Apply Modern Football, Bright Future Awaits Spain National Team

JAKARTA - The success of the Spanish National Team is not only thanks to Rodri and Lamine Yamal, but also the development of the culture of football for years.

Spain showed their strength on the green field by winning the 2026 World Cup title after beating Argentina 1-0 in the final in New Jersey, Monday (20/7) early morning WIB.

The world champion status was achieved by La Roja only two years after they became European champions in Berlin. Luis de La Fuente's team has achieved similar achievements, combining the European and world titles, in 2008 and 2010.

Seeing the Spanish squad populated by young players, the future of La Roja football looks bright. Many believe their dominance will continue, just like almost two decades ago when the pace of Spain seemed unstoppable.

"No one can beat Spain. There were only 10 shots on target throughout the tournament against them. Spain has a style of play that no one in the world has ever imitated," former England goalkeeper Joe Hart told BBC.

About two decades ago, Spain was not a team that was accustomed to being on the list of favorites in almost every major football event. But that status began to shift under the late Luis Aragones's leadership ahead of Euro 2008.

The 2006 World Cup was Aragones' first major tournament as a tactician for La Roja. At that time, Spain had to be eliminated in the 16th round after losing 1-3 to France, despite successfully topping the group stage.

But since then, Spain has been more considered. With young bloods like Iker Casillas, Sergio Ramos, Cesc Fabregas, Xabi Alonso, Xavi Hernandez, and Fernando Torres, La Rojamenjelma as a respected team.

Aragones managed to bring Spain to the Euro 2008 championship, defeating Germany 1-0 in the final thanks to Fernando Torres' single goal. This was their first international title since 1964.

In that time, Aragones was aware of the physical weakness of the Spanish players, so he implemented the gayatiki-taka, a short pass system that was later also identical to the Barcelona playing style and became the biggest football revolution in Spanish history.

While Aragones was successful at Euro 2008, Pep Guardiola, who was appointed as Barcelona coach the same summer, applied Johan Cruijff's principles to his players.

And, Barcelona with its gayatiki-taka-nya managed to dominate European football, proven by the treble winners - La Liga, Copa del Rey, and the Champions League - in Guardiola's first season as coach.

When Aragones' position was replaced by Vicente del Bosque, Spain's hegemony continued at the 2010 World Cup and Euro 2012. This period coincided with Barcelona's glory days under Guardiola.

At the 2010 World Cup, Spain recorded four consecutive clean sheets in the knockout stages, with each victory 1-0. They dominated the game so much. In the final against the Netherlands, Andres Iniesta's dummy goal in the 116th minute ensured La Roja won the World Cup title for the first time.

Two years later, Del Bosque took Spain on an extreme evolution, more often playing a 4-6-0 formation with Cesc Fabregas as a false nine and without a pure striker. The result, Italy was crushed four goals without reply in the Euro 2012 final held in Kiev.

Although football is now faster, more vertical, and highly dependent on data-based transition models, the core principles established by Spain between 2008 and 2012 remain the fundamental basis of elite football to this day.

When Luis de la Fuente was appointed as head coach to replace Luis Enrique who resigned after Spain's failure in the 2022 World Cup 16th round, his appointment was met with public doubt.

But De la Fuente silenced the doubters. He managed to lead Spain to win titles from all the tournaments it participated in, namely the 2023 Nations League, the 2024 European Cup, and now the 2026 World Cup.

Spain may not have been the most sensational team throughout the World Cup yesterday. They came without any prominent individual players, such as Lionel Messi in Argentina, Kylian Mbappe in France, or Erling Haaland in Norway. But it cannot be denied, La Rojasulit was stopped. Throughout the tournament, Spain only conceded one goal, when winning 2-1 over Belgium in the quarter-finals.

Spain opened the trip with a 0-0 draw against debutants, Cape Verde. La Rojakemudian menang telak 4-0 melawan Arab Saudi pada pertandingan kedua, sebelum akhirnya menundukkan Uruguay 1-0 yang memastikan mereka finis di posisi teratas Grup H.

However, many people say Spain's performance is not like when they won the Euro 2024. This may be related to the condition of their two stars, Lamine Yamal and Nico Williams, who suffered hamstring injuries before this World Cup, while Pedri's performance was below expectations.

However, Austria coach Ralf Rangnick praised Spain after his team lost 0-3 in the last 32.

"There is not much room for them to improve," said the former Manchester United coach.

"They are like a perfect clockwork. I don't remember any unintentional mistakes they made. I think Spain, today, really showed their best performance. I dare say that we are not only facing the European champions, but also the world champions," Rangnick added.

And he was right. Spain came out as champions by defeating defending champions Argentina convincingly. Although the scoreboard only showed a 1-0 victory thanks to Ferran Torres' single goal, De la Fuente's squad performed impressively with total dominance throughout the match.

With this result, Spain is unbeaten in the last 38 matches in all competitions and this is the longest record ever recorded by a team from Europe or South America in the history of international football.

Looking at the current player composition, the future of Spanish football looks bright. Just mention Lamine Yamal and Pau Cubarsi, Barcelona's mainstay duo, who have won the first World Cup gold medal at the age of 19. Many people believe that La Roja will continue to dominate for the next few years, one of them is former French striker Thierry Henry.

"I want to give credit to the system and the foundation they built. Spain used to not be used to winning like this. Now they win at every level," Henry said.