Everything that Van Persie's goal broke

We visit Holland, a good place to banish the ghost. We have not played many times against this national team, but our meetings with them have really meant something. Against them we won the silver medal at the Olympic Games in Antwerp, a wake-up call for football in our country. Against them Di Stéfano, who was nationalised after three years among us, made his debut as a Spain international, with a great 5-1 win, in tribute to the Hungarian exiles who welcomed our football and served anticommunist propaganda. Against Holland, also, we conceded the strangest goal in our history, the one that Reina himself scored. And against Holland, of course, we won our only World Cup.

Those matches of 1957 and 1973 were anecdotal highlights. The one of 1920, no, because that silver medal caused football to explode in Spain like a cluster bomb, it gave place to a growth of expectation (stadiums for thousands of spectators, pages in the press, radio) that has not been arrested. It thrust a cloud of snow that still grows and reached its apotheosis in South Africa. Against that, the last World Cup spoiled our fun. It did not curb our enthusiasm for football, which is unstoppable, but instead for La Roja, who handed over the crown and the prestige in Brazil in a painful and unexpected way. Van Persie’s goal broke everything.

A beautiful goal, of course, for anyone who contemplates it with neutral eyes. Had it been scored in the final or close, it would have competed with James’ goal to be the best of the World Cup. Its effect was devastating among us and gave way to a second half which is best forgotten. Now that we go there I think that there cannot be a better place to banish the ghosts that since then have preyed upon the national team and have not yet been overcome. Therefore today I pray that La Roja will rebel against that and produce a great match. Do not treat it as a nuisance commitment or an occasion to give outings to several substitutes, as I fear they think.

----------------------------------------------------------------- from Últimas noticias | Diario AS http://ift.tt/1BZUywg