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Olympic Football: Were Spain Victims of High Expectations or Underperformers?
Published: August 2, 2012
Before the London 2012 Olympic Games began, an enormous amount of hype and expectation was bearing down on a certain few athletes. Some, like Michael Phelps and Bradley Wiggins, achieved the golden success that many had predicted.
However, the likes of Tom Daley, Mark Cavendish and now Spain, the country that has lifted both the World Cup and won the European championship in the last two years, have all fallen short of their targets, of the expectations the public had of them. Has this had a detrimental effect on these athletes?
Spain are, certainly at the moment, one of the world’s most formidable international teams. On July 1, they became the first side in history to be both World and European champions at the same time, and with the inclusion of Euro 2012 squad members Juan Mata and Jordi Alba in the Olympic squad, expectations were high for the side to medal at this year’s Games.
Qualifying for London 2012 by winning the European U-21 Championships last year in Denmark, Spain were drawn into a relatively straight forward group. But an opening game 1-0 defeat to Japan, finishing with 10 men after Javi Martinez was shown a straight red, and then slumping to another 1-0 defeat to Honduras three days later, Spain were out of the tournament shockingly early.
But should we have been shocked? Should we have expected them to do so well? Were Spain victims of the high expectations people had of them, or were they simply not good enough?
“We really fought for it,” said goalkeeper David De Gea, playing at his home ground of Old Trafford for Spain’s final group game, which ended in a bore draw with Morocco. “We’re really sad that we’re out of the competition, but we’ve done our best.”
Indeed, if you look at the Spanish squad that lifted the World Cup in 2010 and the one that won Euro 2012, the s...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - International Football
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