The World Cup should not have been in Spain’s grasp. Nothing about it made sense. Most of the previous year was spent on strike by its best players. As a result, twelve of them were not given tournament invitations. Those here are a member of a team that is kept together by a shaky ceasefire and led by a coach who can, at most, rely on the loyalty of a very small percentage of his players. These are not the conditions that generate success.
But nonetheless, the fact that Spain is the world champion is proof of a universal truth about sports and soccer. Anything may be overcome by talent. Even a team that had maybe the poorest conceivable preparation for this World Cup could make it to the greatest game of them all, the grandest platform, and then defeat England, the European champion, the favorite, the new heavyweight of the sport, by a single goal, 1-0.
The ambition of Olga Carmona, the knowledge of Mariona Caldentey, the flaming possibility of Salma Paralluelo, and, most importantly, the brilliance of Aitana Bonmat, made Spain shine too brightly to be quenched. More than any other player, Barcelona midfielder Bonmat guided and battled and reasoned her way through the World Cup final, turning in a performance that will be hailed as a masterpiece.
Spain had laboriously attempted to breach England’s defense for the most of the game’s first 30 minutes by carefully putting together movements of exquisite beauty and delicate complexity. Alba Redondo ought to have given her squad the lead right away. Perhaps with two, Paralluelo accomplished this.
