Today just a year ago, Spanish women's football was taking a giant step. Two so many Jenni Beautiful and a third of Lucia Garcia in 89 'they sealed Spain's brilliant victory in a World Cup, the first in history.
It was in the Stade Océane de Le Havre. The Barça forward was living her dream night being chosen the best player of the match after scoring two goals from the penalty spot, while Lucia Garcia he became an emerging talent by taking advantage of a service Virginia Torrecilla to sentence 3-1 against South Africa.
More than a million viewers
It was the beginning of a beautiful relationship between the international Jorge Vilda and the Spanish fans, as it shows that more than a million spectators vibrated with the premiere of the National Team in the World Cup in France. The figures shot up in the golden minute that coincided with the end of the meeting, with 1,335,000 people glued to the screen and a 14.7% share.
That debut allowed the world to meet a team that went further than expected in its second World Cup after Canada’2015. They were no longer the Cinderellas but an emerging power to take into account. The quarterfinal match against the United States, finally champion, only confirmed the potential of the ‘Red’.
“Nobody expected that we could compete from you to you against the United States,” he says. Jenni Beautiful. “The other teams have always been a step above. That is one of the things that we had to improve in order to compete one hundred percent in the 90 minutes of a game, ”he explains.
“We are getting closer to the idea we want: to play beautifully, to have a lot of arrival and a lot of goals and to materialize the transitions”, he points out and assures that “the best is yet to come, since we still have room for learning”.
Vilda: “We had full confidence”
For his part, the coach Jorge Vilda recalls that “we had full confidence that we could beat the United States and we were very close. If you see the images of the rival bench show that they saw it very difficult. At the end he had a proud face and I looked towards the rival coaching staff as if to say “you have got rid of this one, but we will see the next one”.
The massive reception after the return to Spain surprised Vilda, who stressed that “it is the recognition of all the fans and especially that of the players that I am most happy about. We looked the United States in the eye and managed to grow women's soccer because many girls wanted to sign up to play soccer after watching that game, as friends of mine have told me in several cases. ”
In this sense, the work so that the Selection can go to the next Eurocup, planned for 2022, already occupies the mind of Jorge Vilda: “The most difficult part of my job is always making a call. For this, it is best to have as much information as possible and that is where the fundamental work of the technical staff comes in. It is a task of more than three years to be able to draw up a list for a final phase such as that of the European Championship for example ”.