MADRID, 6 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Spanish women’s soccer team achieved new success last week, the first edition of the Nations League, a second title that accompanies last summer’s historic World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, and which had the extra reward of another milestone. until then unattainable as the qualification for its first Olympic Games, a sample of a team that longs to start an era supported by a very defined style and the mixture of several generations.
Spain continues on the wave in women’s football and has become almost the dominant country in this modality where it is the current Absolute, Under-20 and Under-17 world champion, in addition to having the current European champion at club level. with FC Barcelona and Aitana Bonmatí as the winner of all the great individual recognitions, while the lower categories also accumulate recent successes such as the European Under-19 Championship or the continental runners-up in the Under-17.
And all the successes of the base have ended up moving to the Absoluta, where a generation of ‘veterans’ such as, mainly, Jennifer Hermoso (33 years old), Irene Paredes (32) and Alexia Putellas (30) had been fighting for glory for some time. with the national team and they are the three that have surpassed one hundred caps.
The woman from Madrid and the Basque were the only ‘thirty-year-olds’ who initially competed in the final in Sydney in a World Cup where the other oldest players on Jorge Vilda’s list were Ivana Andrés (29 years old), the other one along with the aforementioned trio. who has played in the three World Cups, and Claudia Zornoza (32), although only the former had a notable participation in the form of minutes.
On August 20, the ‘Roja’ fielded an eleven with an average of 25 years in their ranks, practically the same as they had last Wednesday at La Cartuja in Seville in the Nations League final against France. Hermoso and Paredes once again served as the most experienced in the eleven chosen by Montse Tomé, where Athenea del Castillo (23), Alba Redondo (26), and Laia Aleixandri (23), who was part of the group of 15 internationals who resigned to go until there were improvements and what Jorge Vilda did not count on, for Tere Abelleira (23), were the news compared to the one in Sydney.
However, the team that finished that match against the ‘Bleues’ had an average of less than 24 years (23.7) after the entry of the young Vicky López, 17 years old, in Jenni Hermoso’s place. Hervé Renard’s average was close to 28 years old, which would surely have been surpassed if the veteran Wendie Renard (33) had played, while the rival in the semifinals, the Netherlands, was 27, similar to that of Germany, the other semifinalist. . Tomé’s list of 25 players had an average age of 24.2 years.
SEVEN WORLD CHAMPIONS IN LOWER CATEGORIES
And Tomé has continued to trust in the young talent that exists in Spain as represented by the FC Barcelona midfielder, Ballon d’Or winner of the last U-17 World Cup, and who has other names such as, in addition to the already established Salma Paralluelo (20 years ), to Fiamma Benítez (19), Inma Gabarro (21) or María Pérez (22).
The debut of Vicky López also meant the landing of the first Under-17 world champion of the year 2022 in the Absolute where there were already four historic world champions of that same category in 2018 (Salma Paralluelo, Cata Coll, Eva Navarro and María Méndez ), in addition to, without counting Paralluelo, who holds the World Cup ‘triple crown’, Inma Gabarro and Fiamma Benítez, U-20 world champions. All of them, except Vicky López, are practically undisputed in their respective teams in the F League.
Claudia Pina, U-17 world champion in 2018, could be added to this list in an event where she was chosen as the Ballon d’Or. The 22-year-old forward of FC Barcelona remains, along with Patri Guijarro and ‘Mapi’ León, as one of the players who has not yet seen the necessary changes to be available again to be called up.
And between these young women and the veterans, a nucleus led by Aitana Bonmatí (26 years old) and which would include Ona Batlle (24) and Laia Aleixandri (23), in addition to Maite Oroz (25) and Misa Rodríguez (24), who They were runners-up in the U-20 world championship in 2018, surely the first big warning that Spanish women’s football was going to break out with force and that they are also working on that leap with the new U-23 team that Laura created a few years ago and currently directs. from the river.
This good work in the lower categories and the current point of maturity that the women’s team has already reached, where the next ‘veteran’ is Mariona Caldentey, who will turn 28 in March, increases optimism to defend the reign that she currently holds and that She will have a new test next summer at the Olympic Games where she will start as a clear candidate for the gold medal.
WAITING FOR THE FINAL RETURN OF THE BEST ALEXIA PUTELLA
In Olympic women’s football, unlike in men’s football, there is no age limitation and Spain will present itself as the main candidate for the gold medal supported by most of this block, with the hope of finally being able to count with Alexia Putellas close to her best level after the double Ballon d’Or winner seriously injured her knee on the verge of her debut at the Euro 2022 Championship in England.
The Catalan midfielder arrived very fair at the World Cup and in this Nations League, when she was beginning to gain a competitive rhythm and was becoming important again, she hurt her knee again and was unable to participate in the last games even though she was in the ‘Final Four’ of the Nations League, where he contributed his leadership to the group.
In Paris, pending confirmation of the two African teams, they will meet important rivals, led by the host France, their latest victim, but at home they will have that extra to end their ‘curse’ in terms of titles.
Although after the last World Cup it seems to have lost some of its potential and is no longer so ‘scary’, the United States will be another serious contender along with Canada, the current Olympic champion, while, like the Americans, Germany does not seem to go through its best moment both at national team and club level, but it is a team that Spain has never beaten.
Australia, without its reference Sam Kerr due to his serious knee injury, the always competitive and ‘bone’ Japan, Brazil, Colombia and New Zealand complete, for now, the shortlist of participants for a draw that will be held on March 20.