Season’s pain on Spain stars won’t affect reign

SPAIN COACH Vicente del Bosque is concerned a long season may have taken a physical toll on his players but believes there is enough time for them to get in shape before the World Cup starts next month.

Most of the world and European champions’ squad will be drawn from Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid and the three clubs were involved in a tense fight for the La Liga title that was only decided on the final day.

Real and Atletico are also through to tonight’s Champions League final and Del Bosque said both positives and negatives could be drawn from the situation.

“There is a bit of concern about the condition of the players, to see what shape they are in,” Del Bosque said in an interview published on the official Spain website (www.sefutbol.com) yesterday.

“Around a third of the players in the squad will play this (Champions League) final,” he added.

“The excitement that generates and being able to say we are playing this final I think are very important.

“In that sense, I think what we lose on the one hand we gain on the other.”

Del Bosque is due to announce his final World Cup squad tomorrow and some of the players will meet up in Madrid on Monday before being joined on June 2 by those participating in the Champions League final.

“I am not a great fan of long training camps and I think we have enough time to prepare for the World Cup in the best possible way,” Del Bosque said.

“You can never expect all the players to turn up in perfect shape and it’s the same for all the national teams.” – Reuters