| advertise add site services publishers database health videos | ![]() | about toolbar stats live show health store more stuff JOIN/LOGIN |
- Posession Indicator, set of 7 team foul indicators - Olympia... shapeupshop.com | Touch football, National Football League, Conditioning, Soreness,... sportsinjuryhandbook.com | Football, Football Equipment & Supplies, Football Games, Football Team thetrainingstationinc.com |
The Spanish national football team represents Spain in international football and is controlled by the Real Federación Española de Fútbol. The majority of Spain's matches are held at stadia in Madrid and Valencia. The Spanish side are commonly referred to as La Furia Roja (The Red Fury).[6] Spain are the current European champions, having won the UEFA European Championship in 2008. They also won the European Nations' Cup in 1964 and reached the UEFA Euro 1984 Final. Spain have qualified for the FIFA World Cup twelve times, reaching fourth place in the 1950 tournament. In July 2008, Spain rose to the top of the FIFA World Ranking for the first time in their 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. [edit] History[edit] Early yearsFollowing the model set by the English Football Association, Spain created their football organization, the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF in Spanish), in 1909 and their domestic first division league La Liga (The League) in 1928. Spain made their international football debut at the 1920 Olympic Games in Antwerp, and won the silver medal. Prior to this, Spain's national team had been composed of semi-professionals and amateurs playing unofficial international matches and was organized by the RFEF. They played their first home international in 1921, beating Belgium 2–0 in Bilbao. They also became the first non-British side to beat England when they won 4–3 in a friendly in Madrid in 1929. Although Spain did not enter the 1930 World Cup, they qualified for the second World Cup held in Italy in 1934, and progressed to the quarterfinals and drew 1–1 with Italy before losing a replay 1–0. [edit] 1950 World CupThe Spanish Civil War and World War II prevented Spain from playing another 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, as of 2008, their best performance in a World Cup. The team failed to qualify for another major tournament until the 1962 World Cup. Under French-Argentine coach Helenio Herrera, 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. [edit] José Villalonga era and the 1964 European championsIn 1962, José Villalonga was appointed coach of Spain. Under Villalonga, Spain qualified for the 1962 World Cup but were eliminated in the first round group against Brazil, Czechoslovakia, and Mexico. Two years later they hosted the European Championship, in which they 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. They went on to face the USSR 2–1 before a crowd of more than 79,000 at the Bernabéu in Madrid. Jesus 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 wilderness with mixed results. After winning their group in the qualifying rounds of the Euro 68, they were 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 1980sSpain 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 were 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, they were 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 SpainIn 1976, 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 1988Former Real Madrid coach Miguel Muñoz, who had temporarily coached Spain in 1969, returned to the national side. Spain were 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 9 goals in the second half to win by 12-1 and win the group. In the finals tournament, Spain were 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 1992For 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 and the Spain team in a training session. 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, Macedonia, 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 2002After 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 they 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, and Korea were successful in the penalty shootout after a 0-0 draw. [edit] Euro 2004At Euro 2004 in Portugal, Spain were 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 2008Spain 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 team, 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. 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 champions 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 CupLuis Aragonés left the manager's role after the Euro 2008 success, and was replaced by Vicente del Bosque.[11] 2008 saw David Villa scoring 12 goals in 15 games, thus 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 against England, as his 36th-minute goal saw him become the first Spanish player to score in six consecutive games.[13] Spain began their 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 their 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 June 24 2009, Spain's undefeated record ended when the United States beat them in the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup semi-finals, 2–0. Spain defeated hosts South Africa 3–2 after extra time in the 3rd-place playoff.[14] On 9 September 2009, Spain secured their place at the 2010 World Cup finals after beating Estonia 3-0 in Merida.[15] They went on to record a perfect World Cup qualifying record with 10 wins out of 10 in Group Five, finishing with a 5-2 victory over Bosnia-Herzegovina in Zenica on 14 October 2009.[16] [edit] Uniform kitSpain's traditional kit is a red jersey with yellow trim accompanied by dark blue shorts and socks while their traditional away kit is either a full white kit with red and yellow trim or a yellow jersey with dark blue shorts and socks. Their current home kit is, as usual, a red jersey but with an added blue ray down the left side of the shirt along with the traditional dark blue shorts and socks.[17] Their current away kit breaks away from their tradition with a gold jersey and white shorts and socks.[18] A third kit is sometimes used and is usually blue with red and yellow trim. Spain's kit is currently designed by Adidas. Rather than displaying the logo of the Spanish football federation, Spain's jersey traditionally features the Coat of arms of Spain over the left breast. [edit] 2010 FIFA World Cup qualificationMain article: 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification - UEFA Group 5
[edit] Competitive record
[edit] Confederations Cup record
[edit] Head to headMain article: Spain national football team head to head [edit] Recent matches[edit] Forthcoming fixtures
[edit] 2007-2009 undefeated runSpain went undefeated for a world record[20] 35 matches in a row, after a 1–0 loss to Romania in a friendly match on November 15, 2006. The record is also held by Brazil (not counting defeats after a penalty shoot-out). Spain won 32 out of the 35 matches, while the other 3 ended in draws (one of which was against Italy, a match which Spain ended up winning on penalties). The Spanish side scored 73 goals while conceding only 11, and never allowed more than one goal per match except against Greece, a friendly match on August 22, 2007 which ended 3–2. Spain also held the world record for consecutive wins, at 15, following their draw against Italy during the quarter finals in UEFA Euro 2008. This winning streak, together with the undefeated run, was ended by the United States on June 24, 2009, in a 2–0 defeat in the semifinal stage of the 2009 Confederations Cup. [edit] Honours
[edit] Friendly titles[edit] Records[edit] Worldwide
[edit] Nationwide
[edit] Players[edit] Current squadCaps and goals are correct as of October 14, 2009. The following players are the 24-man squad who were called up for the World Cup qualifiers against Armenia and Bosnia.[21] Notes:
[edit] Recent call upsThe following players have been called up for the team within the last 12 months.
[edit] Previous squads
[edit] Top goalscorersAs of 14 October 2009, the ten highest scorers for Spain are:
[edit] Most capped Spain playersMain article: List of Spain international footballers As of 14 October 2009 the ten players with the most caps for Spain are:
[edit] Managers
[edit] See also
[edit] References
[edit] External links
[edit] Titles
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ↑ top of page ↑ | about thumbshots |