Del Bosque: “Looking at it now, I like the team more than in 2010”

In 2010, when he led the World Cup star to Spain, Vicente del Bosque González turned 60. A decade later, on his way to the 70s that will be on December 23, he continues to relativize success in general and the feat of being world champion in particular. Its his way of being. Flee from triumphalism.

Do you remember what was the first thing you said to the players on their first day as coach?

-Not exactly, but I'm sure I have some notes. It was to write down many things of some talks. I do not think that I strayed too far from the discourse that we had to take advantage of the circumstances that Spanish football was experiencing.

–Luis' transition to you was more than sweet.

-Because we had players very aware of what they had done, what it meant and also what they could do. And that was essential. We could not stop. We were lucky to have very good footballers and with a lot of common sense.

-The only one left on the road from the European Championship to the World Cup was Senna.

-It's the case that caused us the most pain. He had been either the best, or one of the best, in the Euro Cup. He was with us a year as one more. I don't justify myself. It's reality. In our view, it had a slight physical decline. I heard that he was hurt. He was right. But you also have to think that someone came after who was essential, Busquets. And there was Alonso who was not a starter before. We could have brought it. He had muscle injuries. We wait until the last moment with other players and not with him.

–You really make two great signings: Piqué and Busquets.

-Something else… Piqué is replaced by Marchena and Busquets by Senna. In this case with a lot of risk because he had been playing for Barcelona for a very short time. We make a decision at least risky.

– What did the World Cup have that the 2008 team did not?

– It is not good to enter those questions. We rely on what had been done for what transpired. We had not seen how they trained or did things before. We follow the previously marked line. There were no major differences. There was talk of motivation. We would not be the same in everything. Each of us motivates footballers in the way we think is most appropriate. The most important thing for a coach is to influence the group positively, both personally and in football. Without that it is difficult to reach the player. Also, you can't be smart, nor can they see that you don't reach the level. Not too smart or too dumb.

-You considered yourself the leader of that group.

-Leadership is a topic that I like. I do not reject it. What I believe is that there is no single leadership. Each one belongs to his father and mother, each one has a vision of things. Each one has a character, some experiences, some knowledge. Each one is different. What matters is being affable, being cordial, being a leader who shares things is essential. The coach needs inspiration from the players. Listening to them is not a sign of weakness. It is a sign of strength.

-In other words, you shared leadership with your players.

-That is always misunderstood. It is one thing to know how to listen and then make the decisions that each one considers convenient. The player's inspiration has to be kind. Not to say, mister, why don't we play like that … No, no, that's not their thing. It is important to listen to them, to say where they feel most comfortable, some special detail, but from there to do what they want, no. The one who has to make the decisions is the coach with all the sweats we can drag. I usually say that they seem to be in charge, but that what you want is done. I say this with all my love for everyone.

-It loses against Switzerland. The worst day by far

– I do not know if the worst, but certainly the most uncomfortable. We did a reset. We lost, but we all got together and asked ourselves: “damn, are we going to change now?” If we fall, we fall as we are and decide not to change anything. In speech, what you say must be consistent with what you do. We made two changes. Iniesta's due to injury and Torres's due to Silva. I ran into David, poor thing. It was more as a consequence of what we were going to have in front of us in the second game than because I would have played badly. If we had changed to five or six we could have been blamed for saying that we had played well and we had changed in half. That does not match. You had to be consistent.

-The day after that defeat something happened that made him change his mind …

-Yes. I was very encouraged that when we went down to breakfast, we had all seen the game repeated. They kept throwing it on television and many players told me: “Mister we have not played so badly. You were a little pessimistic in the analysis with the Press ”. And then I said to them: “It is true. We haven't played as badly as I thought or said the result ”. My first impression had been misleading. At that breakfast we began to think again about our great possibilities and, half jokingly, half seriously, with irony, I told them: “If we win the next six games we will be world champions.” And indeed, with luck and with no luck we were. I imagine the players would have a sly smile. I said it with that Salamanca touch, as if dropping it, but it was not an inaccessible challenge, why couldn't we win them all? That was the heart of everything that happened in those first days.

-We talked a lot about the style, the possession game, the attack, and we forgot that the team only received two goals in the entire Championship.

-We all have a vision of how we want our team to be. In ours, the influence of Barcelona was great due to the number of players we had, however we played with two very important men in the middle, like Busquets and Xabi Alonso. I think there is a letter that is ‘p’. The pressure, possession and depth. Without that we can do nothing. At worst, we were a little short of depth. These days of confinement I have seen all the games with a little more detail. I haven't seen them since, ten years …

– and in the repetition, they have seemed to him better or worse than in reality?

-I liked them more. We press quite well. We had quite good possession except against Paraguay, a very difficult day. Also that of Chile for the spirit that the two teams of Martino and Bielsa had. They made us suffer a lot. Depth is not easy to have. What I did realize is that we were a team that knew how to defend when it came a little further back and also when it had to go forward. It has comforted me to see the games repeated. I liked the team better. Yes Yes. Sometimes we may not have had a great brilliance, which we later had in the Euro Cup, but in the World Cup we were a very formal team. We dominate the three ‘p’ quite easily.

-We reached the semifinals and Puyol's goal. That much has its history.

-Yes, the day before the game against Germany, in the talk, I asked the players how to attack a defense in a zone of four plus two. The defense that the Germans made was a little passive, they were a little static. Everyone was giving their opinion. We had the advantage of having a pitcher like Xavi; two men who did the blocks very well, Piqué and Sergio; Villa zascandileando with the goalkeeper and a guy with an energy and vitality like Puyol, who is the one who finishes off. We used a lot of short corners. And I say this with some self-criticism. We were looking for a second play to finish centering. You move more to the contrary and it is easier for the auctioneers. In the action of the goal, we shoot directly. Our luck was to have who launched, who protected and who finished.

-Before the final, what does it get heavy on?

-The most important thing I told them was that we were footballers and that we had to be a little romantic in the game. We were going to a game that was the most important of our lives, surely. I wish we could repeat it! We were soldiers, we represented our country, but it had to be represented in the best possible way, mainly with the game with which I have always identified and expressed. Football has not always been like this. Now he has the empathy of the whole world, but people have been very acid with soccer and in those moments we earned that sympathy.

-He did not remember the phrase of the mythical Bill Shankly. “Some believe that football is just a matter of life and death, but it is something much more important than that.”

– On the contrary, I told them it was not a matter of life and death. I reminded them that the following season they were going to be with their clubs and that life went on. We played a lot, it was important to play that final but it was not to dramatize either. It was not a matter of motivation. In a game like that, any coach is worth. They are all super motivated. If anything I felt that point of disgust of not being able to put to play at 23. That point never goes away. They reproached me for not celebrating the goals. If he did not do it excessively it was because of those who could be playing and were not there. He always had the feeling that he had hurt someone.

– It continues thinking that we were predestined to gain that World-wide one.

-Yes. We were in that positive inertia. We were accompanied by luck. Did we have good players? Yes. Did we have a good system? Yes. Did we have everything good? Yes. But we were also lucky and we have to say it like that. It's reality. It is not taking away merits. Soccer has that lucky point. You have it or you don't have it.

-These ten years since the World Cup have passed quickly.

-We have had many things to tell. I cannot complain in the world of soccer. One day I heard it from Toni Nadal. He said he had not suffered with tennis. I have not suffered with soccer either. What have we lost? What have we failed ?, but that is not suffering. If you have made all the effort and lose, what are you going to do? I feel privileged. I have moved out of passion, because I really like it. I have been very fortunate.

-Man, in the World Cup in Brazil, I suppose he would suffer.

-Man … When you have that responsibility so strong that it hurts to lose. But suffer, suffer, what is said to suffer for a result, never. I always remember the Japanese who left the World Cup in Russia without any drama and had deserved to qualify. And on top they clean the locker room and take it for a sack. Maybe we are not the same, but in football there is always a next result.

-A curiosity, how do you deal 45 days with a team that aspires to win a World Cup and with 23 high-standing players?

-We were careful with long concentrations. He had suffered as a player. They were not beneficial. They were counterproductive. We had cycles of four or five days. Three of training, party, rest and the necessary freedom. We were prudent so that nobody was overwhelmed. Fundamental. And if the training contents are not very entertaining, they get boring. Players finish up to the cap. Be careful with rest and leisure.

Vicente del Bosque not only feeds on football. He does not refuse to talk about his life, his feelings, his experiences. In short, his memories of a life in which the family shares the limelight with the ball.

-His strong sense of responsibility, inherited from his father Fermín, has always been his best travel companion in life and in soccer.

-Yes. He was the ideal employee. A straight, full man, without folds. I have inherited the fear of not complying. Sometimes that responsibility distresses you a little. Not meeting expectations overwhelms me. An excess of responsibility can be harmful. It is a value that I do not know if it is in decline, but it is not bad to remember it.

-And has it grown or diminished throughout your career?

– I have continued having it always and in case, as I have had more responsibility or more notoriety, it was greater. It was enlarging. Not that I was stunned, but I was imposed.

-And if you hadn't been a footballer and coach, what would it have been?

-I didn't have time to think about it. There is also a need. When you finish your soccer career you have to do something. And very soon I began to think about the figure of being a coach. I copied all the exercises we did. In those days all the technicians already had a method to train. It is very important to have it. Do what you do. There is no single recipe in this field. We do not say this is what is worth. This is false. There are many formulas for success. They influenced me on how I wanted to be a coach. For example with Miljanic we had repetition training. Right now you put that method to the players and they send you to take it up the ass the first day. It was the practice of that Yugoslav school, which was very good. Boskov was another style. Although he was Yugoslav he had a Dutch school. All that influence that came to Spain from 1974 was very good. That is the border. After the World Cup in Germany.

-Have you ever thought in your life that you could become a coach?

-Never. When I arrived in Madrid at the age of 16 or 17, I didn't even think that I was going to be a soccer player. If anything, I started to catch a glimpse of something when I went to train on Thursdays, to be sparring, of the first team. And in the privacy I said to my brother because maybe I can live on soccer. And so it has happened. The vein of being a coach entered with Miljanic, Boskov and Mr. Molowny. They were key for me to think that I could dedicate myself to this. His influence was decisive. They put the worm in my body. I acquired the vocation through time. It seems that he had within him the vocation of teaching. I did teaching first. I left it when I came to Madrid.

– The first day that Fernando Hierro arrives and, as sports director of the Federation, tells him that he wants him to be Luis's substitute, what do you think, what does he say?

-He told me that Luis was not going to continue and that he was proposing my name to replace him. I said, go ahead Fernando. I see Euro 2008 at my house in Madrid. I alone, as one more fan, enjoying the successes …

-But you already knew that you would be a coach, Hierro made you the offer before the Eurocopa because you know that Luis is not going to continue under any circumstances and it is published in the newspapers …

-No, no, noooo. Not at all. This information is very important. Before the Eurocopa it doesn't offer me anything. Later, later… They don't tell me anything until they have absolute certainty that Luis doesn't follow. When the news comes out, my friends and my family tell me that after winning the European Championship it was a bad time to take the National Team. I tell them no. That we were at the best. We had a recognized style of play, good players, good relations with the Press. Little did we do it was the best time. You don't necessarily have to take a team because bad results have come.

– A little complicated, yes, it was to arrive with the bar so high. Comparisons could always come.

– It was the best moment in the history of Spanish football. We had won a Eurocup and the human material we had was contrasted. Each coach has his formula, his method of personal treatment and sports strategy. Each one does what he thinks is most convenient for success. It is the most important.

– How do you win over that group that was ‘Luisista’ as hard as you can?

-I've never had that sense of belonging about a team. Yes regarding membership in a company. And that yes I have it very accentuated. I entered from the most absolute normality. When a coach enters a locker room, the first thing players do is analyze it. What coat do you wear or what socks do you wear? They undress you, they analyze you. Come if you are strong. If you have knowledge, if you don't have it. What is needed is that within the limitations we have, they are noticed as little as possible. Then everything is good treatment, being normal. Neither very exaggerated in victory nor very depressed in defeat. Acting normally always works well.

-Did you benefit from having trained Real Madrid and being a footballer rather than a coach?

-Of course, of course, of course … There is a lot of legend about how the players are. I was lucky and had a good relationship with everyone without distinction, beyond any disagreement that may arise in the relationship, as in any family, but never with evil. Never for hurting. There are times when you can't be fair. Soccer has a singularity and it is impossible to be fair. You call 11 and leave 12 or 13 without playing. As such you make some mistakes and on top of that I am not a very conclusive man in my certainties. Like everyone, I have many doubts. I have had many in my life and bad who does not have them. And in this confinement I have repeated it much more. I see the doubts that even the same experts and scientists have. We are full of uncertainty.

-You played 18 games with the national team. So many years later and with the figures that are being handled now, do you think they are few?

-It is not an excuse. Those were times when fewer international games were played and at worst I was not a 50-game footballer either. He was also not an extraordinary player. I settle for 18. I might have been able to play a few more, but I had injuries. I was able to go to the 78 World Cup in Argentina. It may be, I say, because having been a coach afterwards and knowing what it is like to leave people out, I put myself in the situation of Kubala and I have no point of harshness towards him.

– But surely at the time it was a hard blow …

-Of course, of course … I had been injured a few months earlier in a match against Real Sociedad. I broke my fibula when I was in my prime. I arrived very fair at the World Cup and Laszi decided not to take me, but I repeat that I never had a bad word for him. There was a lot of competition in midfield, as it happens now, or in my time as a coach. Being fair is very difficult.

– From midfielders there has always been overbooking …

-Yes, there were those from Real Sociedad, Diego, Alonso Zamora, those from Madrid, those from Barça.

– His departure coincides with his only major competition, the Eurocopa de Italia 80.

-I could have had the possibility of having rejoined the World Cup in Spain 82 with Santamaría. I was close, there was a little thing, but I do not go into negative things. I am so happy and happy and always maintaining the romanticism of being in the National Team.

-There was more romance before playing in the National Team than now.

-No. Sometimes even before there were cases when it was said that you were injured to not go or the coach on duty said that you had you don't know what … Now, in my time, I think that there are few people who have refused exhaustively or 'for the bajini 'of not wanting to go to the Selection. Nobody. Unlike. With certainty. In my time they ran away more. I do not understand that mania for coaches to think that it could harm going to the National Team, when for me it was always a benefit. Being there was a pride and should be enjoyable for the clubs. Sometimes it was to save them from injury unnecessarily.

-It is curious that Luis Aragonés did not have a long career as a player in the national team either. He only played 11 games.

-I think for the same reason as me. There were four or five games a year. I do not eat now. We have been eight years and we have led 114 games, it comes out at an average of 14 or 15 per year. And of those 114, one thing I like to boast about it, is that we have only had one expelled. This means that we have also tried to transfer good behavior. And that expulsion of Piqué against Brazil in the final of the Confederations Cup was more an act of helplessness than dirty or unsportsmanlike play. We lost 3-0 and …

-What was your best memory as a player?

-I have a bad memory for that. What I do remember is that in all the matches with the National Team I felt a great emotion to play. Being with great players. Debut with Iribar. Being with Gárate, Rexach, Red Chechu, Benito … They were a little older than me and I felt great admiration. With Asensi and Villar we form a midline from which I keep great memories both on and off the field.