whether a win over Holland in Sunday’s final would be the pinnacle for his team, Del Bosque demurred.
“You never know,” he said. “I know there are not many things more important than a World Cup. But perhaps more things will come. It is a young team.”
Wunderkinds
Germany’s team is young, too, averaging 25 years of age — third-youngest among the 32 World Cup teams but less than a year younger than the Spanish roster.
That would seem to guarantee that Germany and Spain, which played for the 2008 European Championship, then met in the semifinals here, will face one another in other important matches in the not-so-distant future.
“Spain is a wonderful team,” German Coach Joachim Loew said. “[But] my team has played an excellent tournament and it’s going to get better still.”
Germany clearly missed the offensive presence of 20-year-old striker Thomas Mueller, who had to sit out the semifinal after picking up his second yellow card of the tournament in Germany’s quarterfinal win over Argentina.
“It would have been different with him,” Loew said. “This can always happen when a player is suspended. In the last games he has been a very dangerous player. He hurts opponents. He would’ve suited our style of play very well today.”
Attendance tops 3 million
The crowd of 60,960 at Wednesday’s semifinal in Durban pushed the total World Cup attendance past 3 million for just the third time.
The 1994 tournament in the United States drew a record 3.59 million for 52 games; the 2006 tournament in Germany drew 3.36 million.
The U.S. World Cup also set the record for highest average attendance,
68,991 per match.
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Someone from Holland or Spain will accept the World Cup trophy on Sunday. But just who will hand it over remains guesswork four days before the final.
FIFA said it has not decided who will take part in the ceremony with the captain of the winning team, a hint that former South African President Nelson Mandela is among the candidates. Mandela is in failing health and officials may be waiting to see if he’ll be up to attending the match.
Mandela’s foundation released a statement saying no decision has been made on whether he will accept an invitation to attend the final.
