European U-17 champion Spain is one win away from capping off a brilliant year for the country, but in their way stands a familiar foe—England. The two teams meet in the final of the FIFA U-17 World Cup, in a repeat of this May's U-17 Euro cup final, in which the Spaniards won on penalties.
But things are not going to be easy for Spain, with coach Santiago Denia observing that the England side his team will play is a vastly improved one. “They have improved in every aspect,” Denia said at the press conference on the eve of the final. “Defensively they are much better and in attack the numbers speak for themselves.” England is the tournament’s top-scoring team with 18 goals.
Spain, who have reached the final of the U-17 World Cup thrice, have failed to win the trophy and will look to break the finals jinx. Centre-back Hugo Guillamon said the team looks at this as an opportunity rather than a hindrance.
“This is a big opportunity for us and we are highly motivated to win it for the first time,” Guillamon said. “We have been together for two years and have been waiting and preparing for this moment.”
The player added that though England is a physically dominant side, his side has played other physical teams and they were ready to take on whatever came their way.
After the team’s loss to Brazil in their first game of the tournament, Denia had said that his team struggled with the weather conditions. But the coach is very happy with the way his medical team and his players worked hard to adapt to the conditions and it helped them reach the final.
The Spanish style of play is something that is well-known around the world and if the La Rojas dominate possession in midfield tomorrow, it will come as a surprise to few. However, despite this, Mali had an equal share of the ball in the semifinal, and dominated most of the game with their incessant attacks. Denia insists that his job is not to just to see that his team keeps possession, but what matters is how the team makes use of the ball.
Interestingly, the players have a WhatsApp group that was called ‘Campeones de Europa’ after their Euro victory earlier in May. It was changed to ‘Loading La India 50 per cent’ as the World Cup approached. When asked about this, a grinning Guillamon revealed that the group’s name is now ‘India 100 per cent’.
The team had their final training session yesterday, ahead of the final, but surprisingly, the team’s top-scorer Abel Ruiz was missing in action. It was later learned that the striker has fever. As the team’s go-to man, it will be a big miss for the team if he is not fit to play today.
