Spain-Portugal. The afternoon when hunger is linked to misery
Spain, always Spain. Spain was a thorn. A giant spine of a swordfish, a tuna or a swordfish, if not even a sperm whale (even if this is not a fish), stuck in the throat of the Portuguese. On March 17, 1929, a tour to Seville was scheduled. Private game, of course, was not the time for big official games, the only ones that didn’t have the record of the previous year, in the Football Tournament of the Olympic Games in Amsterdam. Seville, just like the day after tomorrow, counting for the knockout stage of the League of Nations.
Until then, faced the Spanish Fury six times: six defeats. Let’s accept with good grace and a positive sense that there have been six defeats with a certain amount of struggle given by our players. The results were bad but not shameful: 1-3, 1-2, 0-3, 0-2, 0-2 and 0-2. There was hope that those selected by Cândido de Oliveira, who had performed so well in Amsterdam, enthusiastic as ever before the Portuguese fans around their national representation, could go to Se never do what had been done there: beat Spain. The coach himself and those chosen in all honesty to the press. too soon.
At the end of the match, after a 0-5 rout, Fúria’s technicians answered a questionnaire to Portuguese journalists: “What an incomprehensible lack of reaction from the team. What an initial disgrace. After all, what happened?”
Well, it seems that no one had any answers to the basket. Never has the difference between both selections been so powerful for the Lusitanian nuclei. With his head down, one of our players, vented: “It was the hunger of the sick to misery!” And Cândido Oliveira, always calm, not going to the bottom in the middle: “We lose, we are, in fact, inferior. Our team played really badly. The anticipated Spaniards asserted themselves! As they are professionals and football is their business, it is explained that they are superior”.
Padrón had scored two goals (in the 30th and 45th minutes) and Rubio had scored three (2, 9 and 20). Roquete, the national goalkeeper, was a complete hole, getting in the way left and right with defenders Martinho de Oliveira, Tamanqueiro and Carlos Alves. Zamora, the great, guardian of the world renown Zamora being nice: “I honestly think that 5-0 is not the image of the Portuguese people who played here today”.
A party! As previously happened, Spain-Portugal was seen as a party. The Estadio de Exposición (now Benito Villamarín) was beautiful, frescoed, surrounded by a sand athletics track, often found in the Plaza de Toros, as in the Plaza de Toros in La Maestranza. Elegant high benches, very triple headboards, with elegant rows. In short: an example of modernity!
Out there, people pouring. Endless lines of cars, buses and carriages. The city’s audience didn’t want to miss the game at all. Two huge pennants, twelve meters each, dominated the gazes that extended across the location: Portugal’s on the right; Spain on the left.
Whistles, shawls, shouts of street vendors who offered. “You’ve never seen such a thing in Seville!”, exclaimed an admired spectator from his homeland in amazement.
Spain’s goals come out of nowhere. Among the Seville festivities, there are those who are disappointed: “What the hell, coño! The Portuguese goalkeeper is not to blame. The companions-not alone”.
Bosch, the formidable player from Catalunya, rehearses his explosive kicks, but he is not having a happy afternoon. The massacre becomes. Lost in the field, the Portuguese are easy prey for an incomparably better Spain. Until Manuel Soares, comes to be shown clumsy and very serious, José de Manuel Soares Cometa Azul de Belém, shows himself clumsy to Pe very, if José de Manuel Soares kicking the bar high, over the mora.
In the second half, from the half-hour, the Spaniards slowed down. Don’t try to humiliate your control. The public, used to seeing the death of the bull in the arena, does not like the reprieve. He leaves the field before the game is over, letting out scattered whistles…