the day has come. This Friday Spain debuts in the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand against Costa Rica. Claudia Zornoza (Madrid, 1990) has traveled to this appointment. The Real Madrid midfielder receives EL MUNDO and tells us how she sees the team facing this competition and what it has meant for her to enter the list for a major tournament for the first time.

What are your feelings ahead of the World Cup? I am very happy for this opportunity. I have been working for many years and that it comes to me now is an enormous emotion and illusion. I try to be at 100% in each training session and with the load that they are placing on us, we know that we will arrive in perfect condition.. We are very motivated. It is the first time that he has made the list, because for the European Championship he came to replace Jenni Hermoso. What did it mean to see your name in the call? I'm still not very aware. It is true that, having been working so hard all these years, for me it is a reward for work, for not giving up and for continuing to try.. I've been through injuries and many teams. I've been learning a long time until I got to this moment.. I don't think about the call, but about enjoying it to the fullest, taking advantage of all the opportunities I have and smiling every day for it. From the European past to today, what has changed to gain a place among the 23 chosen? I always think that things happen for a reason. I do not focus on not taking me to the European Championship, but rather on continuing to work and contributing things that perhaps I did not have before, such as the defensive theme. I think I have reached that level that years ago I did not have. I am a person who tries to improve in everything I can and to be more complete. He has played nine games with the national team and shares a dressing room with players like Alexia Putellas, who has over 100. It could be said that you are a complete rookie. I feel like one more with the whole group. I have coincided with many during some calls in which I have been previously. It is true that I have not played any tournament, and it is a plus to continue to death and to enjoy it. I focus on that and nothing else. In enjoying it and in thinking that it is a World Cup. It is the third time that Spain has participated in a World Cup. In the previous one, the team fell in the round of 16 against the United States. How do you see this year? It is clear that it will be hard and that we will have to work hard to arrive in the best conditions. We have many alternatives to the game, which is the good thing about the team. There are different players, and each one brings something different. I think that's something we can use and, of course, we'll go to win the World Cup. Do you feel a lot of pressure because of the result you have to get in the tournament? The pressure is always on the players. In the end, the demand we put on ourselves is very high, but I don't think it limits us. On the contrary, it's going to be something that motivates us much more and that makes each game feel like a final for us.. In my case, my head is focused on gaining confidence and that when I see it clearly give the final pass. I think that pressure helps me not to make mistakes, to always be there, both defensively and offensively, and to be focused.

Claudia Zornoza during a training session. Pablo García RFEF An issue that is always linked to the national team is the controversy of the 15 'rebels'. How do they carry this in the locker room? I don't look at social networks. I only have Instagram, and Twitter I don't even look at it. I am a player who remains quite detached from all that, and I always focus on sports. I am a soccer player and I limit myself to it. I think the dressing room is perfect, there is a very good group and we know that this is necessary to reach the top. Vilda, precisely, when she gave the list, spoke of that good atmosphere in the dressing room. Has this great union been generated these days? As in all groups, there are people who are more fun and others who contribute other things to the group. I think there is a great connection, which is being forged day by day, and that is what we focus on, being positive above all and moving forward. In the friendlies that you have played before the World Cup, you have achieved very good results. How do these kinds of matches help you ahead of the tournament? Help the team gain confidence and continue working on what we've been doing these weeks. It is good for us to gain confidence. He has commented on several occasions that he is a very methodical person. I have to confess that as a result of the injuries I got rid of all my hobbies, because I think they are not good. Yes, I am methodical with small details, such as having a well-packed suitcase or always leaving things in one place. But before a match I work things out more mentally, I think about what I have to do well and from there go out to the match. Do you see any particularly tough opponent? No, I really think there are huge powers like England or the United States, but we've already played against them. They are matches in which the team, as always, when the opponent is so tall, does not feel tired or anything. We are going to death and we are not afraid of them arriving. In recent years we have witnessed a growth in women's football. How do you assess this? I have lived through this entire period of growth. I have played with colleagues like Natalia Pablos or Jade, who are already retired. I have lived from playing on the ground with balls in my house until today, and for me everything that has been achieved I value it very much. I pay attention to every detail and I really enjoy it because we come from where we come from. It is true that it has been a long time coming and that there is still a lack of growth, but everything that is being done is worth appreciating.

During the first day of the British Open, Jon Rahm was almost as uncomfortable as it was for the spectators to find a loophole among the thousands of people who packed the Royal Liverpool to see a swing from the Spanish.

His match with Rory McIIlroy (he finished on par with the field) and Justin Rose (+3, the same as the Spaniard) recalled the massive performances of Tiger Woods. A pity that the number three in the world could not get a result according to his feelings. “The result hurts because of how well I hit the ball,” said Rahm, who finished the first day with that +3, suffering firsthand from the hardness of the bunkers. The Spaniard had to play two balls backwards. “I could have taken better advantage of the par five with how well I hit it from the tee. Doing +1 on the par fives is a bit what has killed me,” said Rahm, who is confident of putting in a good round today and getting back into the tournament.

“Make as few hits as possible,” he stated, alluding to his plans for the second day and saying goodbye to the Spanish press. There were two moments where the Spaniard's round could have taken a different course: the missed two-meter putt on hole 11, after a huge birdie on hole 10 (one of the most complicated, where Rahm holed out from 10 meters), and the missed opportunities on holes 15 and 16.

It was Adrián Otaegui who was in charge of eclipsing Rahm himself and gaining a place at the top of the standings. The surprise of the tournament was his 67 shots (-4) carved based on precision, consistency and tranquility. It seems that the fourth classified of the Open was in a local tournament of his club. “I try to do my routine every day, the only thing that changes is that you are not in most tournaments and this week the Spanish journalists are here,” he said.

Otaegui's phlegm impresses, as did his game over 17 holes. There was only one bad hole, the one, where the man from San Sebastian messed up from the tee, although he managed to save it with a meritorious bogey. Otaegui's -4 is also a message to the world of golf. After four consecutive weeks without competing sanctioned by the DP World Tour, with the only crime of having played four LIV Golf tournaments, the Spaniard does not want to get into controversy and prefers that his clubs speak for him. And they did it, finishing the first day just one stroke behind the leaders of this 151st edition of The Open.

The last major of the year is led by the surprising South African amateur Christo Lamprecht, winner of the British Amateur, the Englishman Tommy Fleetwood and the Argentinean Emiliano Grillo, who wanted to honor his compatriot Roberto de Vicenzo, in the year of his centenary, winner here in 1967.

Pablo Larrazábal finished the day with +1 (position 47) and mixed feelings. “The day I play to pass cuts, you will not see me around here anymore”. He signed the same result as the rookie in grand slam tournaments, Nacho Elvira.

Finally, UD Las Palmas has terminated the contract of the 18-year-old player, Joel Domínguez. However, it was not because of his conviction for gender violence but because of indiscipline. The insular team has reported in a statement that “Joel Domínguez does not continue in the yellow entity and has informed the player of the termination of his contract for disciplinary reasons.”

The club, despite his sentence and the fact that it still had two pending cases, decided, at first, to defend the player and even announced that it would start the preseason with the first team that, this year, had achieved promotion to LaLiga EA Sports.

However, the entity ended up not finally summoning him to the stage that the team carries out in Marbella and neither summoning him with the subsidiary nor with the third team. Now, player and club separate their paths. Apparently, neither the coach Francisco Javier García Pimienta nor the sports management had the footballer.

In March of this year, the player had been arrested for beating his partner. After admitting the facts, Domínguez would be sentenced for a crime of gender violence by the Court of Violence against Women No. 1 of Las Palmas to 40 days of community work, one year away and two more without a weapons permit..

The footballer himself would admit the facts, but UD Las Palmas would not exercise any disciplinary measure against him. The club simply argued that the attack had occurred in the “field of his private life”, and in its statement it did not include a single mention or message of support for the victim.

Dennis González hugged his coach Anna Vega after obtaining 193.03 points in the free solo final. The young Spanish swimmer, just 19 years old, had changed the exercise of the semifinal, in which he had finished fourth, adding difficulty to be able to fight for the medals. “It's something we had practiced and they were prepared without realizing it,” Anna Vega explains to EL MUNDO.

That, “without realizing it”, is key in the new Spain of the national team, Mayuko Fujiki, who was the right hand of Anna Tarrés. “We have suffered to create routines without losing difficulty, but maintaining our style,” defines the coach to this newspaper from her room in Fukuoka where her team had made history.

Without great soloists like Gemma Mengual, Andrea Fuentes or Ona Carbonell today in the national team's technical team, Spain has had the most choral triumph in its history. The team has obtained 6 medals, three of them gold (Fernando Díaz del Río in technical solo, Dennis González in free solo and also in team technical routine), one silver (Emma García and Dennis González in mixed technical duet) and two bronzes (Iris Tió in technical solo and technical duet, partnering with Alisa Ozhogina).

How have you achieved the greatest success of Spanish artistic swimming in history? “Spain needed young athletes to grow together,” reveals Mayuko, 'Mayu', about her return to our team after a successful stint in China. “We did not want quick results, the greater the time together, the greater the synchronization,” he adds.

The Spanish prospects were focused on Paris 2024 or even Los Angeles 2028. However, many of these young people have exploded before, especially the boys who, unfortunately, will not be able to have a presence in the Olympic Games since their disciplines are not contemplated in them..

In fact, of the six medals in these world championships, only three have been in Olympic disciplines: the team technical routine, the technical duo and the technical solo, the latter two with Iris Tió as great promise. “Iris is growing to become a star, her predecessors also took almost 10 years”, says Fujiki and recounted the evolution of Gemma Mengual who obtained her first and only gold at the age of 32.

Iris Tió and Alisa Ozhogina in the duet. KIYOSHI OTA EFE

Another key is training.. Harder, more physical, more specific and adapted to the new standards. “We live in the water,” Fujiki begins about the time they spend in the pool, between eight and nine hours a day, to then detail how they have focused on the “technique” of young swimmers to mechanize their movements.

Finally, knowing that the purely artistic part of the Spanish team is their strong point, they have done many 'acroyoga' exercises (a fusion between acrobatics and yoga) to guide the exercises and their difficulty to the new Olympic categories, such as Acrobatic, which involves seven exits from the water during the routine, and in which the swimmers have to form a base for one of their partners to perform a pirouette out of the water.. “We practice acroyoga a lot in confinement, since we don't have water,” Fujiki reveals.

The last key, and perhaps most important, is the adaptation to the new artistic swimming regulations approved by the International Swimming Federation (FINA) just a few months ago.. This new regulation, a priori, “we have suffered a lot because it favors less artistic teams,” says the national team.

It is a more objective and less creative scoring model, where predefined movements are scored and, where the key to everything lies, it penalizes failure much more. “We work with a risk mentality because we want to be leaders in the sport and because we have a lot of talent in the water and we are very ambitious outside,” says trainer Anna Vega.

Vega talks about “betting on difficulty but knowing where athletes can go without failing”. To refine so much, Spain has spent testing these new routines and doing pilot tests in all the preliminaries that have taken place before the World Cup.. Thus, when the big date arrived, they only had to put into practice what they had previously tried.

Dennis González in the free solo final. Szilard KoszticsakEFE

When Dennis González hugged Anna with his 193 points, there were still two swimmers to go out. The last one was the great favourite, the American Kenneth Gaudet, who, in addition, had reached the final with the best exercise. When Gaudet finished, the North American delegation jumped for joy while the young swimmer went to wait for his note on the typical sofa. One minute, two, the note did not come out. The judges observed in the video review that the swimmer had made a mistake. That small mistake cost him not only gold, but also silver.

Effort, art and surgical precision, Spain has a recipe for its resurrection. We will see if they consolidate it in Doha in 2024 and win a ticket to Paris and once again set the artistic agenda. “We don't have a star, but we have a great team with great strong, flexible swimmers… we have a lot of variety. Although we are also at the point of creating an important soloist,” Fujiki warns.