I know spain was knocked out two days ago but I still feel its worth
exploring their journey(all of two games) in the world cup.
Maybe its a good idea to backtrack to 86 games ago.
Their coach Del Bosque was in charge of the spanish squad for 86 games. They have a phenomenal
record with only losing 9 of those games.
They have dominated world football for over 4 years. Their style of
play, called “tika taka”, has been copied by many many teams, including
bayern munich who won the bundesliga by a mile.
Coming into the tournament, the football federation promised each
player an astounding 7.5 mil rand.
With all their amazing success and the monetary rewards not to mention
the reward of being crowned world champions a second time in a row, my
question is why after going down 2-1 to netherlands, spain looked like
an average team who lacked so much confidence? It was as if, their was
a mental and emotional hurdle in most of the players that they were
unable to jump.
It was really sad to watch especially from a team that gave us and
football so much.
It could be argued that their players are ageing but the same could be
said about netherlands.
My conclusion and the question I would like to pose:
Are accolades and monetary rewards enough of a motivator to sustain and
carry you through the tough times of life? Are they able to equip you
when life gives you a knock, like spain experienced in this world cup?”