Eighteen are few games, but many years

The National Team returns to a city that is not unknown to it because it has played 18 games, but it had been the same years since it had visited (18-2-2004). Then a friendly was played in preparation for the European Championship that was played that summer in Portugal. Spain beat Peru (2-1). To find the last official meeting you have to go back even further in the time tunnel. Until 47 years ago (10-12-1975), Spain-Denmark (2-0) in Sarriá, qualifying for the 1976 European Championship, in which the National Team was not present because it was eliminated by Germany in the quarterfinals.

EL RCDE, also known as Cornellá-El Prat, will be the fifth Barcelona stadium to host the National Team. So far he had done so in another four: les Corts (2 games), Montjuïc (8), Camp Nou (5) and Sarriá (3). The last friendly match at the venue owned by FC Barcelona dates back to 1-21-87, Spain-Holland (1-1). Or what is the same 35 years. And the last official moves away to 30-4-69 against Yugoslavia, 2-1, on the way to the World Cup in Mexico 70, for which the team did not qualify either. 53 years have passed.

Only three Spanish cities have hosted more times for the national team than Barcelona: Madrid (70), Seville (52) and Valencia (34).but the general feeling is that those 18 matches are few for the footballing significance of the city and the 98 years that have passed since the first match played at Les Corts, against Austria (2-1) in 1924.

The passage of time is paramount when it comes to the protagonists of the last two dates in Barcelona remembering, to a greater or lesser extent, what those games were like. The penultimate, the official, after 47 years, has been half lost in the memory of those who played it. However, the last one, the friendly, is fresher, although at the time it was also half overshadowed. The same day ‘Planet Fútbol’ was held in Barcelona with the presence of great football stars (Cruyff, Rummenigge, Stoichkov, Valdano…) and the presidents of Real Madrid and Barcelona, ​​Florentino Pérez and Laporta, included, and the Fair received almost more media attention than the meeting itself.

The Last Friendly (2004). That National Team was trained by Iñaki Sáez and had managed to qualify for Euro 2004 after overcoming the play-off against Norway. That night in Barcelona, ​​Spain beat Peru (2-1). Goals from Etxeberría and Baraja overcame Solana’s early goal. Shirt and ball were released. Raúl equaled Butragueño’s 69 caps and Sáez used 18 players with seven changes at the break.

Rubén Baraja, scorer of the winning goal, was pleasantly surprised that Luis Enrique, when he provided the list of concentrates for the match against Albania, referring to the return of the National Team to Barcelona, ​​quoted him recalling precisely that it had been one of the directors of the meeting. “The truth is that I was very excited that the coach remembered that he had scored the winning goal in that last game played in Barcelona. He didn’t have to do it, but he did and it was a very affectionate detail. We had been teammates in the 2002 World Cup”.

Al Pipo, who was a midfielder with Xabi Alonso, was surprised that 18 years had passed since that last time. “The national team belongs to everyone, Barcelona included. At least I’ve always had that feeling. My memories dressed in red are of always being well received wherever we played. We changed venues a lot and on all pitches, including that night in Montjuïc, we feel at home. Another question is that our times were not like now, or those years ago when everything was won. In my time we suffered more, we even had to overcome playoffs. There was a generational change and little by little little were the young people who later won everything”.

In case it was not clear, the former international, 43 games, seven goals, ends up claiming Barcelona as the headquarters of the National Team. “In addition, it is an emblematic place for everything that happened in the ’92 Games and what that medal represents for our football. It is a place where you should play more often, not every few years. When we played there I didn’t feel animosity towards us, quite the opposite. 18 games seem few to me and that the last official was in 75 also seems incredible to me”.

Raúl Tamudo (13 games, five goals) also played that friendly against Peru. He played at home. He entered after the break and his memory has easy access to memories. “Although so many years have passed, for a lifelong Spanish player that meeting had to be special and I have great memories. All my friends, my family were there and for a player it is important to feel supported by his family. That now the National Team returns to our house, in this case Cornellá, and people can enjoy the National Team again, it’s also nice. Surely the fans will respond as they always have. Here there are many people who want to see a team that is in a great moment and will have the opportunity to see it and enjoy it”.

The Last Officer (1975). The disappeared Sarriá saw fit to be the scene of the event. Kubala was the coach and qualification for the ’76 European Championship was at stake. Spain unceremoniously beat the Danes with goals from Pirri, a header, and from one side, Capón. The chronicles of the time do not particularly highlight the team’s play and the newspaper library brings us closer to an endearing photo of Pirri himself with the mythical Ricardo Zamora.

If then there was a player for whom the meeting was more emotional than for the others, it was undoubtedly Daniel Solsona. He played for Espanyol and the Sarriá lawn was his private field. Interestingly, 47 years later, he will play host again: against Albania it is played in the town where he was born, Cornellá de Llobregat and his current address is a ten-minute walk from the stadium.

Dani pulls from memory. “In my time, playing for the National Team was the highest goal a professional set for himself after being a starter on his team. and we played where they told us, without looking any further. For those of us who were not at Madrid, at Barcelona, ​​at Atlético… it was more difficult to get there. It is not like now that Luis Enrique is with the antenna on and calls the goalkeeper of Watford or Brentford. In addition, it was the time of fury and strength, and I was a little more technical, less physical and it was very difficult for me to be called. These more recent times would have been better for me where passing, possession, a more technical game prevails.”

Solsona is well aware that he ‘only’ reached seven caps, although eight years passed between his first call (1973) and his last (1981). “That day against Denmark, at home, I was surrounded by players who were my idols. Some were a few years older than me. Pirri, Asensi, Marcial, Del Bosque, Santillana, Rexach… Just imagine, they were nobody then! It was my second match.”

The return of the National Team to Barcelona values ​​​​it in its fair measure. “It seems good to me, of course, and even more so when the last two were also at our house, Sarriá and Montjuïc. It will already be three in a row and that fills me with pride. That it be played in the Barcelona field is more unthinkable. It shouldn’t be like that, but… it’s reality. You have to respect all opinions and it is what it is”.

Marcial Pina, then already at Barcelona, ​​but with a past at Espanyol, also played that last official match in Sarriá. He has vague memories of the match itself, despite the fact that he was considered by critics to be the best player of the match, but he admits that it was also newsworthy then that the National Team played in Barcelona. “It wasn’t very normal then either, although we played two years in a row. It was played more in other cities, like Seville, who seemed to support the team more, but the fact that so much time has passed since the last official match is a bit of a disaster, really. We then played where we were told. There were never any problems. What it does seem to me is that 18 games there are few.”

Juan Manuel Asensi, a pro Barcelona player, was another of the protagonists of that duel against Denmark. “In those days, the National Team played on all pitches. I remember that Gento’s last game was on the Linea de la Concepción. In Barcelona we never had any problems. A year before that last game against Denmark, we had also played against Germany, which after was world champion. We won 1-0 and I scored the goal to the center of Churruca. We went where the Federation wanted. How many have been played in total in Barcelona? 18? I think they are few for all the games that the National Team has played in its history. I think Barcelona is a place that would have played more. It has good stadiums, good weather, a good football atmosphere, good food… It has nothing to envy to Madrid, Seville… In Barcelona the team is encouraged and the stadiums are filled, which is what is really important. It’s about time he came back here…”.

The Olympic experience and the U21 final

Regardless of the path of the senior team represented in those 18 games, Barcelona was also a direct witness to two other great football events with La Roja as the star protagonist. In 1992, the Camp Nou vibrated with the Olympic gold achieved by Vicente Miera and his men And yet, four years later, the Montjuïc stadium saw how Italy defeated Spain in the final of the European Under-21 Championship.

heads and tails The Camp Nou was the venue chosen for the Olympic final. Absolute full. Poland was the rival, who went ahead on the scoreboard. Abelardo and Quico (not yet Kiko) momentarily turned the meeting around. Staniek stirred up the tie and at the last minute Quico scored the goal that allowed the Olympic gold to hang from his neck and that of all his teammates.

There was no such fate in the Montjuïc final four in 1996 on the eve of the Atlanta Olympic Games and the European Championship in England. Spain beat Scotland in the semi-finals and Italy beat France. A great final that had the National Team as a favorite, which until then had been managed by Andoni Goikoetxea, but in that final phase had Javier Clemente on the bench. Italy took the lead, remaining with 10 due to Amoroso’s expulsion. Raúl equalized from a direct free kick, but with one more man the Italians resisted until the penalties and that in extra time they had been left with nine due to another expulsion.

The two stars of the team, Iván de la Peña and Raúl failed in the shootout and the Italians took the title.