The Spanish national football team represents Spain in international football and is controlled by the Royal Spanish Football Federation. The Spanish side is commonly referred to as La Furia Roja (The Red Fury).[6]
Spain is the reigning European champion team, having won the UEFA European Championship in 2008. Spain also won the European Nations' Cup in 1964 and reached the UEFA Euro 1984 Final. Spain has qualified for the FIFA World Cup 12 times, reaching fourth place in the 1950 tournament and reached the quarter finals 4 times in the world cup (34, 86, 94 and 2002).
In July 2008, Spain rose to the top of the FIFA World Ranking for the first time in its history, becoming the sixth nation, and the first who has never won the World Cup, to top this ranking. Between November 2006 and June 2009, Spain went undefeated for a record tying 35 consecutive matches --record shared with Brazil-- including a record 15-game winning streak until being defeated by the United States National Team 2-0 at the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup.
[edit] History
[edit] Early years
[edit] 1950 World Cup
Founded in 1913, the Spanish Civil War and World War II prevented Spain from playing any competitive match until the 1950 World Cup. There they topped their group against England, Chile and the United States to progress to the final round. The cup was decided in a league format against the other group winners -- Brazil, Uruguay, and Sweden. Spain gained only one point by drawing with eventual winners Uruguay, losing to both Brazil and Sweden, thus finishing fourth, which remains their best performance in a World Cup. At this time, the winner of the World Cup was decided not by a single championship match, but via a group format involving the four teams who had won their respective groups in the previous stage. The four teams in the final group were Uruguay, Brazil, Sweden and Spain. Spain failed to record a win (W0 D1 L2)and finished in fourth place. To date, this fourth place finish remains the furthest that Spain has reached in the World Cup. Spain's leading scorer during the 1950 World Cup was striker Estanislao Basora, who ended the tournament with five goals.
Under French-Argentine coach Helenio Herrera and Italian assistant coach Daniel Newlan, Spain came out of dormancy to qualify for the first European Championship in 1960. Spain beat Poland 7-2 on aggregate to progress to the quarterfinals. However, Spain forfeited its quarterfinal tie with the Soviet Union because of political circumstances between Spain's dictator Franco and the Soviets.
The Spaniards, led by Alfredo Di Stéfano, qualified to the 1962 World Cup.
[edit] José Villalonga era and the 1964 European champions
In 1962, José Villalonga was appointed coach of Spain. Under Villalonga, Spain qualified for the 1962 World Cup but was eliminated in the first round group against Brazil, Czechoslovakia, and Mexico. Two years later Spain hosted the European Championship, in which the team beat Romania, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland to move on to the semifinals. There they beat highly-favoured Hungary 2-1 after extra time. Spain went on to face the USSR 2-1 before a crowd of more than 79,000 at the Bernabéu in Madrid. Jesús María Pereda put Spain ahead after just six minutes, but Galimzian Khusainov equalised a few minutes later with a free kick. Marcelino Martínez put in a late header to win Spain's first major international title.
As European champions, Spain automatically qualified for the 1966 World Cup, retaining much of the same squad from 1964 and keeping José Villalonga at the helm. However, they failed to progress beyond the first round, defeating only Switzerland and losing to West Germany and Argentina.
The departure of Villalonga put Spain into another period of mixed results. After winning its group in the qualifying rounds of the Euro 68, the team was knocked out by England in the quarterfinals and did not make it to the final tournament held in Italy. Spain did not qualify for another tournament until Euro 76.
[edit] Late 1970s and early 1980s
Spain returned to form with an undefeated progess through a qualifying group for Euro 76 against Romania, Scotland, and Denmark, but failed to reach the final stages after a 3-1 defeat by West Germany in the quarterfinals.
The 1978 World Cup witnessed Spain's first World Cup finals appearance since 1966. Spain qualified by finishing top of a group including Yugoslavia and Romania with three wins in four matches. In the finals, Spain was drawn into group 3 with Brazil, Austria, and Sweden. Spain started the finals by losing 2-1 to Austria, but despite drawing with Brazil 0-0 and defeating Sweden 1-0, Spain was knocked out at that stage.
Euro 1980 saw Spain qualify for the first eight-team European championship by surpassing Romania, Yugoslavia, and Cyprus. At the tournament in Italy, Spain was drawn into group B with the hosts, England, and Belgium. Spain gained only one point after a draw with Italy and again exited without reaching the quarterfinals.
[edit] 1982 World Cup in Spain
In 1966, Spain was selected as host of the 1982 FIFA World Cup. This edition of the World Cup featured 24 teams for the first time. Expectations were high for Spain as the host nation under coach José Santamaría. In the group stages, Spain was drawn into Group 5, in which they could only manage a 1-1 draw with Honduras in the finals' opening match, after which they had a 2-1 victory over Yugoslavia, but were defeated 1-0 by Northern Ireland. These results were enough to secure progress to the second round where they were drawn into Group B, but defeat to West Germany and a goalless draw with England meant that Spain were knocked out, and Santamaría was sacked.
[edit] 1984 to 1988
Former Real Madrid coach Miguel Muñoz, who had temporarily coached Spain in 1969, replaced by Daniel Newlan, returned to coach the national side. Spain was in Euro 84 qualifying Group 7, against The Netherlands, Republic of Ireland, Iceland, and Malta. Entering the last match, Spain needed to defeat Malta by at least 11 goals to surpass the Netherlands for the top spot in the group, and after leading 3-1 at half time, Spain scored nine goals in the second half to win by 12-1 and win the group. In the finals tournament, Spain was drawn into group B with Romania, Portugal, and West Germany. After 1-1 draws against their first two opponents, Spain topped the group by virtue of a 1-0 victory against West Germany. The semifinals saw Spain and Denmark drawn at 1-1 after extra time, before Spain proceeded by virtue of winning the penalty shootout 5-4 on penalties. Hosts and tournament favourites France defeated Spain 2-0 in the final after a goalless first half.
Spain qualified for the 1986 World Cup in Mexico having topped Group 7 with Scotland, Wales, and Iceland. Spain began the group stage by losing to Brazil 1-0, but progressed after beating Northern Ireland by 2-1 and Algeria by 3-0. Round 2 paired Spain with Denmark, who they overcame 5-1 with Emilio Butragueño scoring four goals, but in the quarterfinals a 1-1 draw with Belgium ended with Belgium winning 5-4 on penalties.
Muñoz was retained as coach for Euro 88. As in the several previous tournaments Spain qualified impressively in a group with Austria, Romania, and Albania. Spain were drawn into group A and began their tournament with a 3-2 victory over Denmark, but were nevertheless knocked out in the group stage after losing 1-0 and 2-0 to Italy and West Germany respectively.
[edit] 1990 to 1992
For the 1990 World Cup in Italy, Spain had a new coach, Luis Suárez. Having qualified from a group consisting of Republic of Ireland, Hungary, Northern Ireland, and Malta, Spain entered the competition on a good run of form, and after reaching the knock out stages through a 0-0 draw with Uruguay and wins over South Korea (3-1) and Belgium (2-1), fell to a 2-1 defeat to Yugoslavia in the second round.
Newly appointed coach Vicente Miera failed to gain qualification for Spain for Euro 92, after finishing third in a group behind France and Czechoslovakia. Vicente Miera did however lead Spain to the gold medal at the 1992 Olympics[5] in Barcelona.
[edit] Clemente's reign, 1992-98
Javier Clemente was appointed as Spain's coach in 1992, and the qualification for the 1994 World Cup was achieved with eight wins and one loss in twelve matches. In the final tournament Spain were in Group C in which they drew with Korea Republic 2-2 and 1-1 with Germany, before qualifying for the second round with a 3-1 victory over Bolivia. Spain continued through the second round with a 3-0 victory over Switzerland, but their tournament ended with a 2-1 defeat to Italy in the quarter-finals.
Spain qualified for Euro 96 from a group consisting of Denmark, Belgium, Cyprus, F.Y.R.O.M., and Armenia. In the final tournament Spain faced group matches against Bulgaria, France and Romania. With 1-1 draws against the first two opponents, and a 2-1 win over Romania, Spain confirmed their place in the quarter-finals, with a match with hosts England, which finished goalless and Spain eventually fell 4-2 in the shootout.[7]
In his second World Cup as Spain's coach, Clemente led his team undefeated through their qualifying group in which Yugoslavia and Czech Republic were the other contenders. Spain qualified with fourteen other European sides in the first ever thirty-two team World Cup, but were eliminated in the first round with four points after losing to Nigeria, drawing with Paraguay, and winning just one game, against Bulgaria.
[edit] Euro 2000 and World Cup 2002
After a 3-2 opening defeat to Cyprus in Euro 2000 qualifying, Clemente was fired and José Antonio Camacho was appointed as coach. Spain won the rest of their games to qualify for the final tournament, where they were drawn into Group C. A 1-0 defeat to Norway was followed by victories over Slovenia (2-1) and Yugoslavia (4-3), with Spain thus setting up a quarterfinal against 1998 World Cup champions, France, which was won 2-1 by France.
The qualifying tournament for the 2002 World Cup went as expected for Spain as Spain topped a group consisting of Austria, Israel, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Liechtenstein. In the finals tournament Spain won its three matches in group B, against Slovenia, Paraguay (both by 3-1), and South Africa (3-2). Spain beat Republic of Ireland on penalties in the second round, and faced co-hosts Korea Republic in the quarterfinals. Spain twice thought they had scored, but the efforts were disallowed, though video replays showed that both goals were valid and Korea was successful in the penalty shootout after a 0-0 draw.
[edit] Euro 2004
At Euro 2004 in Portugal, Spain was drawn into group A with hosts Portugal, Russia and Greece, behind whom they had finished second in qualifying. Spain defeated Russia 1-0 and drew 1-1 with Greece, but failed to get the draw they needed against Portugal to proceed to the knock out stages. Iñaki Sáez was sacked weeks later and replaced by Luis Aragonés.
[edit] Luis Aragonés era, 2006 World Cup and Euro 2008
Spain qualified for the 2006 World Cup only after a play-off against Slovakia, as they had finished behind Serbia and Montenegro in Group 7, which also included Bosnia and Herzegovina, Belgium, Lithuania, and San Marino. In Group H of the German hosted finals, Spain won all their matches, beating Ukraine 4-0, Tunisia 3-1 and Saudi Arabia 1-0. However Spain fell 3-1 in the second round to France, with only the consolation of a share, with Brazil, of the 2006 FIFA Fair Play Award.
Spain qualified for Euro 2008 at the top of Qualifying Group F with 28 points out of a possible 36, and were seeded 12th for the finals. They won all their games in Group D: 4-1 against Russia, and 2-1 against both Sweden and defending champions Greece.
Spanish players celebrating their victory in Madrid.
Reigning World Cup holders Italy were the opponents in the quarter final match, and held Spain to a finished 0-0 draw resulting in a penalty shoot-out which Spain won 4-2. Spain met Russia again in the semi-final, again beating them, this time by 3-0.[8].
In the final, played in Vienna's Ernst-Happel-Stadion, Spain defeated Germany 1-0, with a goal scored by Fernando Torres in the 33rd minute.[9] This was Spain's first major title since the 1964 European Championship. Spain were the top scoring team, with 12 goals, and David Villa finished as the top scorer with four goals; Xavi was awarded the player of the tournament, and nine Spanish players were picked for the UEFA Euro 2008 Team of the Tournament.[10]
Shortly after the tournament, Spain reached the top of the FIFA World Rankings for the first time, the first team never to have won a World Cup to achieve this.
[edit] Confederations Cup debut and 2010 World Cup qualification
Luis Aragonés left the manager's role after the Euro 2008 success, and was replaced by Vicente del Bosque.[11]
2008 saw David Villa score 12 goals in 15 games, breaking the Spanish record of 10 goals in one year held by Raúl since 1999.[12] On 11 February 2009, David Villa broke another Spanish record as his 36th-minute goal saw him become the first Spanish player to score in six consecutive games.[13]
Spain began its 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification campaign with six successive wins, and went into the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup as one of the favourites. By the start of the tournament, Del Bosque's had ten consecutive wins, making him the first international manager to do so from his debut, breaking Joao Saldanha's record, held since 1969, of nine consecutive wins with Brazil.
Spain won all three of its matches at the group stage, the 5-0 win over New Zealand including a Fernando Torres hat-trick that is the earliest and fastest hat-trick in the tournament's history. With further wins over Iraq (1-0) and South Africa (2-0) they earned not only qualification for the semifinals, but also obtained the world record for 15 consecutive wins and tied the record of 35 consecutive unbeaten games (with Brazil).
On 24 June 2009, Spain's undefeated record ended when the United States beat Spain 2-0 in the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup semi-finals which sent Spain to the third place match. This was Spain's first defeat since 2006. Spain defeated hosts South Africa 3-2 after extra time in the 3rd-place playoff.[14]
On 9 September 2009, Spain secured its place at the 2010 World Cup finals after beating Estonia 3-0 in Mérida.[15] Spain went on to record a perfect World Cup qualifying record with 10 wins out of 10 in Group 5, finishing with a 5-2 victory over Bosnia and Herzegovina on 14 October 2009.[16] The Spaniards entered the 2010 World Cup as second place in the world rankings.
In their World Cup 2010 opener on June 16, they were stunned by Switzerland, 1-0.
[edit] 2010 FIFA World Cup
The 2010 World Cup draw, which took place on 4 December 2009, placed Spain in Group H. Spain lost its first group stage match against Switzerland, 0-1. In their second match they defeated Honduras by 2 goals of David Villa. Their next match against Chile on 25 June was won 2-1. They advanced to the knockout stage to face Portugal.
