Spain are eliminated against the Africans in the round of 16 after a penalty shootout. Once again, their inefficiency is fatal to the Iberians. The coach knows about this weakness. Only he has no other staff.
The disappointed Spaniards move on.
With just a few minutes left, Spain coach Luis Enrique had a tempting thought. Now, with the penalty shoot-out against Morocco in the round of 16 approaching, it might be time for a fresh player; one who has less than two hours of playing time in their bones, one who can shoot his penalty fresh and concentrated.
So Luis Enrique brought Paris Saint-Germain winger Pablo Sarabia into the match. But when it came to penalties, Sarabia didn’t do what his coach expected of him. He failed at the post. In doing so, he involuntarily set the direction for his colleagues: Carlos Soler missed goalkeeper Bono, as did the Barça monument Sergio Busquets. All three Spaniards failed, but only one Moroccan. The favorite was eliminated from the tournament. The circumstances under which this happened will certainly be discussed later.
1000 penalties in training – almost oriental fiction
What had Luis Enrique not done to prepare his team for all adversities and eventualities. A year before the World Cup, it was said again and again recently, that he had instructed his players to prepare for a possible penalty shoot-out in home training with 1,000 penalties each. 1000 penalties! That almost sounds like oriental fiction.
It is doubtful that security will be gained in this way. Maybe there was a completely different plan behind it. Maybe it wasn’t about the training itself, but about impressing a potential opponent. If there was a penalty shoot-out, the opponent could say: “Look, they’ve practiced 1,000 penalties. How are we supposed to win this?”
The Moroccans didn’t care. Especially since one or the other of them is well acquainted with the customs and customs in the Spanish league. The goalkeeper Bono from FC Sevilla, for example; who was a very secure support for his team in this match and who lived up to his reputation of not only occasionally being successful in penalty situations.
Morocco’s goalie Yassine Bounou – Bono for short – doesn’t have to let a single Spanish shot pass in the penalty shoot-out.
There are plenty of negative examples from penalty shootouts
Can Luis Enrique be blamed? Hardly, at most that he might have misjudged the dynamics of the moment a little in his effort to do everything right. Because substitutions for a penalty shoot-out are not unproblematic. Anyone who looks back at the semi-finals of the EM 2016 between Italy and Germany may remember that Italy coach Antonio Conte brought forward Simone Zaza into the game just before the penalties. Zaza kicked the ball well over the goal.
Last year the footballing world witnessed England fail in the final at Wembley Stadium as coach Gareth Southgate fielded an extremely eccentric choice of shooters: it wasn’t just the inexperienced Bukayo Saka who missed, but the two of them Jokers Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho. Southgate justified the selection based on the players’ performances in the tournament.
However, routine is by no means a guarantee of success. Sergio Busquets has 142 caps. However, he does not like the duel from the point. He has never converted a penalty for either FC Barcelona or Spain’s national team. He missed against Switzerland in the quarter-finals of the 2021 European Championship.
However, the disappointment of the Iberians should not only result from the lost penalty shoot-out. Rather, they reveal a familiar shortcoming: lack of efficiency. Last year at the European Championships they had to go into a penalty shoot-out twice because they couldn’t decide games in regular time.
Spain coach Luis Enrique.
The miserable yield against Morocco says something about their great weakness in detail. It’s the Spanish curse. It doesn’t matter which opponent they play against: The Spaniards are usually the superior team, dominate the midfield, combine well, because they can all rely on their good positional play. You will quickly find your rhythm. But what they often lack are the ideas, the speed of thought in the penalty area, the surprising moment.
The coach Luis Enrique knows about this weakness. Only he has no other staff. For him, it’s about making the best of the opportunities. And it may also be that these resources were overestimated after the Spaniards won 7-0 against Costa Rica in the opener.