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IBERIAN INVASION
How Spain Came to Dominate 2008

by Zach Bigalke 

As the ball dropped on 2007 and fireworks rang in the new year, few would have imagined that Spain -- the perennial underachievers in international sport -- would dominate like the matadors dancing with the bulls in an ancient Roman theater... and those that did would probably be carted away in shackles. Had a person walked into any sports bar and offered even fifty-to-one odds. Yet by the time fall brought its first chill from Atlantic to Mediterranean a chain of successes on both sides of the globe would leave fans from A Coruña to Valencia awash in fanatical ecstacy. What seemed impossible in January looked as though it had been inevitable by the time we looked in the rearview mirror from our autumnal drive.

      Four seasons, some by individuals and some by teams both flying the Spanish flag or merely featuring Spanish victors, fueled the renaissance which saw Spain in its greatest international form since the cusp of the 1960s, when 1959 Tour de France winner Federico Bahamontes was dominating cycling’s mythic climbs, the national soccer team conquered the 1964 European Championship and Real Madrid dominated the early years of the tournament which would evolve into the Champions League. Their divergent paths would leave this quartet illustrating how sports of all stripes can come to bind together disparate communities in a common focus, all the while hoisting aloft the sports-fan souls of a nation of fanatics. 
 

Conquering Number One 

Rafael Nadal overcame what seemed the insurmountable pinnacle that was Swiss tennis dynamo Roger Federer to rise to the top rank in tennis. Along the way he matched Swedish legend Bjorn Borg by winning his fourth consecutive French Open title at Roland Garros... and then Nadal duplicated the feat by becoming the first French Open winner to claim Wimbledon in the same season since Borg in 1980. To ice the cake, the man from Majorca became the first top-five player in the world to take gold at the Olympics. Along the way he reached the semifinals at both the Australian Open and U.S. Open, his first forays so deep in a hard-court Grand Slam -- proving both consistency across surfaces and a game which has matured exponentially as he has grown into Federer’s doppelganger on the ATP Tour.

      Nadal started his season motivated to prove he was more than a mere clay-court wonder. In Melbourne he advanced to the semifinals before falling to resilient Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga; his archrival Federer, plagued by what later would be announced to be mononucleosis, fell too in the semifinals to eventual champion Novak Djokovic. While he failed to reach the final, Nadal set a statement at the beginning of the season which resounded -- he was ready to contend on any surface at any time.

      He continued his march to the top of tennis with the meat of his season,  the clay-court run-up to Roland Garros and his assault on a fourth consecutive French Open title.  With victories in Monaco, Barcelona and Hamburg before Paris, Nadal came in well prepared to defend his crown.

      Federer has proven, historically, to be the bridge between the Sampras generation and the Nadal generation. As Federer ages -- while he is only 26, he has over seven-hundred professional matches under his belt -- a new crop of stars rises. The early-season bout with mononucleosis allowed for a new generation to step up and realize its potential. And at only 22, Nadal has at least another decade of prime career in which to challenge marks thought only to be in range for Federer. He continued his dominant form on the Parisien clay, sweeping his perennial nemesis in straight sets and giving up only four games en route to his fourth consecutive title. Looking as strong as Borg ever did, Nadal set his sights to the All-England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club to take his game to a new level.

      Nadal did not disappoint there either. Leading up to the tournament he had defeated Djokovic at the Queen’s Club in London. He was ready for the grass, and his game proved formidable. The youngster gave up only one set en route to the final, plowing through a field which was full of surprises -- the highest seed Nadal would face before the last match was twelve-seed Andy Murray, who he summarily dispatched in a 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 decision. In the semifinals German wildcard Rainer Schuettler pushed Nadal through the second set, forcing a 6-3 tiebreak. But in the end it was another straight-set victory, and another showdown with Federer in the finals. The battle would continue...

      ... and the battle indeed would go down as another epic between the two titans of the sport’s current incarnation. Another five-set battle as it was the previous July, the two men battled before thousands of fans under the persistent English rain.  Two rain delays would extend the match; the two champions would conspire to extend it even further. The first set went to Nadal 6-4, as each man was in his zone. The second set, as well, went to Nadal. The Spaniard appeared to be in the driver’s seat to his first non-clay Grand Slam. Yet one can never discount Roger for his tenacity and resilience. He claimed a set back in a 7-5 tiebreak; he claimed another in the fourth with a 10-8 tiebreak.  So it went to a final set. And neither man had the desire to concede. Each maintained the draw until, finally, Nadal won the final set 9-7. The match,  having lasted an official four hours, forty-eight minutes, actually went well into a seventh hour in real time and extended toward nightfall. In one of the most amazing Wimbledon finals in the tournament’s long history, Nadal had hung firm and Federer had fallen.

      After his historic run to the French Open-Wimbledon double, Nadal turned around and won the Masters Series on the hardcourt in Toronto before heading to Beijing. The Olympic tennis tournament is traditionally a land mine for top-ranked players. Few accept the chance to represent their nation, instead preparing for late-season ATP series events and building up their bank accounts. But Nadal took his Olympic status seriously, and as he took the final against Fernando Gonzalez of Chile 6-3, 7-6(2), 6-3 he became the first top-five-ranked player in the world to win Olympic gold.

      Following Beijing, Nadal came into Flushing Meadows as the top seed in a Grand Slam other than the French Open for the first time in his career. And while it was ultimately Federer, competing in his first hardcourt Grand Slam in ages as a two-seed, who took the title at Flushing Meadows, Nadal nonetheless made the semifinals at the late-season hard-court tournament. His hardcourt play has turned a crucial corner just as his grass game has over the past several seasons; what once seemed absurd now seems as though it is merely a matter of time.

      Even now, he appears poised to have the Spanish squad favored to win the Davis Cup this year. Nadal has proven adept at adaptation, manipulating his game to succeed on any surface and in any format. With a slew of goals to which he has yet to attend, Nadal will surely keep Spanish pride alive for years to come... 
 

An Unexpected Change of Plans 

Much the same could be said about cycling’s newest wunderkind, Alberto Contador. This season saw the 2007 Tour de France champion complete the trifecta in becoming only the fifth cyclist in history to win all three grand tours. From the Dolomites and the Giro d’Italia in May to his home tour, the Vuelta a España, in September, Contador completed his cycle on the bicycle in record time -- winning all three grand tours in a span of fourteen months, nine months quicker than the previous fastest time held by Bernard Hinault.

      The year started with an ominous rumble. Contador, riding for the retooled Astana team after the Discovery Channel squad which had led him to his 2007 Tour victory disbanded, would not be allowed to ride in defense of his maillot jaune. Amaury Sport Organizaiton, the owner and operator of the Tour de France, had been burned by Astana in both 2006 and 2007 -- first when its predecessor, Liberty Seguros, was at the forefront of the Operacion Puerto scandal which marred the race before it started; then the next year when Astana’s Kazakh leader and the man who had spearheaded the new sponsorship by a consortium of his countrymen tested positive for homologous blood doping after winning both a time-trial and a mountain stage in the race. His team withdrew from the race, leaving a blood-smeared stain across the integrity of cycling’s flagship event.

      So Contador, still under the tutelage of Lance Armstrong’s former manager Johan Bruyneel as both had moved from Discovery to Astana, set his sights instead on the first grand tour of the season. Yet there, too, the obstacle of denied entry required hurdling. At the last minute, Astana was allowed to race. After ceding the first week to Liquigas and early maglia rosa Franco Pellizotti and the escapades of the Italian Riccardo Riccò on Spanish-sponsored Saunier Duval, Contador set himself up nicely in the stage-ten time trial, finishing eight seconds behind stage-winner Marzio Bruseghin of Lampre and vaulting into fourth on the general classification.

      Giovanni Visconti of Quick Step held the leader’s jersey through the second week, Contador licking his chops a manageable 6:59 back in third place. On stage fifteen, with Visconti having already ceded his lead the previous stage, Contador finished sixth behind two-time Giro winner Gilberto Simoni to take his first maglia rosa. Simoni was now in sixth place, only 1:26 back in time. In between was a star-studded list -- Vuelta winner Denis Menchov; classics and Giro winner Danilo Di Luca; Riccò and his brilliant climbing legs; and Bruseghin and his time-trial form.

      The next day on the time trial up Plan de Corones, Contador gained time on Riccò while losing five seconds on Simoni, now in third. With five days to go to Milan, Contador’s place in history was not yet sealed. Both Simoni and Riccò could potentially push the Spaniard to the breaking point in this, their home tour. In stage nineteen, with only two stages to Milan, all the contenders took their shots at the leader. With the finish on the Monte Pora, Riccò and Di Luca both pushed the Astana leader to the breaking point -- but he held firm. He would finish the day still swaddled in leader’s pink, but only by four seconds over Riccò and twenty-one over Di Luca.

      The final day held a time trial into Milan, and Contador proved the strongest of the leaders on the day. He put nearly two minutes into second-placed Riccò; even Bruseghin, the final man on the Milanese podium and the winner of the first individual time trial, lost nearly half a minute to Contador on the run to the finish line.... 
 

A Threat is Thwarted 

But Contador would not be lining up in Brittany as the Tour de France started. The nation looked as though it was in danger of having its two-year streak of post-Armstrong Tour victories snapped due to ASO’s unwillingness to allow a defending champion to defend his championship. Several Spaniards, including 2006 Tour champion Oscar Periero of Caisse d’Epargne, would be lining up for various teams with a legitimate shot.

      This time around Pereiro would be working for Alejandro Valverde. Valverde, who in his first Tour ride back in 2005 defeated Lance Armstrong in the summit finish at Courcheval before bowing out with knee tendonitis, had been touted since his time in the junior ranks as a future Tour champion -- but first he would have to simply finish the race for his first time. If Valverde could not finish, Pereiro would serve as an effective wild-card for his team, a quite dangerous man to underestimate.

      But while Valverde would wear the first maillot jaune of the race, he would prove incapable of maintain his upward trajectory in the standings. He would willingly give up his jersey in the first week, expecting to let another team manage the peloton while his Caisse d’Epargne teammates protected him and kept him fresh for the mountains. Valverde, though, would not see the yellow again. After losing significant time in the stage-four time trial, Valverde would slip further with a substandard performance on stage ten in the Pyrenees, losing over three minutes to fall out of the top ten. While he would ultimately finish ninth, over seven minutes behind the winning time, Valverde proved his ability to finish the Tour.

      Unfortunately, Pereiro would not be able to finish alongside his young team leader. On stage fifteen, as the race wound through the Alps toward Prato Nevoso across the Italian border, the race ran into the rain and claimed several riders. The descent down the Col Agnel which marked the border point between Italy and France, became slippery and precarious. Pereiro crashed over a guardrail right before a right-bending switchback, tumbling over the edge and ending his Tour. The peloton waited for Pereiro until it was apparent he would not return. Coming down the climb, the breakaway had grown its advantage to over seventeen minutes with seventy kilometers remaining.  Simon Gerrans took the stage; Frank Schleck took the yellow jersey; and Pereiro was taken to the hospital, where it was revealed that he had broken his arm in the crash.

      But not all hope was lost for Spain. The flag was taken up by CSC’s calmly-assured leader, Carlos Sastre, who used fabled Alpine climb L’Alpe d’Huez as a springboard to vault up the general classification into the yellow previously held by his teammate, Frank Schleck. Takiing over the jersey with only four stages remaining, Sastre and his team director, Bjarne Riis, had set the diminutive Spanish rider on path to keep his nation’s streak alive by winning his first grand tour.

      The penultimate-stage time-trial would prove the greatest test of Sastre’s career. With men like Cadel Evans and Stefan Schumacher still well within reach of his time, Sastre would have to put in a personal best to retain his lead. And retain he did, posting the twelfth-best time on the day and holding on to his lead by 1:05 over Evans, who for the second-straight year proved to be second-best. The Australian’s ambition to become the first from his nation to win the Tour de France was forced once again to take a backseat as another Spanish rider added his name alongside Bahamontes and Pedro Delgado and Miguel Indurain as one of Spain’s greatest cyclists... 
 

Completing the Trifecta 

But that did not mean that Contador was done for the season. Welcomed with open arms to the Vuelta a España, Astana set about repeating its 2006 win -- which had been taken by Vinokourov after the now-disgraced former leader was spurned from the Tour de France after his eleventh-hour resurrection of Liberty Seguros as a Kazakh team. This time around neither Vinokourov nor his Kazakh counterpart, Andrey Kashechkin -- both banned for blood doping -- would play a role for this oft-revamped roster. Instead it was Contador and the team’s American wild-card, Levi Leipheimer, who would prove both a valuable ally to the Spaniard as he contended for his first home tour to complete the treble.

      After the team time trial was surprisingly won by Liquigas, which put Italian sprinter Filippo Pozzato in the gilded leader’s jersey, the second stage saw Alejandro Valverde once again take a grand-tour lead in the early stages. Whether he would be able to hold on in the race to reach the podium as he did in 2006 would remain to be seen. But  by the beginning of the second week, Astana was already beginning to assert its influence as one of the most powerful teams in cycling.  While CSC had depleted it stock of strong riders to assist Sastre in the Tour de France -- neither Schleck brother nor German powerhouse Jens Voigt would accompany the Tour winner as he squared off against Contador -- Astana could throw one strength after another up the road. In addition to Contador, the team boasted former Tour podium finishers Andreas Klöden and Levi Leipheimer. Riders like Benjamin Noval, Sergio Paulinho and José Luis Rubiera, all veterans from both Armstrong’s and Contador’s Tour victories, also rounded out the most balanced team in the race.

      And by the time the second week was coming to a close, Astana was asserting its influence sternly. Leipheimer had worn the maillot oro after both the stage-five time trial and again after stage seven only to keep having time bonuses wrest it from his shoulders. Then stage thirteen reared its ugly head and shook up the standings for good.

      The stage started in San Vicente de la Barquera, with Egoi Martínez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) in the pole position and the golden jersey. With five categorized climbs totaling 3133 meters (10,279 feet -- just under two miles) of uphill toil, the stage was prime real estate to weed the pretenders from the contenders as the race entered its final promenade to Madrid.  The final climb, the epic Alto de l’Angliru in the northwestern Asturias region of Spain, came after four climbs and 196.5 kilometers (122 miles) of racing. The climb rose ever closer to the heavens, topping out after 12.2 kilometers (7.6 miles) of ascent up roads averaging 10.4% grade.

      Contador chiseled more time from his rivals, using the Angliru and its fearsome slopes to extract greater distances between himself and his principal challengers for the title. Alejandro Valverde lost another forty-two seconds; Carlos Sastre over one and a half minutes;  even teammate Levi Leipheimer, who before the stage was a mere two seconds behind his leader, ended the stage fourth to move to second place overall -- yet now over a minute off Contador’s pace. Contador soloed in the final 3.5 kilometers of the climb, easily taking over the top spot on the general classification as he completed the stage at an astounding 35.65 km/h (22.15 mph) pace.

      Contador would do it again, this time in the maillot oro, the next day. Stage fourteen featured three punchy little third-category climbs in a fourteen-mile span to start the stage; the twin spires of the Alto de la Colladona (5.9 km @ 7.2%) and Alto de la Colladiella (8 km @ 7.3%) dominated the middle portion of the race, with the feed zone falling directly in the valley between the two climbs; and after the descent of the Colladiella, the final run to the finish line featured the summit finale at Fuentes de Invierno. The climb up the Puerto de San Isidro to the finish thinned the peloton to the point where, once again, Contador found himself alone over the finish. This time, after counterattacking a move by Ezequiel Mosquera (Xacobeo Galicia), Contador simply powered away, leaving teammate Leipheimer to pick up the pieces for second to solidify his own podium spot.

      The penultimate-stage time trial would serve only to reduce the gap between the two Astana riders as Leipheimer, the more-accomplished time-trialist of the two, bested Contador in the mountain time trial up the Alto de Navacerrada. With the American forty-six seconds behind the Spaniard, Contador could now ride soundly into Madrid amidst the fanfare knowing that he had indeed completed not only his own sweep of the grand tours but Spain’s sweep of all three 2008 grand tours... 
 

Chasing Away Old Ghosts 

For the Spanish national soccer team, the stakes were higher. Austria and Switzerland were hosting the 2008 UEFA European Championships, and while Spain had earned their spot at the tournament with a 9-1-2 record in Qualifying Group F few could have anticipated how they would perform entering the tournament. Spain had last won international hardware of any sort when they had won this tournament back in 1964. A forty-four year drought commenced thereafter with returns ever diminishing, leaving Spanish expectations muted heading into the tournament. A favorable draw would see them avoiding a fate such as that in Group C, which saw the Netherlands, Italy, France and Romania all facing each other in group play. Spain also managed to avoid both the Germans and Croatians, who faced each other and came out of Group B, as well as the quagmire that was Portugal, Turkey and the Czech Republic fighting for two slots in Group A.

      So Spain came into their first group match against Russia with a path of least resistance and a desire to show their worth. What ensued was a slaughter, with 30,772 witnessing the carnage live in Innsbruck at the Tivoli-Neu Stadium. David Villa, the striker who plays alongside Fernando Torres on the national team and for Primera Liga side Valencia, quickly set Spain alighting the score. In the twentieth minute, Torres took a long pass from left-back Joan Capdevila -- after his spectacular takeaway of the ball as the Russians pressed the pace -- and drove toward goal. Quickly dismissing his defender, he pressured Russian goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev into coming out of his net. Holding the ball until the last possible second, Torres then slotted through to Villa to put Spain up 1-0. The Russians, far from downtrodden, came right back down the field and dropped a tantalizing header... only for Dmitri Sychev to head the pass off the post.

      After that, Spain eased into a full-bore attack. Torres and Villa danced through the Russian defense, creating opportunity after opportunity. Akinfeev was stout in goal, deflecting two superb chances from the Spanish tandem. The Russian side would continue to fight, seeking an equalizer, yet could not get the ball past Iker Casillas. Villa would ultimately get Spain’s second right before half-time, David Silva counterattacking from his own zone. Sharp passes from Silva to Capdevila to Iniesta found Villa clear. With the mastery of an artisan goalpoacher, Villa slipped the ball through Akinfeev’s legs and left for half-time.

      But Guus Hiddink, a storied coach with twenty-four years of hard-fought existence as the manager of some of the top national teams and clubs in the world, would not let the Russians quit as the second half got underway. Sychev, whose errant header had allowed Spain to come out for the final forty-five with a two-goal lead, was replaced by Vladimir Bystrov. The underdog reawakened, Bystrov and Diniyar Bilyaletdinov would both put Casillas to work. The goalkeeper, who knows pressure at the highest levels from his Champions League victory with Real Madrid, deftly saved all shots.

      Akinfeev, under pressure all the while, did his best to impersonate Casillas in goal. Only twenty-two, Akinfeev had already won a UEFA Cup (the second-tier European club trophy after the Champions League) as a nineteen-year-old. He had made his first-team appearance with CSKA Moscow at seventeen and had never looked back, holding the starting spot ever since. Yet tonight he was finding that a player like Villa was simply superior to anything he had yet experienced in his career. The Valencia striker would complete his hat trick in the seventy-fifth minute, earning man-of-the-match honors for his efforts. The Spaniards took the match 4-1, with Russia getting a consolation and wiping out Casillas’ clean sheet in the eighty-sixth minute from Roman Pavlyuchenko. Cesc Fàbregas, the midfielder from Arsenal who subbed in for Fernando Torres in the fifty-fourth minute, got the last goal for Spain -- his first for the national team. The Spaniards had set the tone for the rest of their league play.

      Four days later, still in Innsbruck, Spain took on a Swedish side that had shut out 2004 European champion Greece 2-0 at the same Spain was drubbing the Russians. This time the match would not be as easy for the Iberians. Sweden pressed the attack from the opening minute, nearly going up right away, but the normally sure-footed Zlatan Ibrahimović -- the elusive striker who dazzles for Inter Milan in Serie A -- failed to place the ball past Iker Casillas. Less than fifteen minutes later, Villa whipped a short corner to left winger David Silva, who found Torres near goal. The Liverpool striker didn't fail, placing Spain up 1-0.

                But Ibrahimović would have more chances still. Just over ten minutes from half-time, with Carlos Puyol out of the Spanish central defense, the Scandinavian scorer took a Johan Elmander cross from the right and settled at the far post. A Sergio Ramos slip in the box gave Ibrahimović the time to fire a low shot past Casillas to draw up the match. The Spanish defense was reeling, unable to control the pressure being put on by a well-matched squad. But when Markus Rosenberg came on in place of Ibrahimović in the second half, his absence left Sweden bleeding momentum.

      The Spaniards pushed the pace almost immediately after the intermission. Torres and Villa dazzled yet again, working expertly together at the front to put stress on Andreas Isaksson. Isaksson, playing for Sweden in his offseason from PSV Eindhoven in the Dutch Eredivisie, was playing like a man possessed. When Silva shot in on goal just after the turn of the hour, Isaksson turned out the shot. But Villa's rebound back caught the keeper in the face, leaving him dazed on the field. Yet he was able to recover in time to turn away Marcos Senna's strong sixty-eighth-minute shot.

      Henrik Larsson, the fifteen-year veteran of the national team, had his opportunity to write one last glorious chapter in his long international career. Yet he could not get back on the ball in time as Peter Hansson turned a late free-kick back across the goalmouth, and was subbed out in the eighty-seventh minute. Ultimately it would once again be Villa, the hat-trick hero of the Spain-Russia match, who once again set Spanish hearts alight, scoring the late winner two minutes into injury time. The Spaniards were on pace to reach the knockout stage, and were showing resilience which had been sorely missing from previous incarnations of the squad. The team had already, before even playing the defending champion Greeks, claimed the Group D title.

      And the match against the Greeks proved yet another victory, the second-team players (none of the starting eleven in the first two matches would touch the pitch this evening) leading the Spanish to a 2-1 win in Salzburg. The Spanish moved on after what essentially amounted to a rest period for the heart of their squad to face World Cup champion Italy. Without playmakers Gennaro Gattuso and Andrea Pirlo, out due to suspensions, the Italians looked hard-pressed to match the Spaniards in the match. Time after time Villa and Silva were both getting chances on arguably the world’s best goalkeeper, Gianluigi Buffon -- and there’s a reason he can be thrown at the top of the argument for the world’s best.

      Buffon proved his mettle throughout the match. Spain had no fewer than a dozen legitimate chances to take the lead... yet every time either Buffon rose to the occasion or the Spanish strikers and wingers, so adept in their previous games at finding the net, failed to rise to their own. Spain methodically worked the field, possessing the ball for large build-ups which inevitably amounted to nothing. It looked as though the match, already through extra time, would not see a goal. It would ultimately go to a shootout.

      Casillas, four years younger than Buffon, already boasts an impressive résumé which easily also puts him in contention to be considered the number-one keeper in the world. The two men would test their mettle against each other’s top five shooters. Villa took the first shot, easily beating Buffon. Fabio Grosso stood first against Casillas, knotting the match with a goal of his own. Santi Cazorla came up next for Spain and struck true. The same could not be said for Daniele De Rossi, who failed to beat Casillas as the keeper made an expert save. Next Marcos Senna came up, also scoring for Spain. Without another goal, Spain would need but one more to win. This time Mauro Camoranesi found the back of the net for the Italians. Buffon would make the next save, denying Daniel Güiza. But then Casillas once again got the better of his shooter, this time keeping Antonio Di Natale’s shot from finding its mark. Cesc Fàbregas had the last shot for the Spaniards, and he put the ball past Spain to send them into the semifinals for the first time since 1984, when that side was coached by Miguel Muñoz to the finals before losing to the host French side led by Michel Platini.

      This time the Spaniards would have a rematch of their first match, the debacle with the Russians. And while Guus Hiddink could prepare his squad as well as possible and Akinfeev could (and would) perform admirably, while they could neutralize both Torres and Villa to the point where neither could find the net, what they could not do was match the sheer depth of talent that Spain could throw at them. Once again a three-goal deficit marked the final tally, with Russia failing to score this time. After the shootout, Casillas was alert and ready to taste glory.

      David Villa would not be there for Spain that evening. Out with a thigh injury, he was resigned to watching as his comrades on the pitch found a way past a resolute German squad. The team came out in an unfamiliar 4-5-1 formation, Cesc Fàbregas being rewarded with a starting position in midfield. Germany, bolstered by the last-minute addition of captain Michael Ballack, appeared the better side indeed in the opening minutes. But Spain soon found its bearing without Villa, and German goalkeeper Jens Lehmann -- at thirty-eight the oldest player to appear in a UEFA European Championship final -- found himself getting busier as the half wore on.

      Fernando Torres, without his familiar partner in attack, nonetheless soldiered onward, increasing the pressure. Defender Sergio Ramos pushed up the right flank and delivered a cross deep into the zone; Torres found it but hit the right post. Xavi then guided another pass to Torres in the thirty-third minute. The Liverpool striker took it from there, bulling past Philip Lahm and tapping the ball over a diving Lehmann to score what ultimately would prove to be the winner. After forty-four years of failure on the international level even as its clubs dominated large swaths of European soccer history, Spain had finally found a way to equal their 1964 European Championship team and win its elusive trophy.  
 

Every one of these four events had a tint of the improbable on its path toward realization. Had a person claimed, at the beginning of the year, that even three of these four storylines -- Nadal, Contador, Sastre and Spanish soccer -- would come to pass the echoes of disbelieving laughter would sound down the block from whatever neighborhood watering hole a person had chosen for such absurd proclamations. Yet it proved to be those who would dare utter such absurdities who ultimately had the last laugh on the year.

      All along the way, Spaniards defied convention to push ahead and emerge victorious in some of the most highly-contested events found across the globe. From Nadal’s emergence on the hard courts of Melbourne in January to Contador’s completion of his record-setting cycling treble in September, the calendar was replete with one success after another. Records were broken, droughts doused with success, and celebrations broke out in Spanish communities both within and outside its geographical borders. Whether or not any cared to sing the newly-penned words to La Marcha Real, the anthem rang out across several continents as these various sportsmen helped to usher Spain from its recent underachieving athletic past into a dominant present and a promising future.

Submitted 2008

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