Spain was not seen as favourite, but it was not dismissed either. Traditionally, the Spaniards were tough opponent and depending on results of other games, they had a chance to reach the final. Not a big chance, though. The team was not much, judging not only by their mediocre performance in the months before the finals. Spain was not impressive at the 1978 World Cup and this so far was the only appearance at major tournaments in the 1970s. And Spanish clubs lost their superiority long time ago on the European scene: the only cup they won was in 1979, when painful to watch Barcelona won the Cup Winners Cup. Spanish teams also lost two European finals – internationally, the 1970s were low decade for the Spaniards. And to make things worse, the Federation made a big blunder as the European finals neared: they sent a note to Ladislao Kubala, the national team coach for his birthday. Along with congratulations, he was informed that his contract was not going to be extended.
Kubala expected that, so in itself, it was not news – the manner and the timing were wrong. To a point, Kubala’s next step could be seen as retaliation: he immediately signed with Barcelona. In a way, it looked like he was not concerned about the national team anymore. The split, however, was long time coming. The media, the Federation, and the general public were critical of the coach for a long time: first, he was at the helm of the national team since 1969. Football changed in the 1970s, but the Spanish national team did not adapt the changes. Results aggravated the matter – there were none, so the coach was increasingly seen as hopelessly old-fashioned, belonging to another era. Spain was reduced to second-rate team – one happy to reach the finals of the World Cup. Ones! The European finals were the same kind of success: just appearing at the final stage. Kubala was blamed for too much experimenting – he used 97 players in 56 matches. 29 of them were used only ones, and 20 – twice. It was neither here, nor there – it seemed that Kubala used a core of players, who obviously failed to achieve anything, and in the same time meddled with the team too much, without building a new one. He used too many players of smaller clubs, which also went against him: looked like he favoured second-rate players.
The coach had his own grievances: he was fed up with stars, who had huge pretensions, but routinely placed their club above the national team and underperformed. There was objective problem – Kubala tried new players in the hope they would be different, but the young newcomers were just the same as the older stars. Especially the strikers. It was a team lacking chemistry, lacking inspiration, easily going into useless physicality, and very inefficient in attack – the strikers constantly preferred individual raids, leading to nothing. Kubala was quite happy to leave the national team. The European finals were his last duty – it is difficult to say how serious or not he was selecting and preparing the team.
1
1GK
Luis Arconada
(1954-06-26)26 June 1954 (aged 25)
17
Real Sociedad
2
2DF
José Ramón Alexanko
(1956-05-19)19 May 1956 (aged 24)
10
Athletic Bilbao
3
2DF
Migueli
(1951-12-19)19 December 1951 (aged 28)
29
Barcelona
4
2DF
Diego
(1954-11-21)21 November 1954 (aged 25)
1
Real Sociedad
5
2DF
Francisco Javier Uría
(1950-02-01)1 February 1950 (aged 30)
13
Sporting Gijón
6
3MF
Juan Manuel Asensi (c)
(1949-09-23)23 September 1949 (aged 30)
39
Barcelona
7
3MF
Dani
(1951-06-28)28 June 1951 (aged 28)
18
Athletic Bilbao
8
3MF
Julio Cardeñosa
(1949-10-27)27 October 1949 (aged 30)
7
Real Betis
9
3MF
Francisco José Carrasco
(1959-03-06)6 March 1959 (aged 21)
6
Barcelona
10
4FW
Quini
(1949-09-23)23 September 1949 (aged 30)
28
Sporting Gijón
11
2DF
Vicente del Bosque
(1950-12-23)23 December 1950 (aged 29)
17
Real Madrid
12
3MF
Juanito
(1954-11-10)10 November 1954 (aged 25)
14
Real Madrid
13
1GK
Urruti
(1952-02-17)17 February 1952 (aged 28)
5
Español
14
2DF
Rafael Gordillo
(1957-02-24)24 February 1957 (aged 23)
7
Real Betis
15
3MF
Antonio Olmo
(1954-01-18)18 January 1954 (aged 26)
12
Barcelona
16
4FW
Santillana
(1952-08-23)23 August 1952 (aged 27)
22
Real Madrid
17
4FW
Jesús María Satrústegui
(1954-02-12)12 February 1954 (aged 26)
10
Real Sociedad
18
4FW
Enrique Saura
(1954-08-02)2 August 1954 (aged 25)
7
Valencia
19
3MF
Cundi
(1955-04-13)13 April 1955 (aged 25)
7
Sporting Gijón
20
2DF
Miguel Tendillo
(1961-02-01)1 February 1961 (aged 19)
1
Valencia
21
3MF
Jesús María Zamora
(1955-01-01)1 January 1955 (aged 25)
7
Real Sociedad
22
1GK
Pedro María Artola
(1948-09-06)6 September 1948 (aged 31)
0
Barcelona
To a point, this was typical Kubala squad: only 8 players from Real Madrid and Barcelona. A whole bunch of little known players from not exactly leading clubs. The key players were old… According to Kubala, only Asensi was capable of keeping the pace and pressure of modern teams. There was plenty to question and criticize, but there was also a real problem: there was hardly anybody else to include. The only missing player was Camacho and not because of Kubala, but because of heavy injury. Quini represents the objective problem best: at 30, he still played for Sporting Gijon. None of the big clubs considered the top Spanish center-forward good enough for them. Of the younger players, none was even competing with Asensi, Del Bosque, Santillana, even Migueli. The really promising newcomers were defenders – Alexanko, Gordillo, Tendillo. They were also alike… tough fighters, but nothing like Beckenbauer, Krol, Pezzey. Only Zamora was promising of the younger strikers. The real discovery was the goalkeeper Arconada, but his best days were yet to come. It was not a team capable of winning the group – unless lucky. It was team difficult to beat, so taken seriously by opponents.