De la Fuente: "I have to stop the players in training"

If you are going through a difficult time, let's say, and you need, let's also say, someone to lift your spirits, call Luis de la Fuente. The national coach stood in front of the journalists this Saturday morning, in the press room of The Kuip, La Tub (the Feyernoord stadium) and gave a master class in optimism. Before facing Croatia, looking after the coach, Spain is a cyclone physically and mentally. A torrent of illusion and joy that will seek to win a title that, however, is just the “varnish” of a previous job.

“I announce that they are all perfectly, everyone can play,” began De la Fuente, who spared no impetus. “If we are here it is because we have shown that we are the two best teams in Europe.. I see the boys in the best moment of the season, because the physical is overcome by the emotional, by the mental. We have such motivation that on many occasions I have to stop them in training, because they play at breakneck speed”, he said.

One of the criticisms that the coach received in his first game window was that, between the first (Norway) and the second (Scotland), he made nine changes. That's not going to happen on Sunday against Croatia.. There will be two or three changes, at most. “The changes are not made on a whim”, qualified someone who is satisfied with what has been seen against Italy and who aspires not to have to see himself in an extension with the Croats, specialists in playing that extension time. “We would like to finish in 90 minutes, but if we have to play it, we will play it. They have more experience, but extra time is vital experience.”

They asked him if the title would consecrate him as a coach, he who has won the U19 and U21 Eurocups, the Mediterranean Games and has only lost one final, the Tokyo Olympics. “What gives recognition are the titles, but call me romantic, I think the most important thing is the previous work. The title is the varnish, but the important thing is everything that comes before that title. The path”. To finish, in this accelerated course of 'existential coaching', with a lapidary phrase: “I enjoy seeing people happy much more than with my own happiness”. Oh no! And another: “Although there is only one Spanish fan in the stands tomorrow, we feel that there are 40 million, that we have a country behind us.”