106 and counting
As Dani Olmo turned and span before looping the ball over Keylor Navas, Spain’s tally for World Cup goals tucked into three digits. 100 goals at the World Cup from 49 different players. In reaching that landmark figure, Spain became the sixth nation to do so at the World Cup, joining Brazil (229 goals), Germany (227), Argentina (138), Italy (128), and France (124). Little did anyone know what was to come.
Only 20 minutes later, that number was up to 102 goals from 52 men with a goal apiece from Spain’s front three with almost total domination. After 30 minutes, Costa Rica had just 13% possession. It was one-way traffic. It was the first time Spain scored three in the first half of a World Cup match since 1934. By full-time of the 7-0 win over Costa Rica, it was 106 goals from 55 players.
Costa Rica conceded only eight goals in 15 qualifying matches to reach Qatar, but were blown away by the passion and intensity of a hungry Spanish side who just kept wanting more. But they aren’t stopping there.
Now, Spain’s sights will be set on matching or surpassing their most prolific World Cup, 1986. Back then, they ended their first match, against Brazil, without a goal in a 1-0 defeat, before eventually going on to put five past Denmark in the last 16, crashing out to Belgium in the quarter-finals after a penalty shoot-out.
Emilio Butragueño led the way with five goals in that tournament, but David Villa, recently labelled Spain’s best ever player by Luis Enrique, is the nation’s top scorer in the tournament with nine goals across three World Cups between 2006 and 2014. With six players scoring in this game, Spain already have a higher number of different goalscorers at this World Cup than in 13 of Spain’s 15 World Cup participations.
That experience is missing in Luis Enrique’s 2022 squad. Before facing Costa Rica, the 26-man squad had a combined total of 0 World Cup goals between them. That’s not surprising when you remember that only six of the 26 had ever before played in the World Cup. In fact, even players seen as veterans like Dani Carvajal, were making only their fourth appearance on the World Cup stage.
But that doesn’t mean that the quality isn’t there. “The training sessions are spectacular,” was Luis Enrique’s rather blunt response in the build-up. It’s fair to say that the intensity of those sessions translated onto the pitch at the Al Thumama Stadium.
Much of that credit must go to Luis Enrique. The coach has certainly put on a show with his antics in recent weeks, uncharacteristically taking to live streaming and social media as a diversion from his prickly nature with the press. It’s an approach which distracted attention away from his young squad, the fourth youngest of any nation at Qatar.
And now there are at least two more games to go. “The players never know the line-up until hours before kick-off… the coach is the one in charge and he doesn’t make up his mind until the morning of the match,” José Félix Díaz wrote in MARCA on Wednesday morning.
Ahead of the all-star clash with Germany on Sunday evening, there is plenty to be played for on the pitches of Qatar University, but those who started on the bench in Doha may find it tricky to dislodge any of Luis Enrique’s first starting XI after this spectacle against Costa Rica.