Qatar is no longer a dream. He is no longer in the future. The most controversial and unpredictable World Cup in history is about to land in the most rabid present of all football fans. Today begins the week in which Qatar and Ecuador will open the 22nd edition of the World Cup on Sunday from 5:00 p.m. at Al Bait Stadium. And also today, Spain begins its countdown to the assault on the second star. The success of 2010 seems like a mere memory.
The 26 internationals selected by Luis Enrique are summoned at 1:30 p.m. at the Ciudad del Fútbol de Las Rozas to embark on a new and exciting World Cup adventure. The entire technical team led by the Asturian coach and all the Federation staff that will accompany the internationals throughout their journey await them there. All the details matter in a short tournament, and nobody wants to leave a single loose end. Especially the selector, who controls everything that happens inside the walls of Las Rozas.
This afternoon, starting at 6:30 p.m., the national team will complete its first training session under the orders of Luis Enrique with the World Cup as the only cult object. Spain will debut in Qatar on the 23rd against Costa Rica, a match that will host the Al Zumama stadium, located south of the city of Doha, a duel that already occupies all the internationals.
The team will experience the first 24 hours of concentration with a very busy agenda, before getting on a plane, leaving the commitments behind and focusing one hundred percent on the World Cup. Among other obligations, in these first frenetic hours of concentration, the footballers will undergo the official photo session ahead of the appointment in Qatar with the shirt that the red will wear in the desert. Tomorrow, a player will offer his first press conference and the internationals will repeat training at 11.30. With hardly any time to shower, the expedition will head to Barajas airport to travel to Jordan, where on Thursday Spain will face the local team in Amman in the only friendly match scheduled for the World Cup.
Although surely the first shivers of nervousness will occur on Friday, when the expedition settles definitively in its World Cup headquarters, at the University of Qatar, located north of Doha, and in the afternoon it exercises in what will be its training camp until you finish your adventure in the tournament.
Luis Enrique will then finally have five days in a row in which he can focus all his attention on preparing for the duel against Costa Rica and analyzing in depth the evolution of his players. Without apparent serious physical problems among those called up, the coach will pay special attention to the work of Ansu Fati, a footballer who, as he himself acknowledged, was in doubt "until the last minute" to be included in the final call. "The illusion to recover the best version of him was able to me", admitted Luis Enrique on Friday.
The striker is playing regularly this season for Xavi's Barça, but the truth is that he has not finished consolidating himself, much less becoming the undisputed starter. Although he has played all the League and Champions games, Ansu has barely seen the door on three occasions and has not finished leaving the best feelings. For this reason, the coach trusts in one last push in these last days and that the best version of him has just resurfaced. The countdown has begun.
