Luis Aragones appeared to some as an old, vulgar, dictatorial, and for some racist, old man. But it was clear that his football players loved him, perhaps seeing in him a father figure who said things directly and the job got done.
Because indeed, Luis Aragones got the job done of bringing Spanish football to the top of the world after decades and decades of disappointments and underperformance. But Luis Aragones greatest feat was to give Spain a football identity that they had lacked. He had the privilege of one of the greatest footballing generation Spain had ever seen, but he gave them a purpose and led them to their first major title, the 2008 European Championship. Luis Aragones created a team, like he said in one of his most memorable phrases to his Spanish national team in 2008 (my translation): "You are all an exceptional group. If I do not get to the final with this group I am a shit, who has created a shit team."
It was not a shit team for sure.
Surely Luis Aragones had been groomed to lead Spain to glory. He was from Atletico Madrid, where he had become a legend as coach and player, and as such, he never had a particular preference for the two arch-rivals in Spanish football. At the same time, nobody knew Spanish football as intimately as him. From 1974 to 2004, when he became national team coach, he managed eight different Spanish clubs, including FC Barcelona. More than anyone he understood the strengths, but also the weaknesses of his country when he took over the national team, and went about forming the style and team spirit that made Spain the best in the world. His mantle has surely been taken over by Vicente del Bosque, who has continued Luis Aragones legacy.
Spain lost what was surely the greatest influence on their team ever. RIP.
Showing posts with label Luis Aragones. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Luis Aragones. Show all posts
Saturday, February 01, 2014
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
The Great French
What distinguishes great teams through history, is that they win the right matches at the right time. Spain has never been a big team. But France has, and showed it again last night.
Walking into the match, Spain had three first round victories, while France had been mediocre to say the least, barely qualifying for the last-16 by defeating Togo. So all eyes were set on Spain, and the fact that this might be their year. It wasn't, even though David Villa brought the Spaniards ahead on a penalty kick. 3-1 for France was the end score, where Ribery, Vieira and Zidane took advantage of Spanish mistakes. It is amazing to see Spain, again and again losing in important tournaments, by being naive and unconcentrated.
Only pity is that Thierry Henry didn't score, so he could get back on Luis Aragones racist comments...
In any case, Brazil-France in the quarterfinal is another clash of titans, much more than a Brazil-Spain. So that is something to look forward to indeed!
Friday, December 24, 2004
Top 10 Football turds of 2004
The football year 2004 has had many good and bad things. As I am on a Christmas break, I will spend the next days giving my TOP-10s of the football year 2004.
As every year, there have been stars, heroes, as well as villains and plain idiots. The last category is what I would charmingly call "turds": And so, I have made my personal list of top-10 football turds of 2004:
10) David Beckham: He is still a great player on the pitch, but the image he constantly gets in the media, makes him an obvious choice for this list. This year it was stories about his extramarital affairs, as well as his bragging about his own 'intelligence' when forcing a yellow card upon himself on an England World Cup qualifier.
9) Ferencvaros fans: Otherwise fans of a great team, they did show their worst side in an UEFA cup qualifier against Milwall.
8) Florentino Perez: Symbolizes all the arrogance of Real Madrid. In the 2003/2004 season he got his "galactic" team together, just to have one of the worst seasons in Real Madrid's history. Then there was the whole soap opera with Camacho as coach for a couple of weeks.
7) Adrian Mutu: a young talented and succesful player in one of the best teams this season, but he ruined himself going for the cocaine.
6) Portuguese stadion security: in a time of terrorism, it was pretty pathetic that a Barcelona man managed to run through the whole security perimeter and across the pitch to Luis Figo, in the EURO 2004 final in Portugal.
5) Stig Tøfting: The former Hamburger SV and Bolton player was having a good season with Danish team AGF, just until a recent Christmas dinner with the whole team, where he again got into a mayor fight, got him fired. So he just made it to this list at the last moment!
4) Christian Andersen and Flemming Østergaard: You have to be Danish to know these two clowns. But when you do, you understand the low level insults of people with small brains.
3) Spanish fans: There has been a grave problem of racism for many years in Spanish football. It came to a head in the November friendly between Spain and England in Madrid, where Spanish fans repeatedly harassed the coloured players. A sick symptom of pathetic Spanish fans.
2) Francesco Totti: Deserves to be high up on the list. He could be a good player, but he prefers to be an unapologetic spitter, kicker and defender of violence against referees. Most idiotic comment this season must have been when questioned about the images of spitting at Christian Poulsen in the Euro 2004, he said "I do not recognize Totti there." I surely did.
1) Luis Aragones: the Spanish national coach, had to defeat Totti by being the most obvious exponent of the unapologetic Spanish racism in football. First his comment on Thierry Henry, and then his defence of Spanish fans attack on coloured players, makes him the nummer one turd of 2004.
As every year, there have been stars, heroes, as well as villains and plain idiots. The last category is what I would charmingly call "turds": And so, I have made my personal list of top-10 football turds of 2004:
10) David Beckham: He is still a great player on the pitch, but the image he constantly gets in the media, makes him an obvious choice for this list. This year it was stories about his extramarital affairs, as well as his bragging about his own 'intelligence' when forcing a yellow card upon himself on an England World Cup qualifier.
9) Ferencvaros fans: Otherwise fans of a great team, they did show their worst side in an UEFA cup qualifier against Milwall.
8) Florentino Perez: Symbolizes all the arrogance of Real Madrid. In the 2003/2004 season he got his "galactic" team together, just to have one of the worst seasons in Real Madrid's history. Then there was the whole soap opera with Camacho as coach for a couple of weeks.
7) Adrian Mutu: a young talented and succesful player in one of the best teams this season, but he ruined himself going for the cocaine.
6) Portuguese stadion security: in a time of terrorism, it was pretty pathetic that a Barcelona man managed to run through the whole security perimeter and across the pitch to Luis Figo, in the EURO 2004 final in Portugal.
5) Stig Tøfting: The former Hamburger SV and Bolton player was having a good season with Danish team AGF, just until a recent Christmas dinner with the whole team, where he again got into a mayor fight, got him fired. So he just made it to this list at the last moment!
4) Christian Andersen and Flemming Østergaard: You have to be Danish to know these two clowns. But when you do, you understand the low level insults of people with small brains.
3) Spanish fans: There has been a grave problem of racism for many years in Spanish football. It came to a head in the November friendly between Spain and England in Madrid, where Spanish fans repeatedly harassed the coloured players. A sick symptom of pathetic Spanish fans.
2) Francesco Totti: Deserves to be high up on the list. He could be a good player, but he prefers to be an unapologetic spitter, kicker and defender of violence against referees. Most idiotic comment this season must have been when questioned about the images of spitting at Christian Poulsen in the Euro 2004, he said "I do not recognize Totti there." I surely did.
1) Luis Aragones: the Spanish national coach, had to defeat Totti by being the most obvious exponent of the unapologetic Spanish racism in football. First his comment on Thierry Henry, and then his defence of Spanish fans attack on coloured players, makes him the nummer one turd of 2004.
Thursday, November 18, 2004
Spain-England
On the football aspect, a very boring game last night between Spain and England, although a deserved victory for the Spanish team, with an excellent Xavi in control.
Now, the greatest shame about the game, were the pathetic Spanish fans. Their racist shouts have no place in football. But Spain has shown absolutely no willingness to fight racism in football, mostly shown by the national coach, Mr. Aragones', comments earlier this year about Thierry Henry. While a formal regret has been posted on the website of the Spanish football federation (http://www.rfef.es/artavan-bin/Rfef/init), it is still quite unapologetic. And of course, the racist Mr. Aragones did not even want to apologize (Who would have expected he would anyway? He was probably shouting as well...). If FIFA is any serious about anti-racism, Spain should be punished harshly.
Football is a microcosm of society around it. The great things about football, are great things about life: passion, team spirit, competition... Bad things about football, are the bad things about life: loss, violence, xenophobia.
When Spanish fans are demonstrating such behavior, and nobody in Spain seems to mind, there must be something terribly wrong in Spanish society.
Spanish fans are absolutely pathetic.
Now, the greatest shame about the game, were the pathetic Spanish fans. Their racist shouts have no place in football. But Spain has shown absolutely no willingness to fight racism in football, mostly shown by the national coach, Mr. Aragones', comments earlier this year about Thierry Henry. While a formal regret has been posted on the website of the Spanish football federation (http://www.rfef.es/artavan-bin/Rfef/init), it is still quite unapologetic. And of course, the racist Mr. Aragones did not even want to apologize (Who would have expected he would anyway? He was probably shouting as well...). If FIFA is any serious about anti-racism, Spain should be punished harshly.
Football is a microcosm of society around it. The great things about football, are great things about life: passion, team spirit, competition... Bad things about football, are the bad things about life: loss, violence, xenophobia.
When Spanish fans are demonstrating such behavior, and nobody in Spain seems to mind, there must be something terribly wrong in Spanish society.
Spanish fans are absolutely pathetic.
Friday, October 08, 2004
Spanish Coach Luis Aragones
In football, horrible things are often said about other people. Fans are usually good at finding names and calling people terrible things. One of the lowest denominators are the openly racist comments. UEFA has correctly tried to work against racism in football. In this context, it is much more deplorable when Spanish coach Mr. Aragonés recently crossed the line by shouting to José Reyes "Tell the Negro that you are better than him", refering to Mr. Reyes' Arsenal teammate, the great Thierry Henry.
Mr. Aragonés in national coach. He represents all of Spain, and the only signal he sends with this, is that these kinds of comments are accepted in Spain. Even though Mr. Aragonés has now issued an apology, FIFA should step in with a warning to the Spanish football federation. When fans do these things, clubs are often fined. Now it is not barely a fan, but one of the top men of Spanish football. It is a deplorable image to send out of Spanish football, and a step backward in fighting racism in football.
Mr. Aragonés in national coach. He represents all of Spain, and the only signal he sends with this, is that these kinds of comments are accepted in Spain. Even though Mr. Aragonés has now issued an apology, FIFA should step in with a warning to the Spanish football federation. When fans do these things, clubs are often fined. Now it is not barely a fan, but one of the top men of Spanish football. It is a deplorable image to send out of Spanish football, and a step backward in fighting racism in football.
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