Opinion Before Brazil
What Atlético Madrid’s La Liga title says about Spain’s prospects ahead of the World Cup.
What Atlético Madrid’s La Liga title says about Spain’s prospects ahead of the World Cup.
Atlético Madrid’s 1-1 draw with FC Barcelona at Nou Camp, which won Madrid’s “other” team the 2013-14 La Liga title, could mark a tectonic shift in Spanish football. Much depends on whether Atlético can beat city rival Real Madrid in the Champions League (CL) final next week to be European top-dog, but nobody would hazard predictions of a Los Rojiblancos reign. Yet, in ending the decade-long Real-Barça duopoly in La Liga by winning its first league title in 18 years, El Pupas (the cursed or jinxed ones), as Atlético is also called, has raised uncomfortable questions about defending champion Spain’s World Cup campaign that begins in Brazil next month.
That campaign will run largely on the tired old legs of once-formidable Barça stars, who constituted the formula behind Spain’s record back-to-back European Championship titles and the first World Cup. Barça coach Gerardo Martino’s resignation is unlikely to raise morale till a Pep Guardiola-Tito Vilanova equivalent is found. However, the real damage little-guy Atlético did on Saturday was through its hunger and finish, turning Barça’s trademark 64 per cent possession and early lead into naught. That doesn’t augur well for La Roja in Brazil, and it’s too late for national coach Vicente del Bosque to recast his footballing philosophy. But had Barça won La Liga, La Roja would have headed for Brazil with a complacency that could be its undoing in the 2014 World Cup’s “group of death”. Instead, the pressure brought on Cesc Fabregas and Andrés Iniesta on Saturday might just be an invaluable reality check.
Across the Channel, Arsenal has come back from a nine-year title-less spell to win the FA Cup. But insignificant Hull City, which almost ended the Gunners’ run with a 2-0 lead, is the story. Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich, meanwhile, precluded an upset in the German Cup. And while Germany and Argentina may be the teams to watch out for in Brazil, the Spanish can rejoice that the teams facing off in the CL final belong to the same city, although it’s not Barcelona.
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