Will Spain’s Domination End at Euro 2012?
With Spain winning the European championship in 2008, the World Cup in 2010, and Barcelona beating Manchester United in the Champions League final this year, it’s easy to say they’ve been the dominant soccer nation over the past few years and it would be easy to choose them at the top of your Euro 2012 betting. But will this just be a temporary thing or are Spanish players and teams really that good? There have definitely been some great Spanish club sides over the years, most notably Real Madrid and Barcelona, but the national team was often referred to as “chokers” for decades.
There’s no doubt Spain produces some excellent players, but they never seemed to be able to put it together for years until winning Euro 2008. They may be the top-ranked team in the world by FIFA right now, but were ranked as low as 26th just 13 short years ago.
Their teams regularly went home from World Cups with the players’ tails between their legs and were seen as failures and disappointments by Spanish fans. Their best finish at the World Cup, before winning it all in 2010, came back in 1950 when they finished in fourth place.
They didn’t even qualify for the tournament in 1954, 58, 70, and 74. In fact, in the 14 World Cups since 1950, Spain only managed to reach the quarter final stage on three occasions. Their best finish was fifth in 2006 and their worst was 17th in 1998. When they did win the biggest prize in world soccer in 2010, detractors will point to the fact they did it against a 10-man Dutch side and were just minutes away from a penalty shootout. It was hardly a dominant performance.
When it comes to the European Championship history, the nation has fared a bit better. They were crowned champions of Europe at home in 1964 and in Switzerland in 2008 and were runners up in France in 1984. However, Spain didn’t qualify for the event in 1968, 72, and 76. It took them 16 years to qualify again after winning the title in 1968.
When they didn’t make it to the final game, they reached the quarterfinals twice and were knocked out in the first round on the other three occasions. However, they did shine this year at the Under-21 European Championship when they beat Switzerland 2-0 in the Final to win the cup.
Where Spain does shine, or at least the country’s clubs do, is in European cup competitions. However, club teams are made up of players of various nationalities. The best Spanish team over the years, and the best in Europe for that matter, is Real Madrid with nine European cups to its name and three runners-up medals. However, their last European triumph came back in 2002.
Barcelona has been the best Spanish club lately. They’ve won four cups and came in second three times, but won the Champions League as recently as 2006, 2009, and 2011. Spanish teams have won the European club title 12 times, with Italian teams also winning 12. England has produced 11 winners, but was banned from the competition for five years following the Heysel tragedy in 1985. But other than Real Madrid and Barcelona, no other Spanish team has won the title. Valencia was runners up twice and Atletico Madrid once.
While there’s a solid argument to be made for Spain being the most dominant nation at the moment. It’s clear that it hasn’t always been this way. But you can’t blame the squad’s current players for the past. The country looks to be certain to reach Euro 2012. However, while they may be one of the best teams in the world, they’re certainly not unbeatable as shown in their 4-1 loss to Argentina and 4-0 beating at the hands of Portugal a while ago.
