El País has dedicated several pages in today’s edition to commemorating Spain’s World Cup win one year ago.  They have a piece written by Gerard Piqué, an interview with Sergio Busquets and another little piece on Xavi.  The best part – always – is finding out behind-the-scenes information on how the boys spent their time off the field, as well as the little anecdotes that took place on the field.

Gerard Piqué

Let’s start with Gerard Piqué’s piece, which is entitled “Welcome messages.”

Vicente del Bosque was always a leader for us.  From the first day, he made it clear: “were going to spend a month together (he said a month, what was already a sign) and the most important thing is that there is a great atmosphere.”  At the same time, he proved insensitive to our possible boredom, prohibiting Twitter and Facebook, something in which I was still a beginner, but which I saw Puyol enjoying immensely.  But in the end, we weren’t bored a lot.  The tournament, from the beginning to the end, was unforgettable.

During those first few days in Las Rozas, no one spoke about winning, although it was a hope that everyone silently shared.  But a very united group did develop, although there were some who said that those from Barça and Madrid barely understood each other.  Of course I get along better with Pedro, Busi, Xavi!  But we don’t have any problems with the rest [not the best choice of words there, Gerard].  I remember, for example, that in Potchefstroom, I had an infinite number of chats with Pepe Reina, Llorente and Sergio Ramos in the rooms and in the dining room about the World Cup.  The story started after the disappointment of the loss to Switzerland.

I have the theory that Spain always fails in the round of 16 or the quarterfinals because they never suffer in the first round.  Two games, qualification and a friendly as the last game.  But we started with a loss.  After losing to Switzerland, we were in a life and death situation.

In the locker room after the game, not one voice could be heard, except for Arbeloa, who is always optimist.  We thought that after so much had been said about the quality of Spain, that we could go home after the first round.  But we all knew that we had played well.  That was the key, we had confidence in our ideas, in our football.

The game against Honduras arrived and there have been few games in which I’ve been as nervous.  That was especially true in the first half, where nothing was achieved.  But Villa appeared in the second half.  Also in that game, Puyol once again showed me why he’s a genius.  He didn’t allow anyone to get by, and he also split his sides laughing because after I received a gash on the eyebrow against Switzerland, I split open my mouth.  After that, since I could barely talk, Pepe would start mumbling each time I started to say something and our teammates would join in the teasing.  But anyway.  We had returned to the World Cup, and in the game against Chile, we were in control from the beginning to the end.  To the next round.

We knew that Cristiano would be a danger against Portugal, but if we were alert on defense, we wouldn’t suffer because they were a team with more individual than collective play.  Villa, the máquina, once again was on target and his goals were worth a win.  The game that I suffered the most was against Paraguay, perhaps because we all felt that invisible pressure of the quarterfinals bad luck.  When a penalty was blown against me, I thought that everything had fallen apart.  But Iker – ¡qué grande! – fixed things and Villa finished it off.

Between competitions of Pro Evolution – which I won – we watched the rest of the games of the World Cup.  I remember that Germany fascinated us with their four goals against Argentina.  Someone said, “this is not the team that played in the Eurocopa.”  “Özil and Khedira,” someone else said, with another adding, “Müller.”  But the biggest shock was the elimination of Brazil.  That day, I was in a car with Del Bosque going somewhere.  My friend Pedret bombarded my Blackberry with messages.  “Dutch goal!” he wrote.  “Melo expelled,” he continued.  “Brazil, eliminated,” he ended.  Vicente and I looked at each other, speechless.  I’m sure that he and I were both thinking, “¡Guauuuu… Brazil has been eliminated, we can be champions!”  But there will still a long road ahead.

To start, there was Germany.  But it was clear to me: “we’re going to win this World Cup.”  “Well, there’s the semifinal and then…” others would say.  And I would reply, “yes, yes, but we’re going to win this World Cup.”  And that’s how it went.

Once we beat Germany, the Netherlands was left.  Now that I think about it, I remember that on the bus, on the way to Soccer City, no one said anything.  There were pressure, nervousness and concentration.  You couldn’t even hear a fly.  But it produced a phenomenon that is difficult to explain.  We were all talking via Blackberry!  We encouraged each other, you know saying “¡Vamos!” or “we can’t fail, eh!” or “it’s ours!”  Things like that.  Incredible.  Welcome messages.  Then, we had the normal chat from Del Bosque, without any shouts and with just the right amount of words, which was good for us.

In the final, unlike the previous games, Puyi and I didn’t say to each other during the 70th minute that we were exhausted, that the season had been very long.  We were in the overtime, and more than anything else, we had a real fear of the penalties.  Nothing could take the panic away.  Until Andrés.  A goal, and glory.

Sergio Busquets

El País’ special includes an interview with Sergio Busquets.  You can read the entire thing here.

How did you find out that you were going to the World Cup?

I was with my parents and I knew the list would be announced, so I searched for it on the Internet.  I was a habitual choice, but until you see it with your own eyes, you have doubts.

And what did you think?

I thought about all the World Cups I had watched on TV.  For me, it was a tournament that France or Brazil always won.

Did you do any special preparations with Del Bosque?

No, everything was very normal.  I seem to remember that in Murcia, the míster sat Xabi Alonso, Xavi and I down, and told us some things.  But we had already played many games together, so we knew what we had to do.

And along came Switzerland.  What do you remember from that day?

That we had many occasions.  Xavi said it was an accident and he’s right.  We played well, not excellently, because we would have won had we played like that, but we played very well.