New leaders, same goals

Unlike the maelstrom of haste that stars in the club calendar, national team football has a more placid digestion. Times are not tight, the games are few, scattered between months, and only in the final phases is there a bit of urgency; although the chance of the present does not usually trigger immediate decisions. Sometimes it happens, of course, like when Lopetegui signed for Madrid and the Federation struck him down a few days after the World Cup in Russia. However, the continuities, the dismissals and the new bets on the international benches are usually discerned at the end of a World Cup cycle, as is the case. The selection lives the beginnings of a new project with Luis de la Fuente. The air is renewed after the discomfort of Qatar and the new faces in the first list of the La Riojan excite the staff in the prelude to the debut against Norway in the qualification for the Euro Cup in Germany. Similarly, to the tune of Spain, other European powers have recently changed leaders in their quest for international success. The most striking case is that of Portugal, which, faced with one of the best generations in its history, decided to put an end to the stage of Fernando Santos (the coach with whom the neighboring country won the 2016 Euro Cup). Portugal had a decent World Cup, but the Portuguese inability to open the Moroccan defense in the quarterfinals left a trace of sadness. Santos’ project seemed to be squeezed and, despite having a contract until 2024, he was fired last December. Likewise, the veteran coach has recently begun a new international experience at the controls of the Polish team. His place on the Portuguese bench is already taken by Roberto Martínez, a young and experienced coach who ended his contract with Belgium at the end of the World Cup. Meanwhile, the Spanish coach has several challenges ahead: managing the complex decline of Cristiano Ronaldo (so far he has called him up for Liechtenstein and Luxembourg) and finding a way to pair and balance the talent of men like Joao Félix, Bruno Fernandes, Bernardo Silva or Gonçalo Ramos. A company, to say the least exciting. Related News Standard football Yes From Sampaoli to Mendilibar: guillotine, the old and uncertain solution to save the course Iván Martín With the dismissal of the Argentine from Sevilla, the League adds eleven coach changes in the current season Martínez directed the best Belgium in decades, but certainly never managed to tame all the talent at his disposal and, despite reaching its zenith in Russia with that third World Cup place, the Belgian game failed to impress anyone. In addition, a squad that never stood out for its unity broke out in Qatar. The enmity between De Bruyne and Courtois, the defensive doubts, the high age of their stars… Domenico Tedesco, former Leipzig and new Belgian coach, lands in a troubled place. And once again, Koeman Louis Van Gaal touched the semifinals in the World Cup, got the most out of a Netherlands team without big names and put the subsequent champions, Argentina, on the ropes, who could only throw them out of Doha on penalties . With the World Cup goodbye came the resignation and retirement of a colossus from the bench. Consequently, the Dutch Federation opted for continuity. Koeman, together with Van Dijk, in a training session for the Netherlands national team EFE Ronald Koeman begins his second stage in the national team of his native country; a position that began in 2018, which he left in August 2020 to attend the call of Barcelona and the one who returns to try to attend the Eurocup in Germany 2024. With a list similar to the World Cup, his relaunch will be in a big way: against France, in Saint-Denis, next Thursday, March 24.