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“We’re nan villains, location to extremity nan goals that shot lives off,” Unai Simón says. If so, location has ne'er been a bad feline arsenic bad arsenic him, nan keeper who could do pinch an preamble from Don LaFontaine: In a World Cup dominated by forwards, 1 man resists … There were 5 minutes to spell until half-time during Spain’s conflict pinch Portugal successful nan past 16 erstwhile thing historical happened, aliases location would person been if thing had really happened. Instead, nothing did, which is nan measurement Simón likes it.
As nan timepiece rolled into nan 40th minute, Spain’s goalkeeper silently moved connected to 560 World Cup minutes without conceding, taking successful 7 games and going each nan measurement backmost to Ao Tanaka’s onslaught for Japan successful Qatar. Against Austria successful nan past 32, he had already near Walter Zenga down connected 517, now he and Spain overtook Switzerland’s record: 559 minutes dispersed crossed 14 years and 3 tournaments successful 1994, 2006 and 2010. The adjacent minute, Nuno Mendes deed nan bar, but still Simón would not beryllium beaten, Mikel Merino’s 90th infinitesimal winner nan only extremity of nan game.
Not truthful agelong ago, Simón admitted that he had erstwhile wondered whether it was each worthy it. Playing successful goal, he says, tin beryllium a spot “thankless”. The beforehand pages are for others. The bully ones are, anyway: nan “noise” was his. All year, he has been astatine nan centre of nan debate. How could he not beryllium erstwhile Athletic Club were struggling and those competing pinch him are David Raya, nan champion goalkeeper successful nan Premier League, and Joan García, nan champion successful La Liga? “Sod it, I’ll opportunity it: we person nan champion goalkeepers astatine nan World Cup,” Simón insisted a fewer days ago.
For Luis de la Fuente, though, it was ne'er a debate, nevertheless insistent nan sound got. He had coached Simón all nan measurement done nan younker teams, winning it all: nan under-19 and under-21 Euros, Olympic silver, nan Nations League, Euro 2024. They were practically family and now look: now Spain consciousness for illustration Spain again and Simón has made history. No different state has ever reached nan sixth crippled of a men’s World Cup without conceding.
There, connected Friday successful Los Angeles, Spain look Belgium successful nan quarter-final. “They’re very intelligibly favourites,” Thibaut Courtois said arsenic a cardinal microphones were thrust into his look nether nan guidelines astatine nan LA Galaxy’s training guidelines successful Carson. “The first point we person to do, is score.” So far, nary 1 has. So far, they person hardly moreover been capable to return a meaningful changeable astatine nan European champions. There were conscionable 15 successful nan group stage, only 3 connected target. Austria didn’t muster 1 connected target.
Against Cape Verde, Spain allowed conscionable 0.3 xG. Against Saudi Arabia it was 0.14, against Uruguay 0.2 and against Austria 0.32. “Against Portugal we’ll look much shots. Hopefully not, but I’m judge we will,” Simón said. He was right, and Roberto Martínez made overmuch of his restitution astatine causing Spain nan benignant of problems that nary 1 other had, but it still wasn’t overmuch more: 10 shots, only 2 connected target and an xG of 0.58. Simón made 2 saves, taking his tourney full to six. Of nan keepers near successful nan World Cup, only Emiliano Martínez has made less saves and he has fto successful 4 goalsin nan past 2 games alone.
“The important point for a goalkeeper, thing I spot a batch of value upon and that Unai defines very good too, is nan expertise to forestall alternatively than save,” says García, Simón’s understudy. “Stop them getting to you: coming retired for a precocious ball, covering defensively, intercepting debased crosses. Those things mightiness not get reflected successful nan stats but they’re captious for a goalkeeper. That’s key: forestall nan chance coming successful nan first place. That’s been a cardinal successful this World Cup for us.”
It besides of people speaks to thing deeper. If Simón is nan bad guy, he is not alone. What is nan corporate noun for villains? A selección? “The grounds says much astir nan squad than it does astir me,” Simón insists. He is not nan only 1 who has played each minute: so person Marc Cucurella and Pau Cubarsí. Aymeric Laporte has sat retired conscionable 1 minute. In beforehand of them Rodri, who started slow but has been outstanding successful nan past 2 matches, has missed only three.
Cubarsí successful peculiar has been superb. For each nan talk of Lamine Yamal, the kid who eclipses each else, it is nan different teen astatine nan different extremity that has astir impressed. Born successful mini Estanyol, a colony pinch a organization of astir 200, nan boy of a carpenter who ran a family business going backmost 4 generations, Cubarsí is nan 2nd youngest man ever to make his debut for Spain. Lamine Yamal is nan first. The time Cubarsí made his Barcelona debut, he and Lamine Yamal were younger than Robert Lewandowski put together.
There was thing astir him that was different from nan start. “When I watch him, my bosom complaint doesn’t change,” Barcelona’s then-coach Xavi Hernández said. De la Fuente had fixed him his Spain debut and though he decided not to return him to nan Euros, judging it a small soon, that calmness is clear here. “It doesn’t look for illustration he’s 19, nan measurement he takes connected work is enviable,” Simón says. Cubarsí has completed 96% of his 449 passes, and not conscionable sideways: 34 of his 71 against Portugal went into nan opposition’s half. There were 19 recoveries, 23 protect actions completed. Only Paolo Maldini reached arsenic galore cleanable sheets truthful fast.
“Pau and Aymeric are a luxury: they fresh nan thought we have, they bring nan shot out, they select passes, and they person presence: they’re very complete,” De la Fuente says. “A footballer is not conscionable a footballer because of his quality; location are 1,000 different elements too. Technically you tin beryllium very bully but [young players] wouldn’t beryllium arsenic bully if they didn’t person an affectional power of nan situation; that’s what genuinely makes nan difference, what intends a 19-year-old plays for illustration he’s spent a life there. And we cognize nan value of having personification adjacent to springiness you serenity successful cardinal moments erstwhile you could suffer it. There’s a magnificent equilibrium betwixt them. Between each 4 [defenders].”
All 11, successful fact. “We each onslaught and we each defend,” Dani Olmo says. If García admits that Spain’s building is not arsenic risky arsenic Barcelona’s, this excessively starts astatine nan front, an thought shared. And it’s surely not protect successful nan accepted sense: against Austria, nan full-backs, Cucurella and Pedro Porro, scored 1 and group up 2 betwixt them.
Tougher tests will come, it is true, but it’s not conscionable that Spain’s opponents person not sewage to Simón’s extremity often; it is that they person seldom sewage anyplace adjacent it. “Spain are very fierce successful nan press,” Courtois warned.
“It’s astir denying their defenders time, not letting them think, making judge erstwhile they person to make decisions they do it nether pressure,” Mikel Oyarzabal, nan striker, insists. Merino adds: “If you tin support a cleanable sheet, it’s a guarantee that a bully consequence is coming.”
In 2010 connected nan measurement to winning nan World Cup Spain didn’t concede immoderate successful nan knockout phase; Iker Casillas clocked up 4 consecutive games without letting successful a goal, mounting different grounds that Simón, nan villain of this piece, has near behind.
