Steven Petrov
The Paw Print
The first World Cup appearance for Spain was in 1934 in Italy. The tournament back then involved only 16 teams and lasted from May 27th to June 10th. The way the competition was set up differed significantly from the way the World Cup works today – there was a “preliminary round” where the opponents were drawn to go against each other for a win, advancing the winning team to the quarter finals and the loser to go home in disappointment. There were 8 games that were played in the opening day of the tournament, with Spain facing Brazil and winning with 3:1. The Spaniards’ faced the future champions, Italy, and a game-winner, by Giuseppe Meazza, was enough for a 1:0 win in the quarterfinals, knocking Spain out of the competition.
The 1950 World Cup in Brazil was really successful for the Spanish team, placing fourth by losing the match for third place with 3:1 from Sweden. The tournament started really well for “La Roja,” with three consecutive wins against USA (3:1), Chile (2:0), and England (1:0). Unfortunately for the Spanish team subsequent losses from Uruguay, Brazil and Sweden stopped “La Furia Roja” from winning the trophy and earned it the 4th place in the tournament. The following 3 World Cups, which Spain qualified for, were 1962 in Chile, 1966 in England and, 1978 in Argentina. These were some of the most unsuccessful international competitions that the Spaniards participated in. In all three of them “la Furia” was knocked out of the tournament in the very first round, placing either last or second to last in their groups.
Spain was chosen to host the 1982 World Cup, which raised the expectations of “La Furia,” finally winning the trophy. The team barely made it out of their group, recording a win (back then for a win the team was awarded 2pts instead of 3pts), a tie, and a loss. Spain and Yugoslavia were tied for the second place in the group with 3 points, but Spain went through because their only win was against the Yugoslavian team, which gave them the advantage. Subsequent loss from West Germany (2:1) and a 0-0 tie with England kicked the Spaniards out of the competition. In all of the next World Cup competitions that Spain participated in all the way up to 2010, the team underperformed and was generally struggling to get something out of the tournament. “La Furia Roja” was either unable to get out of their first group, or were being knocked out in the Round of 16. There were a couple of times where Spain reached the quarterfinals but the flair, the elegance, and the phenomenal style of play that was about to shock the world in South Africa 2010, was absent throughout those preceding years.
After falling short again in 2006, Spain made significant changes and improvements in their game, which the world first saw in the 2008 European Championship. There “La Furia” outplayed its opponents by controlling the ball between 60% and 70% in every single game, creating numerous chances and scoring beautiful goals. This was the beginning of the Spain’s world domination in the football (soccer) world that has no intentions whatsoever to end. For more information about the significant presence of “La Furia Roja” in the world of Football in the last 6 years read the subsequent article “Spain – World domination since 2008”.
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