Telecinco film lifts the lid on Spain soccer team's secrets
Euro 2008 coach Aragonés shown telling players to procure a red card for “the blond one” Schweinsteiger
Many of the noble sporting methods Spain has utilized to climb to the top of the soccer world are well-documented, but a new documentary, ¡Campeones! La Roja, reveals behind-the-scenes footage recorded over a two-year period.
The 90-minute feature, to be aired on Telecinco at 4pm on Saturday, was created by film maker José Luis López-Linares and offers a unique view of the Spanish soccer team from just before the 2008 European Championships up to the end of the successful 2010 World Cup campaign.
One of the most interesting aspects of the documentary, says López-Linares, is watching how "two completely different people could lead the team to victory," a study of the management styles of the combustible Luis Aragonés, who led Spain to the Euro 2008 title, and the quiet and avuncular Vicente del Bosque, architect of the 2010 triumph.
In one scene showing a tactical meeting, Aragonés is shown, glint in eye, telling his players to target Germany midfielder Sebastian Schweinsteiger: "The blond one, with the funny name, he blows up at anything..."
In a pitch-side extract, the veteran tub-thumper is almost incandescent as he delivers a diatribe telling his players that "nobody remembers the runners-up."
The film also features interviews with all of the Spain team, never-before seen match footage from the 15 to 20 cameras Fifa placed in each stadium and locker-room scenes provided by the Spanish Football Federation.
