The Spanish mystery

I saw the highlights of the friendly match between Brazil v Portugal on Sunday's SBS. The match, played at Arsenal's Emirates Stadium in London, was reasonably entertaining. Both sides played attacking football & showed good passing & movement, although Brazil's attack seemed a little less sharp than usual (maybe because they miss Ronaldinho & quicksilver Robinho). Portugal ended up winning 2-0 thanks to 2 late goals. I think Portugal's Brazilian coach Luis Felipe Scolari knew his compatriots too well, & so manage to use this "insider knowledge" to Portugal's advantage. OK, that knowledge played a part in Portugal's victory, but it should not take too much away from Portugal's achievement. Portugal won mainly because they are very good. And in Cristiano Ronaldo (surely the best footballer at Manchester United), they have a real superstar in the making - if he's not one already.

Under Scolari's management, Portugal have done very well. They reached the final of Euro 2004 on home soil & were unlucky to lose, & reached the semis at World Cup 2006 where they narrowly fell to Zidane's France. Maintain their current form & they will surely be a force at Euro 2008. Portugal's recent success makes me ponder on the following question: why can't their neighbours Spain do the same at international tournaments??

That's got to be one of the biggest mysteries in football. Spain are surely football's biggest underachievers (serial underachievers) - even more so than the Netherlands or Portugal. Given the talented players that Spain consistently produce, one would have thought that Spain's record at international tournaments would be better than it is, & in fact some may even expect Spain to have won more major trophies than the one title they have so far won (the European Championship in 1964). Spanish club sides taste regular success in European competitions. The current club champions of Europe are Barcelona FC - I'm proud to say they're my club team & I'm proud that they won European club's biggest price (UEFA Champions League) in May 2006. But now what I would like to see is for Spain to win Euro 2008. That will not happen if they continue their post-World Cup form slump, although Spain's recent win over England in a friendly (on the same day Portugal played Brazil) should hopefully spur them on to hit their stride come the Euro 2008 qualifying matches (their next match is against Denmark in March 07).

But back to the topic - why does Spain underachieve? (underachieve = less successful compared to the other major football sides) Why have they not been able to match Portugal's recent exploits at international tournaments? It's definitely not because of player quality - the Spanish footballers are not inferior to the Portuguese, or any other major European teams for that matter. Spain is widely recognised as a producer of talent & their youth system is among Europe's best. In fact, Spain have been champions of Europe at under-17, under-19 & under-21 levels - if you combine all the trophies Spain won at these "age group" levels, I think they have won more titles than any other European nation. The fact that they can't translate that success into senior team level is a huge mystery.

It's not because the Spaniards can't play as a team. In fact, during the group stages of WC2006, Spain were better than any other European team, & many (me included) thought Spain at last are on the way to shedding the "serial underachiever" tag. But come the knockout stages, they met their match in France & were sent packing. Even then, no one can question the footballing ability of Spanish players. They played reasonably well against France, but they just lost.

So then, what are the reasons for underachievement? The more plausible theories seem to be:

• Lack of winning mentality - it seems that Spain always underperform or choke when the stakes are high. Often in the big matches, they would have the better of the play than their opponents but not make the most of their scoring chances.
• Lack of national unity caused by regional rivalries. Spain has several autonomous communities/provinces - Catalan, Castillia, Basque. Each has its own culture & language, & it seems that each are can't get on very well. Take this over to football, & it seems that some Spanish fans & maybe footballers care more about their local region (whether Catalan or Basque) than they do Spain.
• Perhaps they have never had a coach who could bring the best out of the players. That could arguably be the case with Spain's coaches of the last 10-15 years (certainly many people feel this way with the current coach Luis Aragones), although i am not sure about the coaches before that as I am not familiar with them.

There could be other reasons not mentioned above, I don't know them all. With each of the points above, there is probably some truth - but how true, I'm not certain (especially the last point). That's why the question "why does Spain underachieve" will always remain a talking point among football fans.