LA CORUNA, SPAIN – JULY 16: Spain’s Aitana Bommati celebrates after scoring the team’s first goal. [+] She scores a goal during a UEFA Women’s Europa League Qualifier match at Riazor Stadium in La Coruna, Spain on July 16, 2024. (Photo by Manuel Queimaderos/Quality Sports Images/Getty Images)
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Spain will be competing in Olympic soccer for the first time this week, aiming to win their first gold medal in Women’s World Cup history.
Four of the last seven women’s Olympic soccer tournaments, first held in Atlanta in 1996, have been won by four-time World Cup champions the United States.
Surprisingly, however, none of the Olympic gold medals won in 1996, 2004, 2008 or 2012 came after they had won the FIFA Women’s World Cup in 1991, 1999, 2015 or 2019. In 2015, they held both titles for one year and won the World Cup as Olympic gold medallists, only to be eliminated the following summer at the Rio 2016 Olympic Football Tournament by Sweden in a penalty shootout.
The Italian national football team at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Italy beat Austria to win the gold medal. [+] Final. Olympia 1936, print from Die Olympischen Spiele 1936, Volume 2, Cigaretten Bilderdienst, Hamburg, 1936. (Photo by The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images)
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On the men’s side, a World Cup and Olympic gold medal double has proven similarly difficult to achieve since World War II. The last country to achieve the feat was Italy in 1936. The country won the Men’s World Cup on their own in 1934, and defended the trophy again in 1938. A treble of world titles was also achieved by Uruguay, who won two Olympic gold medals in 1924 and 1928, and won the first-ever FIFA World Cup in 1930.
Spain has won every trophy available to them since winning the Women’s World Cup last summer, winning both tournaments in the new UEFA Women’s Nations League and topping the FIFA Women’s World Rankings, a position they maintain heading into the country’s first ever Women’s Olympic Football Tournament.
SEVILLE, SPAIN – FEBRUARY 28: The Spanish national team poses with the Nations League winners trophy… [+] Photographers after the UEFA Women’s Nations League 2024 Final match between Spain and France at Estadio La Cartuja in Seville, Spain on February 28, 2024. (Photo by Manu Leino/Defodi Images via Getty Images)
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They can also now claim to have a stronger squad than the one that won last summer’s FIFA Women’s World Cup. The 22-player squad that traveled to France yesterday included three players – Laia Aleisandri, Lucia Garcia and Patri Guijarro – who rejected playing for the national team under former coach Jorge Vilda.
Spain opens its Olympic campaign on Thursday with a match against 2011 world champion Japan, the team that humiliated Spain in the group stage of their ultimately successful World Cup campaign last summer. In the match in Wellington, Japan demonstrated that Spain is a team that exploits weaknesses, outscoring the eventual world champions 4-0 with a series of devastating counterattacks.
Wellington, New Zealand – July 31: Spain’s Rocío Galvez and Olga Carmona express their disappointment after… [+] The third goal scored by Japan during the FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia & New Zealand 2023 Group C match between Japan and Spain at Wellington Regional Stadium, Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Wellington/Te Whanganui-a-Tara, New Zealand on July 31, 2023. (Photo by Hagen Hopkins – FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images)
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Both teams had already qualified for the knockout stages before this match, and after winning the World Cup, Spain had also topped their Nations League group, but lost to Italy and the Czech Republic.
The stakes are higher for Spain this time around, with matches against nine-time African champions Nigeria and eight-time South American champions Brazil coming up within a week, with the top two teams from each group guaranteed to progress to the knockout quarter-finals.
Spain coach Montse Tome explained that the key to preventing Spain from being overrun by Japan again is “adjusting the balance between attack and defence.”
She added: “Our job is to analyse the opponent, make a match plan and convince the players what we have to do, but we also have to be ready for any changes.”
The world champions left their training base in Las Rozas, just outside Madrid, for Nantes, the site of their first two Olympic matches. The Stade de la Beaujoire holds bitter memories for the Spanish men’s team, who lost to Nigeria in their opening match of the 1998 World Cup. Twenty-six years later, the women’s team will also face Nigeria in Nantes on Sunday.
Nigerian midfielder Sunday Oliseh (right) celebrates after scoring his team’s third and winning goal. [+] Spain v Nigeria in Group D during the 1998 World Cup at La Beaujoire Stadium in Nantes on June 13. Nigeria won 3-2. (Nigerian midfielder Finidi, left) (Electronic image) AFP PHOTO FRANK PERRY (Photo by FRANK PERRY/AFP via Getty Images)
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Tome described his players as “a team that loves what they do, that works hard, that works hard, that joy comes from the hard work, that talent shines and that competitiveness is what it is, and it is.”
