Informe Robinson: Eurocopa 2008

A half an hour long ‘Robinson Report’ aired on Canal+ last Thursday. It looked at Spain’s Euro triumph from the day the squad arrived in Austria (receiving a warm reception fom everybody at their headquarters), to the final versus Germany in Vienna. The programme mixed interviews with Cesc Fabregas, Fernando Torres, Pepe Reina, Iker Casillas, Iniesta, Xavi, Marchena, Luis Aragones, Villa, Sergio Ramos, Puyol, Xabi Alonso, Senna, Capdevila, Cazorla… with footage from the Championships.

Parts 2 and 3 as well as a complete transcript in english are below the cut. Big thanks to Soarne for the translation!

The Transcript

00:01 Michael Robinson: “For many years to come, 2008 will always be remembered as the year Spain won the Eurocup. Already the time of the happiness has passed and also the euphoria and it’s now time for the reflection, so we have spoken with all the players and have asked them about all their secrets of that summer”

00:21 (voice over) Innsbruck Airport, Austria on June 5. In the plane coming into land arrives the Spanish expedition in a new attempt to win a big tournament: Eurocup 2008. This time the group is different: it is the consequence of having felt doubted in excess, but the adversity joins, and the result is just that:
this time they are a group, a team.

0:44 Pepe: “During the qualifiers, where the team suffered very difficult moments, where the people and the environment were a little excessive and unjust in their criticism, the group became as a result more united.

[Images of newspaper's covers with headers like "La roja nos sonroja" (the red shame us) or "Luis, out"]

1:03 Iker: “we remember the day against Sweden, against Ireland…we received a tremendous, tremendous bashing … and specially the criticism that Luis received was unfair.

1:15 Iniesta: “More than the WC, what really gave us the success in Eurocup was the hard qualifier we had”

[newspapers covers comparing their failures with the success of the Basket NT, world Champions, a team that was very united]

1:23 Torres: “I believe that it was what we were lacking: to be indeed a team hard to win … this union of the team, of the trainer, of the players, of the staff of la selección … I believe that made us a family.”

1:38 (voice over) Spain was lodging at Neustift, a small locality of the Austrian Tirol. The city receives them with a surprising nice welcome.

1:45 Xavi “when we got there, we went to visit the city, well city, it was an small village…very beautiful, with amazing landscapes…the reception was incredible”

1:58 Marchena “…Especially a group of children chanting the “Veo,veo” in Spanish, that I think is a difficult thing for to learn for children and it was something that impressed me.”

2:16 Cesc “…And they gave us a cross as a lucky symbol and on the last seat of the bus the cross was hung and there it was until the end…I don’t know if it was because of it or not, the truth is that there it remained, and if it was a lucky symbol, the truth is that it worked.”

2:38 (voice over) 5 days left for the first game. The players seem to enjoy this village. Only a problem is the most voracious doctor Candel’s diet. They are going to take revenge nicknaming him:

Iniesta: “Doctor Hunger”.
Marchena: “Doctor Hunger, exactly. Well, but it was in a cheerful tone. He’s so meticulous in his job”
Doctor: “Evidently, you have to be a bit restrictive with the excesses”
Iniesta: “He made us follow it strictly. But well…”
Doctor: “Some of them said that they were feeling hunger…from there the reason of the nickname”. “And my staff laughed a lot with them, because some of them were like ‘hey, we are hungry and we eat up everything we find around’”

3:25 (voice over) The first match is against Russia on 10 June.

Luis: “In this kind of tournaments, the first match indicates how you are going to perform”

Xavi: “From the beginning, the feeling was very good…with or without the ball…everything was working”

Torres: “You could see a team, a team that went together to do the pressing. You start to see that the play is working and that something can happen…”

3:56 Torres: “sometimes we strikers are so egoists and only think about scoring, but not this time, this time was the moment to win as a team” [images of Torres not trying to score but passing the ball to Villa, in a better position to score. It was the first goal against Russia]

4:08 Xavi “At every moment the coach wanted us to have the ball, and in that sense, almost in every match, Spain dominated their rivals”. “When you have the ball, the rival can’t attack”

Luis: “The owner of the ball is the owner of the game…then if I’m the owner of the ball possesion, I’m the owner of the counter attack, of the play, of everything.

4:44 Villa “For me it was one of the happiest days of my life. It was the start of the tournament, we were playing against Russia, who we knew was going to be a tough rival…and we won 4-1 and I scored 3 goals, that’s not easy”

4:58 Luis “With the technical skills Spain has, It can kill you with a counter attack”

5:06 Cesc “…the best way to score a goal, the start of a Eurocup and on top of that, a header, I think it was the first goal I scored with my head, haha.

5:19 Torres: “That was the day when we realized that playing good football we could win. Many times that’s not enough but there we looked at each other and we could picture us being capable of achieve everything.”

5:30 (voice over) Every good story is acompained by a good soundtrack…and in this case the right-back was in charge.

Sergio: “I brought my music to motivate us before the matches”

5:44 Puyol: “…At the bus, latter at the dressing room…and it’s true that every thing we did it worked to join us more and more”

5:55 Sergio “There was flamenco, reggaeton, cumbias, bachatas…”

6:02: Xabi “At the end it was a bit repetitive, but it was a part of the routine”

Xavi: “There were days that we were a bit tired and told him ‘but play another one..Don’t you have more music?’

6:12 Sergio “For those who likes flamenco, we like José Mercé, he’s a ‘monster’, not only for me, for Reina, who likes flamenco a lot, too”

Pepe: “At the end it was like a superstition…”

Villa: “It’s not that it makes us win or loose, but it’s true that there it reflected the good atmosphere that were between us and that was on the air at the bus also. Sometimes we started singing a bit on the bus…”

Senna “…and everybody was singing Aire” [Aire de José Mercé: Aire, aire (Air, Air) Aire, falta (lacking of air) Aire, nuevo (a new air) Aire, fresco (a fresh air)]

6:55 (voice over) Again in Innsbruck. Spain plays against Sweden. If they win, they can consider qualified for quarter finals.

Torres: “It was an strategy play and it worked perfectly”. “It’s a pleasure to score this kind of goals, because you see that the things you have been working during the week, the team strategy works”

[Images of Ibrahimovic goal] Sergio: “Those are moments that you can’t forget, because in a WC, Euro… all the matches are decided by small details and they remain in your memory. I remember Ibrahimovic’s goal: I doubted for a moment to go to the ground for the ball or not..”

7:40 (voice over) The match arrives draw to the last minute. Luis shout something to Villa: ‘Villa, Villa, there, in the middle and from there you run…’

Capdevila: “Well, I made a perfect pass (laughs)” [Villa scores]

8:14 Cesc: “It was the worst goal ocassion we had and David controlled the ball and scored one of the goals of the tournament”

Villa: “You have to think in tenths of a second. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. It was the last minute and it worked”

8:36 (voice over) Villa doesn’t know yet, but this will be his last goal. Nobody is going to surpass him [as top scorer]. Spain qualified.

8:45 At the hotel, spontaneously there is a nightly reunion place: the room of one of the players.

8:55 Cazorla “Joan’s room. It was the biggest and there all of us reunited after the match, to talk, play cards, watch tv, …

9:04 Capdevila: “The card games were intense, because nobody wanted to lose”

9: Senna: …there at Joan Capdevila’s room. What a character!”

Joan: …and I was the one who lost the most, but that’s life, haha”

9:28 [3 members of the staff. The one who talks is the physio] “Our working place was near to the room where a big number of the players reunited”

Iker: “Félix, the (one in charge of the kit) told us that in the more than 20 years he had been working with the team, he never saw before 14 player reunited after the match”

9:49 (the Physio again) “We always talked about how that reminded us of what people said about what happened at with the Basketball NT”.

Torres: “That room was just above mine and they didn’t let me sleep”

Senna: “sometimes I had to take sleeping pills because of the noise there was there”

10:02 (voice over) Spain can take the 3rd match against Greece in Salzburg in a more relaxed way.

Next part until the beginning of Italy penalties:

10:02 voice over) Spain can take the 3rd match against Greece in Salzburg in a more relaxed way. Luis give rest to 9 players from the starting XI.

Xabi “Those who played less, also contributed a lot and have the same merit than those who played more minutes”

10:27 Torres “That was the secret, even we wanted the players who had played less to play, that they had minutes of play because they deserved it too”.

10:32 Greece took advantage and scored first, but the team turned the situation around thanks to the first goals with the NT of Rubén de la Red and Güiza. Spain has reached quarter finals winning their 3 group stage matches. To each of those matches followed a reception at the hotel.

10:52 Senna: “When we arrived to the hotel at 3 or 4 am, everybody was there waiting for us, aplauding us.”

11:00 Cazorla “Didn’t matter at what time we arrived, they were always there, waiting for us, aplauding, chanting.”

Cesc: “waiters…all the people working at the hotel waited for us, aplauding us, hugging us…the truth is that we always felt the caring of the people and that was so beautiful”

11:19 (voice over) First phase is over and Spain know that the way to the final it will be full of obstacles. At the horizon Holland is waiting, who has been first at the group of death. France is out. But before, they have to confront the feared obstacle of quarter finals and they have to play against the World Champion: Italy.

11:38 Luis “As everybody had talked so much about Spain not being able to surpass quarters, etc, me and the captains did an important work towards the rest of the players.”

11:54 Luis “Come on, let’s make them run…with ball rhrythm”

Iker: “Let’s enjoy like Pepe says..let’s enjoy this” “Come on, remember how many years we have spent to get to this moment” “2 years for this”.

12:09 Doctor Candel “It was a match that we had been preparing for a week. In case that it was againts Italy, we thought it was going to be a very long match. We knew the temperature, how much hydratation it was needed…”

12:25 Puyol “One thing I remember is how Sergio Ramos helped us a lot with Luca Toni, a player so strong physically and almost impossible to stop on the air”

12:35 Senna “What surprised me was the ball that slipped from Buffon’s hands. [mid-distance shot by Senna] and I thought that the ball was going in … and if that ball would have entered, oof”

12:50 Iker “Perhaps the clearer goal ocassion they had was the one of Camoranesi”

13:05 (voice over) After 90 minutes there are no goals. Luis, who has made some changes, motivates the players who just entered on the pitch. One of them will have the best goal ocassion at the end of the extra time.

Cazorla: “If I had seen him…but it’s tenths of a second and I did what I thought it was better”

13:32 Iker “When you see that it’s only 1 minute and a half left and Villa doesn’t arrive to get the ball…there are a lot of things in your mind”

13:38 (voice over) There is no more time, the history will need to be changed from the penalty spot.

Xavi: “It was all or nothing, all those terrible years, that quarter finals curse Spain had…and there we were just at the key moment to pass over that barrier.”

13:52 (voice over) Luis knew who’s going to shoot and the order.

14:02 Güiza “He went one by one to the players who were going to shoot and when he got to me I was very nervous… It’s normal, it was my first time with the NT, in a Eurocup”

Luis “I tried to convince him that he was going to score. He was the one who was a little reluctant to shoot. I don’t know why.”

14:35 Cesc “I thought to myself that the 5th one was the decisive penalty and It was going to be me”

14:40 (voice over) Otxotorena, the goalkeeper’s trainer, talks with Casillas. He has studied the way the Italians shot.

Iker: “…and I told him ‘look, I don’t even want to know it, I will do what I feel I have to do at every moment”

(voice over) Goalkeeper Reina tries to help the ones he thinks that would need it.

Cazorla “Yes, Pepe came to me because I’m new. We are friends and he came to give me confidence. and it was when he said ‘If it was me, I would shoot to the center, because the keeper is going to go to the sides” [Pepe and Santi played together in Villarreal]

15:18 Luis orders to shoot first to his best specialist: David Villa [images of the penalty, he scores]. Casillas go in between to posts for the first time.

15:40 Iker: “I remember that when Grosso shot and I saw that he did to the same side I went, I thought to myself that I was going to stop it, but he shot so well, so adjusted, that I couldn’t”

(voice over) The next is Cazorla, who thinks about his friend Pepe’s advice, but finally he only listen to himself.

Cazorla “I had a clear idea of how I was going to shoot. And when you score, it’s like a heavy weight was removed from off of you”

16:16 (voice over) Daniele de Rossi put the ball on the penalty spot

Iker: “Last year he failed a penalty, he shot high. I thought that him being right, he would launch to his natural side. That is what I thought at that moment”

“Truth is that he shot strong, to half height and I just did the same launch to half height…so the photo looks good”

16:38 Senna “I was prepared to shoot the penalty. I already knew what side I was going to launch too and luckily I managed to score and I could help Spain.”

16:51 Iker “There I picked the side he shot to, but I don’t launch convinced that I can stop it” (3rd penalty. Italy scores)

Spain takes advantege, Dani Güiza, who has played for Jerez, Recre, Getafe or Mallorca, never have shot a so important before [Dani fails]

Iker “There was such despair on his face and I saw a few tears in his eyes also…”

Güiza: “The world falls on me at that moment…bad luck, but…Iker called me and said that he was there to stop the next”

17:28 Iker “After all this time…what a stupid thing I told him in that moment, but oh well…”

(voice over) Di Natale doesn’t know that Casillas has a promise to keep. [Iker stops di Natale shot].

17:41 (voice over) Cesc Fàbregas, just 21 years old, had imagine this moment. If he scores, the fatal myth would be over.

Cesc: “It was the moment of most responsability in my entire life. You have a whole country behind you and waiting that after 5 seconds you score a goal … To fail that penalty and the possibility that because of that, losing the match, I would have been for me…in my head…well, I don’t want to think about that”

“I saw it so clearly, that he was launching himself to the side before, so I changed it and thank God…Goal!”

18:35 Xavi “Many nerves, many tension, but finally by fortune, the coin fell to our side”

18:50 Iker “I lifted my arms and It was such a liberation. I told myself … finally, we have done it!” [celebration, with a great moment: Senna and Xabi comforting Güiza, who's crying because of his miss]

19:35 (voice over) Spain already knows that Holland won’t be their rivals, but Russia.

Iker: “When we saw the fantastic way Russia had won Holland, we thought ‘this is not going to be like in the group stage”

19:51 Luis “Playing a team you have beaten at the group stages it has its problems, it’s complicated. And that was another complicated moment, It was necessary to convince the players to not be overconfident, given the result of the first match”

20:07 Puyol “Luis’ speech just before the semifinal it has been the best one I have received from a coach in my life”

20:14 Xabi: “He forgot a bit the tactical speech and went more to the emotional side and it was so moving”

20:21 Villa “Be calmed, that one is not the most dangerous, the true danger will be Pavluchenko…all of us burst out laughing because Arshavin was in really great form”

20:28 Iker “Was he saying that Arshavin was not the good one? …but Arshavin is a phenomenal player!”

20:33 Luis “Arshavin is really fast, he has an impressive counter attack…but there was another Russian player, Pavluchenko, that impressed me, he’s phenomenal”

20:42 Puyol “We went out from that speech laughing”

20:47 Iniesta “The coach had some interesting points”

20:51 (voice over) Only 90 minutes left to know if Aragonés’ intention has been successful. On the pitch of the former Prater, 11 players focus to not slip on the next step.

21:02 (Players shouting on the tunnel before going out on the pitch: c’mon, c’mon team … We have to take advantage of this opportunity!)

21.09 (voice over) The match is intense. Pavluchenko confirms Luis’ fears [almost goal by Pavluchenko, Iker touch the ball with the tips of his fingers, if not, it would have gone in]

21:18 (voice over) A bit later Villa prepares to shoot a free kick … something’s broken…and to the 7, it hurts him inside also.

21:31 Villa “A strain behind … and I already know that I would need to retire from the pitch and that I can’t play in the final.”

21:38 (voice over) Doesn’t matter what happens to the team, Villa knows that for him this is the last moment playing at the Eurocopa.

21:45 [physio #1] “5 minutes since he felt the strain until we told him to
lay on the ground to attend him and make the change … He was 2 minutes like
floating …”

[physio #1] “He didn’t want, He didn’t want to realize, to accept it…”

[physio #1] “…but we had to tell him”

22:02 (voice over) At the 2nd half, under the rain, Spain unleashed its storm”

22:07 Iniesta “…and after the dribbling, I did that cross to the box, because well, you are always with your head looking down but you see what is moving in front of you…” [Iniesta, pass to Xavi and first goal]

22:35 Xavi “Well, for me, I think it was the most magical moment I have lived in my career…to score that goal”

22:42 Villa “When I was absolutely down, at the shower and so sad, the ‘utillero’ came and told me that Xavi had scored the 1-0 and I quickly finished the shower and went out to watch the rest of the match”

22:55 Xavi “and from that moment [the first goal], at the 2nd half, the team played wonderfully…They probably went down mentally”

23:02 Iker “The team started touching, touching, touching…they exhausted them so much, that honestly, I think the 2nd half was a walk for us”

23:18 Xabi “You was giving the ball, you had confidence in them, they were returning the ball, you could see there were many different alternatives…”

Senna “and on top of that, to play with these people, ‘los jugones’ is so easy because they never lost any ball”

23:31 Cesc “Andrés told me: go, go”

Iniesta “…and I was waiting for him to go…”

Cesc “I know that I’m not the fastest player in the world, but at that moment I felt I was strong, I felt I was quick…and then there was Silva too, waiting for me and he defined the play like the crack he is” [2nd goal Silva, pass by Cesc]

23.50 Sergio “The emotion, that happy faces, not only the players, but the suporters, that were there to our side in that beautiful moment…it was unforgettable for us and to look at people’s eyes and see they were so bright of happiness…

24:17 (voice over) The final against Germany is a generational appointment for millions of supporters, whom already had abandoned completely the idea of seeing their NT win, and for the players, whom were starting to feel that something special could happen…

24:28 Xavi “I remember being talking with Marchena and saying that this was our moment, that we couldn’t lose this chance.

Marchena “We talked about it, we saw that the people were in good condition, that the age of the group was ideal…

24:42 Xavi “and I remember one sentence of Luis Aragonés: ‘la final ya no se juega, la final se gana’ (At this point, we are not going to play the final, we are going to win the final)”

24:47 (voice over) To be sure this to happen, that day Luis talked to the player who was closer to him. [Luis Aragonés was Atlético de Madrid's coach who brought Fernando Torres to play with the A team at 17]

24:58 Torres “yes, it’s true that he told me that I was going to score 2″

Luis “and I told him that he was going to score…but I said 2″

“And he kissed you?” Torres: “Yes, he already had done that when we were at Atlético de Madrid”

25:12 Luis “and I made him a sign on his forehead and kissed him on his forehead…I had done this already at Atlético de Madrid and he scored”

Torres “In important championships like this, everybody remember the players of the final…I remember the goals scored at the finals…

25:28 Villa “Well, I’m not hypocrite and honestly I would have wanted to be on the pitch, but I’m proud of this moment I lived on the bench”

25:47 Iker “I had fear of the deadball shots [free kicks, corners]. We had a team of dwarfs, so to speak…because take a look: Cazorla, Xavi, Silva, Cesc…so you think ‘careful with this kind of shots because they are 190cm tall”

26:03 Marchena “They started very strong, so concentrated on the match and we didn’t played the first minutes like we used to play the previous matches in this tournament”

26:14 Iker “Yes, it’s true that our starting was unsure and that more than one among us thought (we talked about that after the match) … I thought during the first minutes that they were going to score 2 in that first 15 minutes”

26:26 (voice over) But Spain change…with Torres at the front

Torres “I thought that I was not going to reach that ball to shoot…he was 2 heads taller than me and I don’t know how I managed to shoot that ball over him”

26:40 (voice over) In the future it will be told that at the clock of the Ernsthapel Stadium it was 21:18″ [Torres scores]

28:52 Iker “…and I listen goal coming from the seats…because from my perspective I can’t see the ball going between the posts and when I see that it’s in, so close to the post, I say ‘fuck, we have scored!’

27:03 Torres “If he would have given one step to the right, the ball would have been to the keeper…I don’t know, maybe he doesn’t have a good understanding with Lehman at that moment or he’s overconfident…but that tenth of a second is what gave me the advantage and I couldn’t go to the other side and shoot over the keeper, that was the only option. Perhaps the ‘rosca’ would have been out with the field dry, but the ball goes slipping and ended in, very near to the post, and well, the feeling was amazing”

27:31 (voice over) Germany can’t accept what is happening. One player seems very nervous.

27:38 Capdevila “Yes, specially Ballack. He has a big pressure in his life to win a championship and he looked a bit nervous, protesting [to the referee] for everything, fighting with everybody…”

27:48 Puyol: “Everyone tries to do his job, it was a very intense moment and well, there are little frictions always”

27:56 [physio #1] “And Ballack there did something silly, near the bench where we were, there was a bit of trouble and then we thought ‘it’s our chance’ and we went out from the bench … 2 minutes, 3 minutes…well, we too put our grain”

28:10 Cesc “We were so nervous, the 4th referee told us to sit down, and I was like ‘how are we going to sit…we are on the verge of being European Champions!”

28:38 Torres “You feel like when you are on the sofa and you were watching the others, the other NT being Champions and you could see those players celebrating with their countries’ flag, surrounded by people and you was dreaming that some day you would be the one living that moment … and there it was”

28:58 Iker “More than a father, maybe bacause of the age, he has been our grandfather…but grandfather with much caring. He was one of the few people that always believed in us”

29:12 Cesc “I take my hat off to him and congratulate him…and the way we lifted him…”

29:18 Luis “Now that everything has finished, I feel proud to say what a TEAM, never better say”

Cesc “He’s a man that has what is needed and that not everybody has…and he finally did it” [Cesc mean that Aragonés remained cool, he was strong and did what he thought was better, selecting the players he thought were the best to achieve something, to build a true team, and he didn't surrender to the pressure and the critics of the press and the whole 'raúl selección' campaign]

29:31 Iker “There is one moment when I talk to Platini and he says: ‘I was the cause of Spain’s loss, scoring that goal to a Spanish goalkeeper, and after 24 years, I return the Cup to Spain and giving it to a Spanish goalkeeper…then I felt a bit more protagonist and I said I want to raise the Cup as high as possible and I remember saying to Michel Platini I’m going to climb here and then you can give me the Cup. He said ok be careful or you are going to fall and when I climbed he said only one minute and down, I don’t want you to fall”

30:17 Luis “At these kind of events you wouldn’t see me so near the Cup…I said: the job has been done well, and that’s all, It’s over…The only thing I’m responsible is that I managed to convince them to believe me” [He means when he told them that they were the team playing the best football and that they were going to win]

30:33 “Spain NT has learned to win, has learned to compete and that is going to be of an impressive value for Del Bosque, who’s going to be the next coach”

30:46 Iker “I never thought in my life that I could win something with the senior NT”

30:55 Torres “…and to be a part of the heart of the people and of Spain’s history forever”

31:00 Xavi “This feeling of winning with your NT is unsurpassable, indescribable”

31:10 Iker “The feeling of giving such a happiness to an entire country is different” [He mean different from winning with your club, opossed to winning with the NT]

Related posts:

1. UEFA Team of 2008
2. Welcome Back Eduardo!
3. UEFA TEAM of 2008 Announced
4. Cesc Fabregas in El Pais
5. Cesc gets told off by Iker