The racist comment by Mariano Rajoy about the French team of football still has consequences, but the PP has opted to ignore the criticism and downplay it. After France protested the words of the former Spanish president, who said that the French team is a team with a lot of "level" but "without French players," Pedro Sánchez's government has come out in force this Monday to use the controversy against the Popular Party. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, has directly demanded that Alberto Núñez Feijóo disavow Rajoy and has asked the media outlet that published his football chronicle, The Debate, who withdraws the article, the sixth by the popular in this World Cup.

The Spanish team is already in the World Cup semi-finals. Suffering, dominating possession but struggling to break down Belgium's defense, Lamine Yamal's team and company eventually defeated the Belgian side (2-1) with an early goal from Fabián and a late one from Mikel Merino just before the end of regulation time. The red team's dream continues despite the team failing to dispel doubts, unable to complete a flawless 90-minute match. The next hurdle is France, with whom they will compete for a place in the final.

With only 11 million inhabitants, Belgium made history in the summer of 2018 by reaching the semifinals of the World Cup in Russia. Despite the defeat against France, its inhabitants received the footballers as if they were true heroes, with a great celebration in Brussels' Grand-Place. One of the most acclaimed was Robert Martínez from Balaguer, their coach. He took office in August 2016, intending to leave after two years. But with the success in the World Cup, which catapulted the country to number 1 in the FIFA rankings, he reconsidered. Aware that the golden generation of players (Courtois, Hazard, Lukaku, De Bruyne, and company) had an expiration date, he became determined to build a legacy that went beyond titles, to prepare Belgian football to sustain its miracle in the future.

Spain, quarter-final team of the World Cup. A goal by Mikel Merino in the last minute places Luis de la Fuente's team among the eight privileged to lift the World Cup this July 19 in New Jersey. The Basque midfielder from Arsenal, a second-half substitute, turned a sensational through ball from Ferran Torres, who also brought magic from the bench, into gold. With this score (0-1), Bob Martínez's Portugal – and Cristiano Ronaldo's – joins the sorrow of Germany, Brazil, or the Netherlands, other teams that have already had to pack their bags. Belgium will be the rivals of the red one in the next round.

Spain has already reached the round of 16 after defeating Austria (3-0) and will face Portugal on Monday, July 6 (9:00 PM). The red one monopolized possession and improved on the feelings left from the group stage, but it is still far from being that fearsome team from the European Championship that was capable of eliminating Germany, France, and England.

The last time the Spanish national team had overcome a World Cup knockout match was in 2010, the year they were proclaimed champions in South Africa. Since then, la roja had either fallen in the group stage or in the first knockout match. Sixteen years later, the Spanish national team broke the curse by defeating Austria (3-0) to reach the round of 16, where they will face Portugal. Oyarzabal around the half-hour mark, and Pedro Porro and – once again – Oyarzabal in the second half tipped the balance in favor of a team that played from less to more but ended up thrashing and dispelling the doubts they had shown at the start of the competition.

The 1978 World Cup was held in Argentina during a military dictatorship. Some survivors recounted hearing goals being cheered through the televisions of their torturers or even shouts coming from the Monumental stadium, a few streets away from the epicenter of repression of Jorge Rafael Videla's regime.

The Spanish team has lived up to expectations and has qualified for the round of 32 of the Football World Cup as group leaders. A lucky goal from Atlético player Álex Baena just before halftime was enough to defeat Uruguay in a very dull match between the two teams (0-1). By finishing in first place, the team avoids playing for a ticket to the round of 16 against Lionel Messi's Argentina. If they do their homework against weak Jordan, the reigning world champion will play the first knockout round against the Cape Verde team, which advances in its World Cup debut after drawing three matches out of three, the last one this morning against Saudi Arabia (0-0).

Every World Cup leaves a recurring image: a coach on the pitch, surrounded by his players, who seems to have reached the end of a journey taken over years. Meanwhile, out of focus, the rest of the football world tries to find the explanations, the keys, or the recipe that allows a team to lift the World Cup. What are the ingredients to win the top football competition? This question fuels a good part of the debates in these weeks. Will a younger, innovative coach, like Julian Nagelsmann (38 years old, Germany), prevail? Or will it be a more veteran coach? The most veteran of all, Dick Advocaat, 78, can no longer, because Curaçao has been eliminated.

Luis de la Fuente's Spanish team faces its first major challenge of the 2026 World Cup next Saturday: they will face the Uruguay team. And although the sky blue has not gone beyond the draw against Saudi Arabia (1-1) nor against the irreductible selection of Cape Verde (2-2), continues to be one of the footballing powers of the Southern Cone. Thus, it is an opportunity for the red one continue improving and take first place in a group H where anything can happen. Facing this third group stage match, Luis de la Fuente must choose between continuing to distribute minutes or maintaining the block that worked so well for him on Sunday against Saudi Arabia.

Spain's disappointing debut in the World Cup, with a dull draw against Cape Verde (0-0), has generated much more fuss around the national team than in the locker room. While analysts are pulling their hair out over the coach's strategy and the players' execution, the result has been met with surprising naturalness in the camp. Or so it seems after hearing De la Fuente, who said the strategy was correct but that the only thing missing, and in a "strange" way, was the winning goal.

Mariano Rajoy knows what is expected of him and does not hesitate to give it to his followers. "In football, what really matters is scoring more goals than the opponent. If you don't, you lose. Or, at best, you draw." Yes, the former Spanish president returns to sports commentary for the World Cup and, again, in the digital media El Debate, which four years ago — also for the World Cup and, later, for the European Championship — already opened its doors for him to publish his analyses of the Spanish national team's matches. Rajoy does so without pay and, in fact, without writing: he sends audio notes when the matches end so that the media's editors can transcribe them. He did so this Monday after the draw of La Roja against Cape Verde.

Spain, with four Blaugrana players in the starting eleven –Cubarsí, Pedri, Gavi and Ferran–, was unable to break the deadlock (0-0) against Cape Verde, a country with just over half a million inhabitants. Vozinha was the hero for his team against a Spanish side that, even with the introduction of Lamine Yamal twenty minutes from the end, could not change the outcome of the match.

The World Cup, the most important and anticipated sporting event of the year, is now entering its final phase. From now on, there is no room for error for the 48 teams that, from Thursday, June 11, are competing with a single objective: to be in the final on Sunday, July 19 (9 p.m.) which will be played at the MetLife Stadium located in New Jersey (near New York).

The absence of Real Madrid players in the Spanish national team squad for the World Cup is not the world turned upside down, even if it seems so, because historically Barça has been the Spanish league team that has contributed the most players to the World Cups played by la roja. In fact, it is the only team in the League that has always had players called up for the World Cups for which Spain has qualified. That the Spanish national team lives off Barça's talent was already clear in 2010, when Xavi, Iniesta, Busquets, Cesc, Piqué or Puyol were essential to give Spain the World Cup in South Africa.

The Spanish absolute men's coach, Luis de la Fuente, gave this Monday at noon the list of called-up players for Spain for the next football World Cup. The coach of la roja will concentrate in the coming weeks and during the World Cup event a group of players with a notable presence of Catalan players (nine) and from Barça, which is by far the club with the most representation (eight players) in a call-up that for the first time in history has no Real Madrid player. From Atlètic de Madrid, Arsenal and Athletic Club there are three players per team. The rest of the clubs that contribute talent (Chelsea, Manchester City, Osasuna, Celta de Vigo, Reial Societat, PSG, Tottenham, Bayer Leverkusen and Crystal Palace) contribute with a single footballer each.

After a capital victory on the always charged field of Getafe (0-2), Hansi Flick gave his disciples three days off. The Barça coach has taken advantage of the break to spend a few days in Germany with his family. Dani Olmo, Joan Garcia and Eric Garcia have needed less warm clothing, deciding to rent a small boat and get wet in some corner of the Costa Brava. While his teammates enjoyed a well-deserved decompression time, Lamine Yamal began to focus on recovering from the first muscular injury he has suffered as a footballer. He suffered it shortly before halftime during Celta's visit to Camp Nou a week ago. He needed to be substituted just after converting the penalty that meant the goal of a tight victory (1-0). When he shot from eleven meters, he was already injured. The biceps femoris of his left leg had said enough at the moment he dribbled past Yoel Lago in the play that Munuera Montero punished with a penalty.

Successes are not synonymous with impact, a premise that Spanish water polo knows perfectly well. “We are a sport where when a major competition arrives, everyone sees an easy medal, but there isn't much follow-up during the season. We are a country where sports are very powerful and screen time is difficult to obtain, but I think we also have to do some internal self-criticism about why we don't know how to sell our sport more,” analyzes David Martín (Barcelona, 1977), the Spanish men's water polo coach since late 2016. The coach, however, emphasizes that it is not something that worries them. “The guys are clear that we don't train to have more impact, but for our dignity and our ambition.”

The recent visit of the Roja to Catalonia was not a publicity success, to put it mildly. Despite the efforts of the Catalan and Spanish governments, the federative world, and the platforms of Spanish activism, the very sad exhibition of fascist and xenophobic nationalism in the stands of the Cornellà stadium made it clear that the Spanish team, in Catalonia, runs the serious risk of being turned into an icon of the far-right. From a marketing point of view, it is a defeat for the reencuentro that the PSOE and PSC represent. They had a fabulous toy in their hands: a young, talented team full of Catalans sheltered by common symbolism and without competition (because the law prohibits Catalonia from competing officially, and Catalan athletes risk severe sanctions if they refuse to represent the Spanish team). But now, the Roja can go from being a symbol of cool Spanish nationalism to a refuge for torrentismo.States with conflicting identities have understood the usefulness of sport. The efforts that Spain dedicates to it, as a safe haven for patriotism, demonstrate that in Madrid they know that real power does not consist only of money, army, and Penal Code; it is also expressed in visibility and sentiment. In Catalonia, surprisingly, no Catalan party has the issue of sports teams at the top of its priority list, which is perhaps the only loophole that can allow us to exist nationally and be recognized internationally, basic conditions for everything else to come. Instead, we have to settle for playing a friendly against Palestine, with a spotless atmosphere, that's true; but without competitive value, without our stars on the field, and with the suspicion of the stagnant Catalan federative world.While Junts and ERC have the power to influence the socialists, they should play this card strongly, which is the authentic burden of proof of the State's plurality. Sharing competencies and resources is very well, but the true answer to identity diversity is to share, also, symbolic presence. It is very difficult, from the outset, for the PSOE to accept this (as much as amnesty, perhaps). But I would say that Pedro Sánchez is glimpsing that his survival against the PP-Vox bloc depends on a lasting understanding with the defenders of plurinationality.There are ways to tackle the issue avoiding fractures or impossible dilemmas: to begin with, for example, Catalonia could compete in European championships, and integrate into the Spanish team in world or Olympic competitions. Or it could have its own teams in sports with more roots and tradition, such as rugby, hockey, and water polo. I'm just speculating; I don't know enough to say which is the best solution. But I believe that if politicians intend to represent the broad majority of the Catalan population, a hybrid solution of this kind must be reached.We are a country that, despite the recent emergence of the homegrown far-right, has shown great generosity and great flexibility in managing its own diversity. Therefore, those of us who feel nationally Catalan deserve to exist politically – and, therefore, sportingly –. We think that in the next football World Cup, if Spain wins, there will be people celebrating in the streets of Barcelona... but there will also be people celebrating if Argentina wins, or Morocco wins. And the world won't end, because diverse Catalonia is that. But, if it turns out that in Catalonia everyone celebrates their goals except the Catalans, what the hell kind of diversity is that?

Whistles at Egypt's anthem, chants of “Muslim who doesn’t jump!”, insults to Pedro Sánchez and the essential “Spanish Gibraltar!”. What is this if not Torrente going to Cornellà-El Prat yesterday to cheer on the Spanish team?Bring, bring the Spanish team to Catalonia, so that all the Vox voters come out to make racist chants.Racist and stupid. Because, as an Ara reader says today in their comments, “you have to be an idiot to go to see a match of your team, start shouting racist cries and chants, and end up insulting the best player on your own team.” Because, of course, these patriots have forgotten that if there is a player who can decisively contribute to Spain winning the World Cup again one day, it is a player named Lamine Yamal and he is Muslim. Not to mention whistling the Barça goalkeeper and former Espanyol player Joan Garcia on his debut for the national team. And they were not minority chants. At the end of the match, when asked about racism and xenophobia, the coach Luis de la Fuente (the one who applauded Rubiales on the day of “I am not going to resign”) replied that these people, “the further away from society, the better.” Impossible for them to be far away, they are society. They are a fraction of society that has a voice and a vote (Vox in Spain) which is a vote that is very much in line with their voice.