Spain, from favorite to big disappointment

The 1982 World Cup he is remembered for the huge disappointment Spain gave to all the fans. Santamaría’s team was one of the favorites to host and for their success at Wembley last year. However, it turned out to be the biggest disappointment in the entire tournament where he only won one of the five games he played.

Jose Emilio Santamaria he is Kubala’s replacement on the bench of the national team and most of his squad is made up of players from Real Sociedad who have just won the title. The coach decided to focus the team on La Molina and did that for a month and many of those who were part of that team attributed Spain’s failure to the World Cup to long-term concentration.

From the cold of La Molina, Spain went through the heat of Valencia and was constantly monitored by the National Police and Civil Guard because of the ETA attacks, which were constant. All of this affected the players who came to the first game without the necessary spark.

Team stage battles

Spain played all the matches in the first stage in Valencia at the stadium of the ‘che’ team, which at that time was called Luis Casanova. The World Cup debut was on June 16 against Honduras, a match ignored by many Spaniards, but it was the first failure for the team. Hector ‘Eagle Chest’ Zelaya he scored 0-1 for Honduras in the 8th minute of the match. One goal that calmed the whole country and beyond was the team’s poor game that didn’t go beyond the draw thanks to a penalty goal from Lopez Ufarte in the 65th minute.

After the draw against Honduras, Spain was obliged to respond Yugoslavia in the second group against. And he did it on the scoreboard but not in the game. The team won 2-1 but did not improve their game and the referee’s performance had a big impact on that win. Gudelj Yugoslavia led in the 10th minute and Juanito, from a penalty, equalized in the 12th minute. All this, after Danish referee Sörensen pointed out a foul outside the area as a penalty. it failed Lopez Ufartebut he ordered it and Juanito it did not fail. Saura, in the 80th minute, gave Spain a tremendous victory.

Northern Ireland it was the team’s last rival on the group stage and Spain, again, failed again. Defeated 0-1, with a goal from armstrong which returned pessimism to a team that in the second round of the World Cup will face England and Germany to try to get into the semifinals.

The battles against Germany and England

Spain played games against Germany and England at the Bernabéu and needed to improve a lot if they wanted to reach the semi-finals, but lost 2-1 against Germany and drew 0-0 against English.

There are no options against Spain Germany, who became a World Cup finalist. For the Santamaría only victory was worth them against the Germans who tied against England. The team played the best game of the entire World Cup, but could not compete with a Germany that went 2-0 with goals from Littbarski and Fischer. Zamora he made the result by scoring 2-1 in the 82nd minute.

The team has one last game left, it’s against England and Spain only played its honor and left a delicious taste in the mouths of its fans. Eventually, the match ended 0-0 and on July 5, 1982, Spain bid farewell to its World Cup, which started as a favorite and ended as a huge disappointment.