day 48 – one more day and one more game

July 10, 2010.

It’s the day before the final.  And Iker has shaved.

In the morning, the team said goodbye to Potchefstroom and headed to Johannesburg.  There, they held a training session at Soccer City, the stadium where the final will be played tonight.  The session was open to the press for the first 15 minutes, but we got no hints as to the starting line-up Vicente del Bosque intends to use tonight (well, we know 10 of the players, just not who will be the 11th).  Raúl Albiol trained with the rest of his teammates with normality – I really hope that Spain gets a big lead tonight so that he’ll be able to enter the game!

Spain went back to the three-person press conference format, with Iker, David Villa and Xavi speaking to journalists.  Iker said the only thing he’s thinking about is “victory,” and added that he’s bit nervous, with butterflies in his stomach on the event of such an important game.  For his part, Xavi said that all of Spain should be proud of the football that the team is playing, and that he certainly is.  Meanwhile, Villa said they’re thinking only about winning, not how they will celebrate.  He added that out of all the celebration options, the one he won’t be picking is to cut his hair.

Looking ahead and other news

In other news, King Juan Carlos I spoke by phone to Vicente del Bosque and Iker, and sent his best wishes.  He also invited them to visit him at his palace on Monday.

And really good news – Carles Puyol is considering continuing with the national team (he had more or less decided to retire from the team at the conclusion of this World Cup) after speaking with Fernando Hierro and Vicente del Bosque.  The game tonight will be his 90th, pushing him past precisely Fernando Hierro into fifth all-time.  Hierro and VDB stressed to Puyol the importance of his leadership in the locker room, with VDB adding that he’d like to see Puyol reach the 100 games level.  Carles will reveal his decision after the tournament.

Some bad news:  Diego López, Santi Cazorla and Marcos Senna won’t make it to South Africa, despite being invited, because the RFEF could not get their act together, and they did not have reserved flights to South Africa or hotels there for the players.  In addition, they couldn’t ensure that the players could travel together.

Looking ahead to today: there’s the game of course.  And whichever team gets the trophy will have it presented to them by none other than Fabio Cannavaro, captain of Italy’s 2006 World Cup winning team.  Oh, please let Spain win so we can see the interaction between Canna and Iker!

In case you need a reminder of how cute that can be:  exhibit A, exhibit B, exhibit C, exhibit D.

Also cute: Sergio Ramos and Fernando Llorente.  And see what text message Sergio sent to Wesley Snejider here.

Press round-up of the day:

Iker talks to Cuatro once and again, Xabi talks to Radiogaceta de los Deportes and RTVE takes a look back at the U-2o championship.  And an interesting article on who South Africans will be rooting for, and why.