Football World Cup 2006 Germany

Spain

Spain

Nickname	La Selección
Association	Real Federación Española de Fútbol
Coach	Luis Aragonés (2004-)
Most caps	Andoni Zubizarreta (126)
Top scorer	Raúl (42)
First international Spain 1 - 0 Denmark (Antwerp, Belgium; 28 August 1920)
Largest win Spain 13 - 0 Bulgaria (Madrid, Spain; 21 May 1933)
Worst defeat Italy 7 - 1 Spain (Amsterdam, Netherlands; 4 June 1928) England 7 - 1 Spain (London, England; 9 December 1931)
World Cup
Appearances	12 (First in 1934)
Best result	Fourth place, 1950
European Championship
Appearances	7 (First in 1964)
Best result	Winners, 1964

The Spain national football team, commonly referred to as la selección is the national football team of Spain and is controlled by the Real Federación Española de Fútbol.

Spain has greatly underachived in the World Cup, with their best finish being fourth place in 1950), although often being touted as pre-tournament favorites. They did win the gold medal when they hosted 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona and the 1999 World Youth Championship in Nigeria.

History

Spain made their international debut in 1920 at the Olympic Games in Belgium and came away with the silver medal. They played their first home international in 1921, beating Belgium 2-0 in Bilbao. They also became the first non-British side to beat England when they won a friendly in Madrid 4-3 in 1929. Yet since then they have considerably under-achieved, despite La Liga being one of the strongest domestic leagues in Europe. They have won just one major trophy, the second European Championship in 1964, in which they had the benefit of home advantage. They beat the USSR 2-1 in the final in front of a crowd of 125,000 at the Bernabéu. The build-up to the match had been highly politically-charged, as Spain had refused to play in the in the USSR during the previous tournament in 1960. Jesus María Pereda put the Spanish ahead after just six minutes but they needed a late Marcelino Martínez header to win it after Galimzian Khusainov equalised with a free-kick.

At Euro 2004, Spain was drawn into group A with Portugal, Russia and Greece. The Spanish team were touted as heavy favorites for the 2004 crown by the European media. They were also expected heavy favorites to qualify from their group. On June 12th, Spain expectedly defeated Russia, 1-0. Four days later Spain faced Greece. Determined to win, Spain led the match until Greece scored an equalizer and the match ended 1-1. In their last game against Portugal, Spain needed to win to qualify for the qaurterfinals. However a goal from Nuno Gomes faded Spain's hopes of advancing. The same day Greece were defeated 2-1 by Russia but moved ahead to claim second place on goal difference. As a result Spain were eliminated from Euro 2004.

World Cup record

1930 - Did not enter
1934 - Quarterfinals
1938 - Withdrew due to civil war
1950 - Fourth place
1954 - Did not qualify
1958 - Did not qualify
1962 - Round 1
1966 - Round 1
1970 - Did not qualify
1974 - Did not qualify
1978 - Round 1
1982 - Round 2
1986 - Quarterfinals
1990 - Round 2
1994 - Quarterfinals
1998 - Round 1
2002 - Quarterfinals
2006 - Qualified

European Championship record

1960 - Withdrew during qualifying
1964 - Champions
1968 to 1976 - Did not qualify
1980 - Round 1
1984 - Runners-up
1988 - Round 1
1992 - Did not qualify
1996 - Quarterfinals
2000 - Quarterfinals
2004 - Round 1

Famous past players

Amancio Amaro
Emilio Butragueño
José Antonio Camacho
Alfredo Di Stefano (also played for Argentina)
Francisco Gento
Fernando Hierro
Ladislao Kubala (also played for Hungary and Czechoslovakia)
Michel
Agustín Gaínza
Ferenc Puskás (also played for Hungary)
José Santamaria (also played for Uruguay)
Luis Suarez
Ricardo Zamora
Zarra
Zubizarreta
Arconada
Satrustegui

Current squad

Goalkeepers:

 Íker Casillas
Pepe Reina
Víctor Valdés

Defenders:

 Antonio López Guerrero
Joan Capdevila
Asier del Horno
Juanito
Carlos Marchena
Pablo Ibañez
Mariano Andrés Pernía
Carles Puyol
Míchel Salgado
Sergio Ramos García

Midfielders:

 David Albelda
Xabi Alonso
Rubén Baraja
Cesc Fàbregas
Joaquín Sánchez
Luis Javier García Sanz
Vicente Rodríguez
Xavi Hernández
Xavi is expected to miss 2006 World Cup due to injury.

Forwards:

 Albert Luque
Fernando Morientes
Raúl González (captain)
José Antonio Reyes
Fernando Torres
David Villa

Coaches

Francisco Bru (1920)
Ricard Cabot (1925)
José María Mateos (1925 and 1929-1933)
Amadeo García Salazar (1934-1938)
Guillermo Eizaguirre (1948-1950)
Paulino Alcántara (1951)
Guillermo Eizaguirre (1955-1956)
Helenio Herrera (1959-1962)
José Villalonga (1962-1966)
Domènec Balmanya (1966-1968)
Miguel Muñoz (1969)
Ladislao Kubala (1969-1980)
José Emilio Santamaría (1980-1982)
Miguel Muñoz (1982-1988)
Luis Suárez (1988-1991)
Vicente Miera (1991-1992)
Javier Clemente (1992-1998)
José Antonio Camacho (1998-2002)
Iñaki Sáez (2002-2004)
Luis Aragonés (2004-)

External links

• RFEF site
• RSSSF archive of results 1920-

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This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.