Will Raul finally make a mark?

Very few teams at the Euro 2004 finals in Portugal will pick, as first-choice striker, a player in terrible form who has scored just eleven ...

Very few teams at the Euro 2004 finals in Portugal will pick, as first-choice striker, a player in terrible form who has scored just eleven league goals all season and not a single one for two months. But Spain, of course — according to the old tourist slogan — is different. Unless he suffers an untimely injury, not only will Real Madrid’s Raul Gonzalez be leading the Spanish attack on June 12 in Faro against Russia, but he will also be wearing the captain’s armband.

Raul is held in such regard throughout Spain — with the exception of a few regionally-minded detractors in Catalonia and the Basque country — that practically no one is criticising his first-choice status.

And this is not because of lack of competition. Spain usually suffers from a dearth of home-made strikers. But not this time. Atletico Madrid’s Fernando Torres is very much the bright young kid on the block. Valencia pair Vicente Rodriguez and Mista Ferrer are in wonderful form, Albert Luque of Deportivo Coruna and Salva Ballesta of Malaga are both looking sharp.

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Nonetheless, there is hardly a fan across Spain who would like to see Raul relegated to the bench, not a single journalist has dared to suggest this.

Why is Raul held in such high esteem? Why is he considered to be the striker best equipped for the tournament? Mostly because he has been performing well for Spain since 1996, scoring 37 goals in 72 matches thanks to his legendary opportunism. It was his goals that took Spain through the qualifiers to the 1998 World Cup finals, to Euro 2000, to the 2002 World Cup…and, thanks to two vital strikes in the play-offs against Norway, to Portugal.

It is true, however, that Raul has not really yet made his mark on the big stage. He scored only one goal at France 98 and one at Euro 2000. He seemed poised to finally come of age at the 2002 World Cup, having scored three goals in the first round, only to be laid low by a thigh injury. ‘‘It’s true that I have not done as well as I could have in the big tournaments,’’ Raul said. ‘‘But I’m still only 26, and feel that this time I could be at my very best.’’ (gms/dpa 2004)

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