Spain packs its bags to go to its World Cup camp in Tennessee without shine, with a draw (1-1) against Iraq with a trick because everything happened in a party-style match that Spain managed with its third unit to the point that it gave the alternative to eight footballers (Marc Pubill, Leo Román, Bernal, Jon Martín, Gonzalo, Javi Guerra, Turrientes and Javi Rodríguez) of whom only the Atlético defender is going to attend the World Cup. The coach rewarded the players called to complete training (Sergio Gómez and Jesús Rodríguez had already debuted with the national team) while the finals of the continental competitions involving several of his men were taking place. And Spain, which was another Spain very different from the one that will be seen in the big event that is coming, played with the handbrake on and with pawns, not with bishops, rooks or queens. Surely also Iraq, which left a mark of a leathery and hard-working team and came away with a result to remember.
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Joan García (Leo Román, min. 72), Pedro Porro (Javi Rodríguez, min. 72), Jon Martín (Marc Pubill, min. 58), Aymeric Laporte (Eric García, min. 45), Alejandro Grimaldo (Yéremy Pino, min. 45), Ferran Torres (Sergio Gómez, min. 45), Álex Baena (Mikel Merino, min. 67), Marc Bernal (Beñat Turrientes, min. 58), Gavi (Javi Guerra, min. 58), Dani Olmo (Gonzalo García, min. 45) and Borja Iglesias (Jesús Rodríguez, min. 45)
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Ahmed Basil (Jalal Hassan, min. 45), Zaid Tahseen (Munaf Younus, min. 61), Akam Hashim (Rebin Sulaka, min. 61), Hussein Ali (Frans Putros, min. 61), Merchas Doski (Ahmed Yahya, min. 60), Zaid Ismael (Zidane Iqbal, min. 61), Ibrahim Bayesh (Youssef Amyn, min. 71), Amir Al Ammari (Kevin Yakob, min. 61), Marko Farji (Ahmed Qasem, min. 60), Ali Al Hamadi (Aymen Hussein, min. 45) and Ali Jasim
Goals 1-0 min. 15: Ferran. 1-1 min. 26: Merchas Doski
Referee Florian Badstübner
yellow cards Marc Bernal (31 min), Gavi (36 min), Zaid Ismail (56 min), Rebin Sulaka (79 min)
The match opened as soon as Spain was able to move the ball and give it rhythm. He didn’t always succeed. The team looked slow, but accelerated when the ball passed through the feet of guys like Ferran Torres or Dani Olmo, who gave the team a boost. The absences painted a discolored Roja, without Pedri, Rodri or Fabián in the engine room, without Oyarzabal to open options in the last meters, without Cucurella to give fang to the team. Lacking Lamine Yamal and Nico Williams, who are trying to speed up their recovery to be in perfect condition at the World Cup. Riazor’s was a test-tube Spain that tried to generate mixtures that at a certain moment would give it alternatives. But there was a lack of competitive flavor in everything that happened on the pitch.
At the beginning it seemed that everything was going to flow because the team managed the ball expertly in the face of Iraqi pressure, which was not a timid team. Spain responded and Baena, who in the end tiptoed through the game, had an early chance to score a goal that would chart a path. He didn’t get it, but it didn’t take long for that great rebound to arrive after an assist without touching the ball, a deception that Ferran took advantage of to show that he was going one step ahead of the rest of the players on the field. The worst part of the play was his shot, which the Iraqi goalkeeper missed, the best was the fang of the Barcelona striker who drove the ball forty meters with power and elegance.
The goal seemed to suit Spain, the team slowed down and received the punishment for it because Iraq tied in an action that was as episodic as it was surprising, an unexpected shot by Doski, a German soccer player of birth and training who has an important role in the Czech Viktoria Plzen. In Riazor, a missile was fired from the left flank of the Iraqi attack that caught Joan García in Babia, more attentive to a possible center.
. Not so much because of their own demands or those of the stands, always festive and dedicated, but perhaps because of the fact that a draw against Iraq does not look good before a World Cup. But he lacked acuity. Ferran looked for the second with a shot from the front that licked the crossbar before the carousel of changes began and that seemed like Teresa Herrera, the contemporary, not the one who played like a dog in the past.
Without Olmo, without Ferran, without competitiveness, with heavy legs after the season, the evening deteriorated to the point that the stands were grateful that the video scoreboards showed the VIPs who populated the bench. Lamine Yamal, Nico Williams and even Donato and Manuel Pablo. Spain was not able to subdue its rival, who barely suffered to tie the score.
