As the time ticked away at the end of Spain vs. Cape Verde, nerves understandably reached their natural crescendo. The giants of the sport tried to force the issue and anxiously pushed for what they felt was rightly theirs while the brave underdogs valiantly defended as if their lives were on the line.
When referee Adham Makhadmeh blew his whistle confirming the shocking 0-0 draw, Mercedes-Benz Stadium burst with elation at Cape Verde’s jubilant success: The minnows pulled it off. David had bloodied Goliath. The entire world seemed to celebrate the moment – everyone, that is, except for La Roja and its fans.
What will surely be one of the great moments in this World Cup was the result of a bit of luck and a lot of heroic defending, sure, but much of the blame – or credit depending on where you’re standing – lays at the feet of the Spanish contingent.
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Spain has more than enough talent on the squad to beat Cape Verde, and despite the absence of two of its best players, the team should have come out on top. But an array of issues ultimately lost La Roja the three points – and more worryingly, point towards some potentially bad habits that could cost this team a chance of lifting its second World Cup.
A worrying performance
To get it out of the way: The draw itself is definitely not the end of the world. In fact, it’s not particularly worrying either as a result. If Spain wins its next two games, it is in all likelihood the group winner.
Also, there is precedent for an early slip up or two not meaning much in recent big tournaments. Argentina won the last World Cup after losing its opener to lowly Saudi Arabia, Portugal won Euro 2016 after sneaking into the knockouts following three draws in the group stage and Spain won the 2010 World Cup after losing its opening match to Switzerland.
The problem, if you’re a fan of La Roja, is pretty much everything but the result.
The team that won Euro 2024 was dynamic, free-flowing and attack-minded with a very strong midfield and a lot of focus on incredible wide play: particularly from young stars Lamine Yamal and Nico Williams. The absence from the starting lineup against Cape Verde of Yamal, who is slowly being brought back into the rotation following a hamstring injury that ended his club season in late April, and Williams – who also injured his hamstring late in the campaign – was keenly felt as the two young players provide the dynamism and width that this team is built around.
In their place, Spain boss Luis de la Fuente somewhat bafflingly lined up Barcelona duo Ferrán Torres and Gavi as their replacements.
Torres is usually a center-forward and only played 158 minutes across four matches (out of 47) on the right wing in all competitions this season. Gavi recently came back from a meniscus tear that had him out injured for over six months. Additionally, he’s primarily used as a central midfielder for Barça – though he was used on the left wing by Blaugrana boss Hansi Flick for 109 minutes over two matches this campaign – and is not particularly known for game-breaking acceleration or velocity, especially post-knee surgery.
Both played poorly with Gavi failing to provide speed down the flank to break down Cape Verde’s defensive structure and Torres missing several opportunities to put Spain ahead – including one sitter that would have likely opened the floodgates had it not caromed off the crossbar. Torres’ inaccuracy in front of goal has even spawned countless memes on Spanish-speaking social media from frustrated fans and amused neutrals.
The other part of Spain’s glorious 2024 squad that shined brightly in that tournament victory was an incredible midfield, but despite carrying over Rodri and Fabián Ruiz from that Euro final win and the addition of a healthy Pedri, it also played way below expectations in Atlanta.
Both the Manchester City man – who seemed particularly slow and not like the 2024 Ballon d’Or winner or even how he ended this past club season – and Ruiz weren’t up to scratch and didn’t provide enough incisive, penetrative passing to make a difference in the majority of the match, seeming to pass the ball and keep possession for possession’s sake. Evidence of that is starting forward Mikel Oyarzabal becoming the first player on record since the 1966 tournament to fail to touch the ball once in the first 30 minutes against the Blue Sharks, according to Opta Stats.
The lone bright spot from the midfield was the solid presence of Pedri who played out of position and still had a decent all-around performance, but even he was criticized by many on social media for falling into a familiar trap.
Echoes of World Cup disappointments past
The team as a whole felt a step slow and seemed to forget how it played in the European Championship win, opting instead for an almost retro tiki-taka vibe from World Cup failures past (2014, 2018 and 2022). There wasn’t any sort of incisive passing or movement to try to break down the Cape Verde low block – Spain had 734 completed passes, which mostly seemed sideways or backwards – and instead there was plenty of wishful thinking that their African opponents would make a mistake.
Unfortunately for them, they didn’t, and it likely won’t work against better opponents either.
Spanish journalist Miguel Quintana said on his Marca radio show, “The result can lie to you. What never lies is the style of play, and yesterday, Spain stopped looking like the 2024 team and started looking like the Spain of the worst moments of 2022 and 2018. That’s what should worry us and that’s what should worry Luis de la Fuente.”
De la Fuente’s lineup to begin Monday’s match seemed almost too confident in a way – a sense of “We are Spain and you are Cape Verde” – putting the aforementioned “wingers” in place instead of better fits like Víctor Muñoz (if fully fit), Yéremy Pino or Álex Baena, and as the match progressed and it was clear things weren’t working out at all, that impression only seemed to confirm itself.
The La Roja boss didn’t react quickly enough to the situation, instead opting for more of the same after the halftime break – rightly or wrongly relying on his mainstay players who largely brought him to this point – and didn’t change anyone until the 71st minute. By that time, it was too late, even with the introduction of Yamal and his clear, immediate impact on the game.
De la Fuente has received a lot of criticism from the media and Spanish fans online for Monday’s performance, and there is a lot of nostalgic pining for former assistant manager Pablo Amo, who left the coaching staff in February 2025 but who many say was the real mastermind of the Euro 2024 squad. However, Amo isn’t coming back and de la Fuente has to adopt more urgency and adjust.
In fact, the whole squad has to lock in more. It took France one half of subpar soccer against Senegal to switch gears and begin to play up to its potential – Spain has to do the same.
La Roja needs quicker movement of the ball and its players, more adaptation to what the opponent is doing (Saudi Arabia is not going to play free and open after seeing what worked) and to be more ruthless. Spain hasn’t scored a World Cup goal since Álvaro Morata’s in a 2-1 group stage loss to Japan in 2022, this despite completing 2,500 passes and taking 49 shots, according to the BBC.
Forward Oyarzabal acknowledged post-match that the team will have to adjust things for the rest of the tournament: “We need to stay calm, have confidence in ourselves and look at what needs correcting because I’m sure there are many things to correct from this match and move forward.”
Gavi told AS Thursday, “Cape Verde is not some joke. We weren’t as good as we wished, the speed we moved the ball was slow and we were too heavy with our passes. … We can do things a lot better than we did.”
Defender Marc Cucurella echoed the sentiment Thursday in an interview with El Mundo: “We messed up a bit, we weren’t always doing the right thing, we were a little bit imprecise and, against those teams – when you don’t start well – everything gets complicated.
“We have earned that level of pressure [from the fans] because we’ve been doing things very well these last few years, but we know the level we have, we know we weren’t at our best.
“The good thing is this scare happened in the first game of the groups – if it happens in the knockouts, you’re out. And we have time to fix it. It’s better that what happened with Cape Verde happened now and, bit by bit, we get better.”
Winning the next two matches and finishing Group H as the leader is crucial given a second-place finish would likely mean an unthinkable round of 32 game against Lionel Messi and Argentina. True, you have to beat the best to be the best, but this squad will want to build up momentum before taking on the other tournament favorites.
Of course, there are those saying that the result wasn’t too bad and shouldn’t be overanalyzed. De la Fuente didn’t seem too bothered by the result, saying, “We’re a team with an extraordinary reliability. We haven’t lost in 32 matches. We’ll be better in the next game, for sure. … We’re calm. This is a long tournament, and in our heads we’ve still got seven games left.”
World Cup-winning goalkeeper Iker Casillas said on X: “I thought (Spain) played well. It was one of those matches that happen 1 every 10. … I understand that people have doubts, but this isn’t the case. Relax.”
Perhaps they are right. After all, the statistical domination was quite clear. Spain had 27 shots with seven on target and an expected goals (xG) figure of over 2.1. And Cape Verde goalkeeper Vozinha had the game of his life.
If circumstances had gone Spain’s way with more clinical finishing or a Cape Verde defender making a mistake, then the result would have been different and a lot of the chatter currently happening (including here) would likely not be happening.
Additionally, it looked like Yamal – in his limited time on the pitch – was near his best. The game turned when he came onto the field in the 71st minute and La Roja finally began looking a bit more threatening overall. If the Barça superstar is on the way to peak fitness and starts games, then a lot of this noise could be moot.
Cucurella, for his part, looked at the result in a positive light.
“I think the best thing that could have happened to us is to get this scare at the beginning. Because if we had won the game, we would have forgotten about it and we would have said, ‘Well, we won, it’s all good,’” he told El Mundo.
“But with the scare, we’ve realized that we have to be at our top level in every match, that it won’t be easy at all, that we will have to overcome difficult moments and that the most important thing is to be united and show up in every match.”
Still, despite the squad’s positivity, the match triggered a lot of bad memories in the minds of Spain fans everywhere ahead of what many thought could be an excellent chance to earn the nation’s second World Cup. Whether La Roja earns another star or comes crashing back down to earth remains to be seen.
