Busquets says he can help Spain’s new generation, ageing Costa Rica dreaming big
DOHA: Spain captain Sergio Busquets said on Tuesday he was ready to channel his experience as the only remaining World Cup winner in the national team into helping his young team mates overcome their nerves at the tournament in Qatar.
A day before Spain open their 2022 campaign against Costa Rica, Busquets said he hoped to be a role model to the young players in the squad who include his Barcelona team mates Pedri, aged 19, and Gavi, 18.
“The World Cup is unique,” Busquets told a news conference. “It’s the biggest sporting event and sometimes the nerves get the better of you when you’re young and you don’t have much experience. I tell them we have to be faithful to our style of play and everything that we’ve been working on with our coach.” Busquets was part of the Spain team that won the 2010 tournament in South Africa under then coach Vicente del Bosque.
The current manager Luis Enrique has brought in a new generation of players, including some who were in the side that reached the semifinals of Euro 2020 last year when they were eliminated on penalties by eventual winners Italy.
Busquets said geting a win in Wednesday’s opening game against Costa Rica would help setle Spain’s still relatively inexperienced team, which is the third youngest in Qatar.
Ahead lies the challenges of facing Germany and Japan in Group E.
Luis Enrique, also speaking to reporters, said striker Alvaro Morata and defender Dani Carvajal both had colds which he atributed to the air conditioning in Qatar, but said they were both likely to be available to play on Wednesday.
The Spain coach also responded to media reports that questioned whether Valencia let back and captain Jose Gaya had an injury that was serious enough to justify being replaced in the squad by Barcelona’s Alejandro Balde.
“What my heart told me is to keep Gaya but then my mind tells me I should do the best for the team and the best for the team is, there’s no doubt about it, considering Gaya’s injury, to have two fully fit let backs before the World Cup,” Luis Enrique said.
Costa Rica captain Bryan Ruiz was confident the Central Americans will more than make up the numbers at their third straight World Cup and take inspiration from their historic 2014 campaign, having learnt from a disappointing outing in Russia.
Costa Rica only picked up one point four years ago but enjoyed a shock run to the quarter-finals at the previous edition in Brazil, ater topping a ‘Group of Death’ that included former world champions Italy, England and Uruguay.
This year, they are in Group E with 2010 winners Spain, 2014 champions Germany and Asian powerhouses Japan and open their campaign against Spain on Wednesday.
Six members of the Costa Rica squad, all now aged 30 or over, were part of that 2014 campaign, including striker Ruiz, goalkeeper Keylor Navas and forward Joel Campbell - all of whom will be featuring at their third World Cup.
“We’ve been together for 12 years, especially the captains. We are trying to lead our group which is very strong and this strength will make us keep on qualifying for World Cups,” Ruiz, 37, told reporters on Tuesday.
“For us as a squad, our first experience was when we qualified for Brazil 2014. We almost didn’t make it... What we did was to come together in unity so strongly that we all worked together and managed to qualify for at World Cup.
“We are in this together until the end. So in Brazil we achieved great things. There were things that we could have done differently and beter (in Russia). But our team is very strong... The mentality has changed, we stopped thinking small and now we dream big.”