Soccer: Aragones charted Spanish conquest

Spain dropped the tag of World Cup underachievers by winning the 2010 tournament under Vincente del Bosque. Photo / AP

In February, Spain mourned the death of Luis Aragons, when the man who put the smile back on the face of Spanish football lost his battle with leukaemia.

The grief was understandable. Spain had lost more than just a coach. In Aragons, the country had a footballing icon, a point of reference and a man who had come to make both players and public alike believe that, with him at the helm, anything was possible.

Apart from the 1992 Olympics, Spain were without a championship win since lifting the European title in 1964 and were perceived as the world's greatest footballing underachievers.

When Iker Casillas lifted that trophy in 2008, that moniker was finally consigned to history and Casillas still maintains that, of the stack of trophies and titles he's won, that first European crown gives him the most pleasure.

But how did the Spanish side change from a group of talented individuals, with big wages and even bigger egos, to the envy of the footballing world?

As often happens, great triumphs are built on crippling disappointment. Unbeaten in 25 games since Aragons had taken over in 2004, Spain looked in control after taking the lead against an ageing French side in their last-16 match at the 2006 World Cup.

Instead of closing ranks, Spain went all out for a second goal and paid the price when France drew level. Two late goals meant Spain were eliminated and proved again it was not just wine the country bottled.

It was the moment Aragons decided he needed a team with spirit, not just quality. He got tough, and the first player in his sights was captain Ral Gonzlez.

Ral was more than just another player, he was a national institution. Unimpressed with his contribution, both on and off the pitch, he was dropped.

"It caused a huge stir in the country," recalls Spanish full-back, Joan Capdevila. "Every day, all we heard about was the Ral question. It got to the stage where we stopped talking about football or the games. It was only about Ral."

Aragons was unmoved. He considered Ral distant and isolated - not a player who could foster the collective spirit he craved - yet the effect was hardly instantaneous.

With the nation divided, Spain struggled to impose themselves on their Euro 2008 qualifying group.

The Aragons era was on a knife-edge when Spain travelled to Aarhus in October 2007 for a crucial tie with Denmark. A daunting assignment was decided in Spain's favour by a move of sheer brilliance, eventually converted by Sergio Ramos - a moment now known as The Ramos Goal.

In that one move, the message was sent out loud and clear; simple touch possession football - a style that would become known as tiki-taka - was from now the order of the day. It also finally silenced the Ral question, and forged a new spirit in the Spanish squad.

"I remember when we arrived in Austria for the Euros," Capdevila said. "We all went out for dinner and we started to feel like a group. Those are the sort of details that make the team strong at any given moment. I play for you, you play for me."

The elephant in the room, however, was the country's inability to progress beyond the quarter-finals of any competition.

A dour, defensive Italy took Spain to a penalty shootout at Euro 2008 but, from then on, there was no stopping them and 44 years of hurt were ended in the Vienna final against Germany thanks to a superb first-half strike from Torres.

Aragons appeared bullet-proof. He had stated this would be his last tournament in charge but the expectation was he would be offered the chance to lead the country to the 2010 World Cup - an invitation he would undoubtedly have accepted.

Instead, Spain director of football Fernando Hierro took him at his word and replaced Aragons with Vicente del Bosque. It was an unpopular move - a risk every bit as great as Aragons's decision to dispose of Ral - and yet just as necessary.

"If this generation of extraordinary players hadn't kept on winning, I could have gone down in history as the man responsible for that failure," Hierro says.

Del Bosque could hardly have been more different to his predecessor. Where Aragons was a table-thumping extrovert, unafraid to upset even the biggest ego, Del Bosque was softly spoken, mild-mannered and avuncular.

Yet he had taken Real Madrid to two La Liga and two Champions League titles. For the outsider, it looked like nothing had changed. Del Bosque's approach was to fine-tune rather than overhaul.

Spain were runaway favourites in South Africa in 2010 but the self-doubt resurfaced after they were beaten 1-0 by Switzerland in their first game.

The tension before the next match against Honduras was unbearable. Defeat was not an option.

Two goals from Villa calmed the nerves and, from then on, Spain were unstoppable and they conquered the world for the first time, the most eloquent expression of the vision created by Aragons and Del Bosque.

Now, with another World Cup looming, for once Del Bosque's side are entering a major tournament not burdened by the tag of favourites.

The emergence of Germany, Argentina and a Brazilian side fuelled by local fervour all mean that the odds of Spain achieving the unthinkable and becoming the first side to win two European Championships and two World Cups in a row are slim.

But regardless of what happens in Brazil, thanks to the foundations laid by Aragons and Del Bosque, the future should still be red.