Football

World Cup 2022: Spain stars have 1,000 penalty homework by Enquire

So far, only one match has been decided by a penalty shootout, Croatia triumphing over Japan to book a quarter-final meeting with Brazil. Spain bowed out of Euro 2020 on penalties and Luis Enrique is adamant about avoiding the heartache in Qatar. 

Spain, Japan

The former AS Roma and Barcelona manager have taken measures to avoid the Samurai Blues’ fate. He has ordered his players to take 1,000 penalties in training. The instructions were shared with Spain’s players a year ago. 

La Roja players have been busy fine-tuning their skills from 12 yards out and should be ready for action when called upon in the quadrennial FIFA event. Enrique wants his players to master the art and hopes their nerves stay with them in a high-pressure situation. 

The rationale behind the decision was to have key players improve their skills as improving on the art can avoid lottery situations. Both penalty-takers and shot-stoppers were given the task by Enrique. 

“One year ago, I gave the players some homework.

“I told them they must all take at least 1,000 penalties when they are working with their clubs. I am sure they all did their homework. Penalty shootouts are not a lottery. The outcome doesn’t just depend on luck. Taking a penalty in those circumstances is a moment of the highest pressure.

“So you need to be able to call on your technique and skill. Of course, you can’t recreate the pressure in training, but you can get better at taking penalties. The players have all been taking penalties in our training sessions and, of course, the goalkeepers play an important role as well, so we have also been training them.”

Spain will stick to their guns

Spain

Japan held their own against the Croatians in the Round of 16 despite lacking in quality boasted of by the Blazers. A similar match-up will be witnessed between Morocco and Spain in the seventh Round of 16 meeting. 

Failure to break down the Moroccans in open play will put their tournament lifeline at stake. Italy’s similar tactics against them paid dividends and Walid Regragui would have memorised the tape by heart. 

There are further learnings to be had from La Roja’s duels with Germany and Japan, which allowed their rivals to claw back into the fixture. Die Mannschaft earned a draw while the Samurai Blue snatched a victory for themselves. 

Enrique does not want to look too much into their failings and believes their footballing philosophy can hold its own against the Atlas Lions. He admitted that during the course of their duel, Morocco will get chances but their quality should reign supreme in the end. 

“It is such a cliche to suggest that our team cannot handle setbacks,” Enrique said. “We have played 270 minutes at this tournament so far. When you include injury time, it is probably 300 minutes. The only time when we haven’t been the superior team was in those 10 minutes against Japan when they scored two goals.

“We don’t play on our own. Our opponents also play and I am sure there will be minutes against Morocco when they will be better than us. It’s another cliche to say we don’t play any long balls.

“Yes, we want to keep possession and build from the back, but if the best option is a long ball, then that has to be decided by the player on the pitch. Any other analysis of our game is just too basic.”


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