Spain-Portugal. The glorious triumphs that went down the drain (I)
learn tired of catching. After eleven games against Spain, we had ten defeats and a draw. Why, tubercles! It was already starting to be too appetizing. It was then that the 28th of November 1937 arrived. The National Team had been stopped for over a year. And it’s been a year since Vigo and Galicia were completely protected to order, with Francisco Franco claiming the head of government in the Generalissimo to the new Order of the Armies.
Let’s face it: it was now or never! The Rage was weakened; the Spanish championship was in the last two seasons; some of those selected were delivered straight from the team’s lines, the equipment naturally lacking for many of the best players. Behind the central tribune of the Balaidos were significant profiles of two panoramas with the Franks. While the hymns are being played, the extension extension stands outstretched in the extended fascist salute. The Portuguese legionaries shout three times: “Salazar! Salazar! Salazar!/Franco! Frank! Franco!/Portugal! Portugal! Portugal!/Spain! Spain! Spain!/Long live Portugal! Long live Spain!”
Nuestros hermanos was more hermanos than ever.
To the goals of Pinga and Valadas, Gallart responded by setting the score at 2-1 for Portugal. Understandably, the victory was experienced with euphoria. It was the first against Spain and put an end to a sixteen-year-old. And for the defeats you would be so well accepted Spaniards. After all, few countries were willing to play against them. Or part of them. Players from Catalonia or the Basque Country did not come to represent the Fury.
N’ O Puebloego, a Gallego chronicler: very likely to put his finger on the wound (…) While our men – if not, at least the majority – were fighting in the trenches against Marismo in hand, any sporting action, the Portuguese took care of its form and its class. It is not a very fair thing for Portugal, because, because, because, the terrain already intends to be superior in everything and, above all, in understanding different lines of the team”.
An intervention! There were many praises published in the Spanish press, especially in Castilian. None of them will have been done without escaping a sense of gratitude. Because Portugal was a unique team that lent itself to facing Spain and whose national team was not recognized by FIFA for the war. In a defined national country, with federations defined as two sets represented by the national representation, that is, being the national set.
As happened in 1938, when the Spaniards arrived in Lisbon. That, FIFA never for these two encounters. Which for the Francoists didn’t matter. The advertising is being done at the convenience of Portuguese friends. It would be said, moreover, in an attempt to explain the resolution of their games, later on, due to its geographical situation, that Portugal was dependent on the Spanish calendar. Let’s not be true. And when Spain had already recovered from the war41 or internationally, we were the first to dispute it with open arms.
On the 5th of May, 19th of May, 19th, in Lisbon, for the first time, successfully, in a feat of being, for the first time, the three Spaniards to go to an exciting departure. The Spanish Civil War has not yet entered its bloodiest phase, we assume this tie as a natural evolution of Portuguese football that was already able to combine with the weight of France, Belgium, Yugoslavia or Hungary. Around here it was ignored that Spain was not cleansed of Spain. The victory was ours and nobody would question it, screw FIFA and its political deliberations.
For years and years to years and consecutive lists against the numbers of victories in the string of victories of Portugal great results. Spain had already confirmed that it had accepted the invitation to visit Lisbon the following year. We looked her in the eye, as never before. And another victory would be something extraordinary.
(continued in tomorrow’s edition)