AT A GLANCE: Spain

by FOXSports.com

Updated: May 15, 2002, 11:53 AM EST

G Santiago Canizares, Valencia (ESP)
D Barjuan Sergi, Barcelona (ESP)
D Manuel Pablo, Deportivo (ESP)
D Michel Salgado, Real Madrid (ESP)
D Ruben Baraja, Valencia (ESP)
M Gaizka Mendieta, Lazio (ITA)
M Luis Enrique, Barcelona (ESP)
M Fernando Hierro, Real Madrid (ESP)
M Ivan Helguera, Real Madrid (ESP)
F Raul, Real Madrid (ESP)
F Fernando Morientes, Real Madrid (ESP)

UNDERACHIEVING FOR REAL

Now for an easy question. Which team is going to come to the World Cup fancied by many to go far, brimming with gifted players and confidence, get drawn in a weak group and underachieve so much that they crash out before the end of the second week?

Who else can it be? Of course it has to be Spain!

Welcome to the mad, mad world of the Spanish national team - a world where Northern Ireland, Belgium, Yugoslavia, Nigeria and Paraguay qualify for the later stages of the World Cup while Spain go back home to argue amongst themselves.

No international side comes close to matching Spain's record of underachievement and failure. Even original world superpower Uruguay, incapable of success at the World Cup since 1950, have been regular winners of the Copa America.

All Spain can boast is one paltry European Championship in 1960. And the bad news is that it?s not about to change this year.

Spain go to Korea with as good a team as they have ever had. In Canizaries, Hierro, Helguera, Guti, Guerrero, Mendieta, Luis Enrique, Morientes, Diego Tristan and Raul, Spain have a solid, tough, talented team, honed in the Primera Division and Champions League. They can defend, create chances and score goals.

The trouble is so can France, Argentina, Portugal, Italy and England. It is just bad luck that when Spain finally have a team capable of lifting the greatest prize of all, everyone else around them have become even better. Why? Because of Real Madrid, because of Valencia, because of Barcelona and because of Deportivo.

Spanish club football is at its highest ever point, even higher than the late 1950s and early 1960s when Real ruled the European Cup and the world. Today the Primera Division is arguably the best league in the world, with the most money and best players.

The top Spanish clubs dominate the Champions League - Real have won it three times in the last five years and Valencia have reached two of the last three finals. This year Deportivo have terrorized Manchester United and Arsenal.

But with a few notable exceptions (Raul, Morientes, Diego Tristan) the stars of these teams are French, Argentinean, Portuguese and Brazilian - not Spanish.

Worse still, as the top Spanish sides get better their English, Italian and German competitors spend more, and compete more, and their players get better and better. And will get further than Spain this summer.

Luckily for Spain, they have been drawn into the weaker, Korean side of the draw. In Group B they will face old rivals Paraguay (surely not a serious threat this time), a lightweight South African side incapable of beating Mali let alone a top European side, and dark horses Slovenia.

Now even if Spain succumb to their traditional slip-up against Slovenia, they should still get through this level of opposition and meet Germany, Ireland or Cameroon - more winnable games.

Spain has some amazing attacking talent, much of it very experienced. Raul seems to have been around forever, scoring goals against the best defences in Europe. Usually deployed further back, but still very much an attacker, is Julen Guerrero of Athletic Bilbao.

Further back the midfield is very much the personal domain of Gaizka Mendieta, once of Valencia, now currently warming Lazio's bench. By the time he gets to Korea, Mendieta may well be at Real or Barca, but at least he will be fresh this summer, and will have a lot to prove to those who say he was found out at Lazio.

Of course there is Fernando Hierro at the back, preparing for his final crack at success age 34. Will he be as valuable as Baresi was in 1994, or will he get injured and disappear from view like he does all too often? Questions, questions, questions.

But herein lies the problem for this team more than any other - just what are Spain going to do in Korea? Play safe, don't bet a penny on them, but don't be surprised to see them in the quarter finals or even the semis.

Some teams will never win anything in exactly the same way as some people will never get rich or lucky. And that has to mean Spain will have to carry on trying to win that elusive major title for at least another two years. One day, probably after a tough qualification and when we are least expecting it, Spain will win something. It's not going to be in 2002 though.

Courtesy of our friends at World Cup Archive