Carlos Rosique | Valencia (EFE).- There have been barely 32 matches that the Spanish team has played in Mestalla, a field that, however, ‘la Roja’ has made its own in several of the most important matches in its history in Spain.
In the Valencian stadium, the oldest in the First Division, the team played three of the five matches of the 82 World Cup and five of the six matches -all except the final- of the Olympic team in Barcelona 92′.
Mestalla, which will celebrate its centenary on May 20, has hosted eighteen friendlies and fourteen official competition matches, three for the World Cup, four for the World Cup qualifiers and another seven for access to the Euro Cup, as well as the 1992 Olympic Games. ′, which are not counted as an under-21 team.
These matches mean that, right now, Mestalla is the second stadium with the most national team matches hosted after the Bernabéu (38).
As the field approaches its centenary, it is worth observing the uneven outcome of Spain’s matches in major competitions at Mestalla, where the national team has played 4% of all matches, with 20 wins, seven draws and five losses.
The Naranjito World Cup
In 1982, Spain was going to host its first -and for the moment only- World Cup. After a poor performance in 1978 and two consecutive absences in 1970 and 1974, the national team prepared thoroughly for this event, which meant that Mestalla, then known as Luis Casanova, hosted all three of Spain’s group stage matches.
As a way of adapting to Mestalla, Valencia hosted five consecutive matches for the team before the World Cup. Against Luxembourg, Belgium, Scotland, Wales and Switzerland, ‘la Roja’ swept four wins and a draw against the British team.
The team had acclimatized perfectly to Mestalla and was prepared to beat Honduras, Yugoslavia and Northern Ireland, an easy group to go first in the group stage, especially with an overturned city and a stadium that had been purposely remodeled for the event.
However, the draw in the first game against Honduras by 1-1 upset the national team, which despite recovering by beating Yugoslavia (2-1) with goals from Juanito and Enrique Saura from Castellón, lost on the last day of the phase in groups against Northern Ireland (0-1), which finished first in the group and left Spain second.
That second place, which qualified Spain for a second group phase, included them in a more than difficult second phase with England and the Federal Republic of Germany, a group in which they finished last after drawing against England and losing against the German team, in two matches that were already played at the Santiago Bernabéu.
The 92 Olympic Games, the opportunity to redeem yourself
Totally different was the experience of 1992 with the Olympic team. With a very young team but with great figures for the future such as Santi Cañizares, Pep Guardiola, Luis Enrique, Kiko Narváez (then Quico), Alfonso or Solozábal, Mestalla hosted the matches of a team that lived on TV the successes that their compatriots achieved 350 kilometers further north.
In front of some 18,000 spectators and with goals from Guardiola, Kiko Narvárez, Berges and Luis Enrique, the national team thrashed Colombia four goals to nil on July 24 in the first match of the group stage, a positive dynamic that confirmed three days then by beating Egypt 2-0.
The Olympic team also won Qatar (2-0) on the fast track, a result with which they confirmed their presence as first in the quarterfinals.
Against Italy in the quarterfinals, more than 28,000 spectators saw the 1-0 victory at Mestalla with a goal by Kiko Narváez against the ‘azzurros’, which made the Spanish caress about the medals, although they would have to beat Ghana in the semifinals first .
The goals scored by Abelardo and Berges against Ghana (2-0) made the 36,000 fans who filled the stands of the Luis Casanova go crazy on August 5 and who confirmed that Spain would once again get on the podium, in a competition that ended up winning against Ghana. beat Poland 3-2.
In addition to the matches -except for the final- of the Spanish Olympic team, the Luis Casanova also hosted three of group C between Morocco and South Korea, Paraguay and the Asian team and the one that faced Morocco with Paraguay. The same did not happen in the 1982 World Cup, when he only hosted those of the Spanish team.
The first time that Mestalla hosted the national team and a challenge for the future
The first time the team visited Valencia was in June 1925, barely five years after the national team played its first official match, in the Olympic Games. of Antwerp in 1920. Although it may seem like a somewhat late visit, it goes hand in hand with the slow emergence of football in Valencia compared to other Spanish cities.
This first time in Valencia, in Spain’s 1-0 victory against Italy, also marked the international debut of Eduardo Cubells, the great idol of the Valencian fans at the time.
Since then, only in the 1930s has the Valencian field not hosted any match for the team, which experienced its biggest win in 1999, when it endorsed Austria 9-0 in a qualifying match for the 2000 Euro Cup, and its last meeting in a 2-1 against Norway in March 2019 for the centenary of the club.
In recent times, Mestalla has had to share with the ‘Ciutat de València’, which despite being inaugurated in 1969, did not host the team until 2004, a fact that was repeated in 2014, in the only two matches of the national team in Valencia outside of Mestalla.
Ahead, the Valencian field has the opportunity to continue adding national team matches before the end of the New Mestalla and a challenge ahead: When will it host a match for the Spanish women’s team?