A year ago, just about any coach in the sport would happily have swapped places with Vicente del Bosque. The mustachioed mastermind had brought all his craft to bear on Spain's national side to guide the country to its first World Cup success, despite the setback of a first-match ambush by an Ottmar Hitzfeld-inspired Switzerland. Del Bosque had inherited a peerless group of players, but history has proved time and again that it takes more than idly dubbing a generation as Golden to translate promise into pre-eminence. Del Bosque remains the most successful coach of Real Madrid in the modern era, after all.
However, the post-World Cup hangover arrived quickly. Spain's status as the darling of the soccer world obliged the team to travel the globe for increasingly pointless friendlies, a fact not lost on the dour Del Bosque, whose default hangdog look gave way to a hangman's countenance. The Spanish football federation (RFEF), with a 2018 World Cup bid to hawk, had supplied the rope with which Spain would string up its hard-earned reputation. Exactly one month after the World Cup final, Mexico held a shattered La Roja to a 1-1 tie. Spain then thrashed Liechtenstein, Tuesday's Euro 2012 qualifying opponent, before being humbled by Argentina 4-1 just four days later in Buenos Aires -- hardly traditional preparation for a European qualifier against Lithuania. Wins in its two subsequent matches, in Kaunas and a narrow escape in Glasgow, maintained Spain's 100 percent record in qualifying. Then, in November, Portugal annihilated the world champions in Lisbon, scoring four with ease.
If Del Bosque thought his problems were limited to friendly matches, the first Clasico of the season will have given him little cheer. Barca's five-goal spanking of Real Madrid at Camp Nou this past November lit the fuse for a season of ill will between the two teams that culminated in a fractious four-match spell in April and May. Such was the discontent between Spain's Barca and Real contingents that they barely spoke during the team's glad-handing tour of the U.S. and Venezuela this summer. The absence of influential players such as Xavi and Carles Puyol from the traveling side meant that no hatchet-burying was undertaken, although Iker Casillas had been in touch with the miniature Barca maestro, who is a close friend of the goalkeeper, to attempt reconciliation.
Before a friendly against Italy in August, Del Bosque was forced to address the issue at a press conference.
"If there wasn't a problem, it wouldn't have been talked about as much," he conceded. "But I find it impossible that Casillas and Xavi, Iniesta and Alonso or Albiol and Pique don't get along. They all stand up for their clubs but, in the national team, without union you cannot achieve good results. I'm sure we will continue on the right track."
Spain went on to lose the match 2-1, a disjointed performance that did little to cheer the coach. Netherlands subsequently knocked Spain off the top of the FIFA rankings.
And then came the Supercup.
The first match passed without incident -- and with some scintillating stuff on the pitch -- barring a crunching tackle on Dani Alves that the Brazilian predictably turned into an opportunity for theater. It was a different story in the return leg. After scything down Cesc Fabregas with a cynical two-legged chop in the dying moments of the game, Marcelo was walking off the field when the referee reached for the red card. At the same time, both benches were streaming onto the turf to engage in a bout of fisticuffs. Had any of them looked up at the Camp Nou VIP box, they would have seen their national coach leaving under a cloud.
"You all complain about the Portuguese [Real Madrid manager Jose Mourinho]," lamented RFEF president Angel Maria Villar, who was also present. "But it's our team that is being destroyed."
"The situation has become serious," Malaga's Santi Cazorla said last week. "As much as you try to avoid it, these things affect relationships. There is nothing we can do but hope the situation resolves itself as swiftly as possible. … If these problems persist they could start to have an influence and this could be damaging to the group."
When Spain reconvened ahead of a friendly match against Chile in Switzerland, Casillas and Xavi finally had the chance to call a meeting of the warring factions. It was announced that grudges had been voiced -- Pique's ill-disguised taunt to Real fans after the 5-0 Clasico, his fingers splayed as he waved to the stands, and Casillas' claim that Fabregas was play-acting chief among them -- and the air cleared.
It certainly seemed so when a brawl broke out during the Chile match and Real and Barca players leapt to each others' aid, however tempting it must have been for the Blancos to leave Sergio Busquets on his own.
A sense of the team spirit that carried Spain through South Africa was also evident as Del Bosque's side -- led by Fabregas -- clawed back from 2-0 down to win 3-2 against Chile last Friday. The new Barca man could be key for both Spain and tribal relations this year. Universally liked, the 24-year-old Fabregas has refused to be drawn on his feelings toward Real since his return to Spain and is the picture of diplomacy. After the Chile match, a pitch-side interviewer informed the No. 10 that he had made the difference in the game. "No," he countered. "I think Andres [Iniesta] did."
For now, the fury in La Roja seems to have abated, and Liechtenstein could find itself being devoured by a freshly united Spain, with mathematical qualification for Poland and Ukraine on the table.
Del Bosque will not be alone in hoping that December's meeting between Barca and Real is one of just two Clasicos this season. Spain stands on the cusp of history, with the chance to become the first team to win three major tournaments in a row. Professional soccer players are not celebrated for their sagacity, but Spain's are sharper than most. They know the time has come to close the book on the feud -- they are still writing their own in the history of the game.