The previous time Spain had gone four games without winning it was still oceans away from the elite of women’s football. In the 2019 World Cup, still with Jorge Vilda on the bench, the team lost to Germany in the group stage, then tied against China and finally lost to the United States in their debut in the round of 16 of a World Cup. They also lost to France two months later in an international friendly. Five years later, the team that reached the top in Australia and New Zealand in the summer of 2023 and that lifted the Nations League in February is once again in the same situation: four games without a victory — two losses in the Games against Brazil and Germany and two draws against Canada and Italy in friendly matches in October—, this time under the tutelage of Montse Tomé, Vilda’s right-hand woman until September of last year, when their relationship fractured because Former national team coach took a stand with Luis Rubiales in the case of the kiss against Jenni Hermoso.
The team’s last victory with Tomé – the first woman to coach La Roja and the only one who was a player before – occurred on August 3. After suffering and suffering in the quarterfinals of the Olympic Games against Colombia—21st in the rankingFIFA—, Spain forced extra time with a goal from Hermoso in the 97th minute and won on penalties. Since then, he has not defeated any of his rivals, he has left an insufficient image with tactical deficiencies and is in the midst of a revolution in the locker room. The Asturian coach has dispensed with two of the group’s leaders in this call, Irene Paredes (33 years old) and Jenni Hermoso (34), in addition to Real Madrid’s starting goalkeeper, Misa Rodríguez (25), who, like Paredes, also did not had been on the previous list. In this context, Tomé’s team faces South Korea this Friday in a friendly in Cartagena (7:00 p.m., La 1), a team – 19th in the classification – that has never surpassed the round of 16 in a World Cup and has never stepped foot in a World Cup. Games, with the possibility of adding their fifth consecutive game without winning, a streak so bad that it has not happened for two decades.
Between 2004 and 2005, Spain accumulated eight games without achieving a victory under the direction of Ignacio Quereda – the man who spent 27 years on the national team bench while mistreating the players and making painful preparations -, according to data from Real Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), which are not published on its website, unlike those of the men’s team.
Tomé, who as a coach lifted the Nations League and has a contract until after the European Championship in Switzerland next summer, stated last week that she is carrying out a “readjustment” after the poor image the team gave at the Paris Games. The coach first said that the absences of Paredes – captain of the national team and undisputed starter with Barcelona -, Hermoso – one of the midfielders with the greatest ability to associate and the top scorer in history – and Misa – the second Spanish goalkeeper who saves the most, only behind another absentee like Lola Gallardo, according to the StatsBomb model—were due to “sports performance.” Later, however, he pointed in another direction by even giving an example of “coexistence” in the men’s team: “We have been dragging on for two years what happened in an exceptional situation. I have some values, a way of being and this is the selection. I am clear about what I like about the players on and off the field, what I like to see, that camaraderie, that knowing how to be.” The Asturian was referring to the rupture that the locker room suffered in the so-called 15 o’clock crisis, in which 15 footballers decided in September 2022 to stop playing for Spain to protest the lack of professionalism of the team under the leadership of Vilda.
Tomé’s decision also comes after the Netflix premiere of the documentary #SeAcabó: Diary of the championswhich tells how the players tried to promote football improvements during the former coach’s time and their response to the kiss that Rubiales gave Hermoso in the middle of the World Cup celebration in Sydney. The protagonists of the film are above all Jenni, Paredes and Alexia Putellas, the three captains of the national team. The Barça center gave an interview to this newspaper for the publication of the film in which she told how the team broke down in the 15 o’clock crisis and spoke about the wounds that still remain in the locker room. “The situation has improved a lot with what came later, with time to talk, and when you win that also helps, but there are certain things that remain as scars, and that stays there,” he was honest. After being left out of the call, Hermoso posted on Instagram: “Don’t sell your soul to the devil.”
Of the three heavyweights in the locker room, only Putellas was in this last call for Tomé, but in the end he was unable to attend due to a physical problem. Without them or Misa, also without Alba Redondo – one of the players with the most goals for La Roja, who has also been out at the last minute due to discomfort -, the injured Salma Paralluelo and Athenea del Castillo and the discarded Esther González, the selection of Tomé faces South Korea under the vertigo of matching a winless streak that dates back two decades, to the dark period that Quereda symbolized.
