Spain’s victory over France intensifies mysterious grip Luis de la Fuente exerts on his squad

King Felipe VI phoned into Cowboys country, because it was that kind of evening. Several centuries have passed since any Spanish monarch was concerned about events in Texas but less said about old conquests, the better.

On Tuesday evening, the Spanish team was content to lay claim to just the 120 yards of territory in Dallas Stadium when they banished France with an ease that left Didier Deschamps, its exiting former World Cup-winning coach, red-faced and baffled. France will compete in the third-place playoff game, but that is not the closing game they had in mind.

Afterwards, the victorious team saw the clips of euphoric celebrations on the late-night streets of Seville, of Barcelona, of Madrid. All those perpetual bitter domestic enmities cast aside for the duration of what may just be another golden summer for Spanish football. So, the king called. And Luis de la Fuente sat down in front of a worshipful Spanish press and declared it “such a source of pride, the fact that our king shows such an interest and keeps supporting us”.

The completeness of this victory by Spain – the term ‘masterclass’ will be aired thoroughly over the next few days – has intensified the mysterious and magical grip that De la Fuente exerts on this squad. They foiled and stunted the revered French attacking diamond fronted by Kylian Mbappé. They held the favourites for the World Cup scoreless and advance to the final having conceded just one goal. They are now 37 games unbeaten, equalling Italy’s record (October 2018 to October 2021) for European supremacy.

Mbappé, scoring for fun in this World Cup, failed to land a shot on target. Spain used long periods of possession to starve France of the ball, and when they lost it were rapacious in recovering it. They are more successful than any other team in regaining control, winning the ball back on average in just under 12 seconds per play.

Afterwards, Deschamps – whose epic reign, dating back to 2012, is drawing to a close – was bid bonsoir by the French media and asked to dwell on emotions such as “a deep feeling of incompleteness”.

He preferred to cast aspersions on the referee. Slipping easily into Spanish, he reflected on his 14 years by allowing that while “today is not a very happy moment, you have to accept it without forgetting the other moments.”

He paid succinct tribute to Spain’s collective intelligence and ability to read and cut out the channels the French players tried to exploit.

That’s the issue with Spain. They are intimidatingly skilled and precise but seldom flamboyant – even Yamal, who has a do-anything licence on the right wing, opted for the shrewd lay-off to constant speculative attack here. And afterwards, De la Fuente analysed it all with the cool, modest precision of a teacher determined to single out the collective over the individual.

“I am always surprised of what this team manages to do. We keep improving one match to the next, one competition to the next. It is endless, this room for improvement and they keep showing this. It is effort, talent, sacrifice, trying to be a better version of ourselves. Of course, we would have loved to win the first game because then we would have broken another record. But this is a process and it was planned to reach the best place possible.”

It has been to Spain’s advantage that they were able to move through this tournament in the off-Broadway side of the draw. The underwhelming 0-0 draw against Cape Verde in the opening game offered a false forecast of their future and even if they rapped Saudi Arabia 4-0 in the next game, their progress has been both impressive and determinedly low-key – and frighteningly poised. All of this was fine in the earlier rounds while the world’s audience was distracted by the overwrought Argentinians and stout-hearted English and, of course, the unstoppable, fabulous French.

“We are in a great place,” De la Fuente emphasised.

“And the players are excited and happy and in a football sense we have reached a peak. That is what we do best as Spanish players – we can interpret and read the game. They know how to behave in defensive and offensive situations and that is the fruits of the work of all the academies in Spain. So, in spite of being happy, we want more. We want to claim this World Cup. It would be an amazing achievement.”

All of this was delivered with the evenness of a middle-ranking manager announcing good third-quarter results. De la Fuente, neatly presented and scholarly, is a repudiation to the contemporary cult of manager. But as Spain now stand just one match – one more victory – away from the second World Cup title since 2010, a cult of reverence is forming around him.

Of all the potential Spanish managers, the 65-year-old from the La Rioja province alchemised a playing career of unglamorous stats and club history into a powerful, universal story of the professional everyman. From there, steady, meticulous advancement through the club system at Sevilla and Bilbao and then a full decade with Spain’s U19 and U21 teams until he was appointed, in 2022, to manage the senior national team. A European Championship followed in the summer of 2024.

So the message he delivered in the underworld of Dallas Stadium, with the air conditioning fans whirring noiselessly and the Spanish media asking variations of the same question – how has it materialised, just as you said? – was a vindication of his country’s national coaching system and culture.

“We did it right. We know that with this group. Not just the footballers, but everyone – we are working towards a shared goal. We are normal people seeking for the common goal and this journey becomes so much better. I have never seen such an exemplary attitude on and off the pitch. After 47 days together, we have not had a single problem.”

For opposition teams – for the two remaining contenders – there is something frightening about all of this. It will be a miracle if Argentina and England is anything other than a full-on football war and opera, requiring mass distribution of electrolytes, alcohol and psychoanalysis for both nations just to get through it.

The victor will have about 72 hours to concoct a plan to try and knock Spain out of this hypnotic belief in the collective, in the process.

“In such a match against such a team you have to be at your best,” Deschamps warned as he exited.

Daunting words for Argentina or England to carry with them to New York as the tournament reaches destination point.

Click here to read article