Soccer World Cup 2015 / Spain

This article covers the Spanish women's national soccer team at the 2015 Women's World Cup in Canada . Spain took part in the World Cup finals for the first time. For the Spanish women this is the first intercontinental tournament. Without a win, the Spaniards were eliminated as the bottom group and the only European team after the preliminary round. Since the World Cup also serves the European teams as a qualification for the soccer tournament at the 2016 Olympic Games , for which the three best European teams from the World Cup qualify, Spain will also miss the Olympic Games.

qualification

Spain met in the European qualifying Group 2 in Italy , Romania , Czech Republic , Estonia and Macedonia . Spain were the only team to start with five home games. Only in the fourth game they had to accept two goals after a 3-0 lead. A preliminary decision was made in the first away game when they reached a goalless draw with their direct rivals Italy after they had won the home game 2-0. With the 2-0 win in Romania on the penultimate match day, they were therefore already qualified for the finals through a direct comparison. In the last game, which was also won by a goal in stoppage time, a few players who had played little before were used. Italy failed in the playoff final of the best runners-up in the group because of the Dutch women , who qualified for the first time.

Pl.	country	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points
1.	Spain Spain	10	9	1	0	042: 200	+40	28
2.	Italy Italy	10	8th	1	1	048: 500	+43	25th
3.	Romania Romania	10	4th	2	4th	020: 800	+12	14th
4th	Czech Republic Czech Republic	10	4th	2	4th	021:180	+3	14th
5.	Estonia Estonia	10	1	1	8th	005:350	−30	04th
6th	North Macedonia North Macedonia	10	0	1	9	006:740	−68	01

Spain - Estonia on October 27, 2013 in Las Rozas de Madrid	06: 0 (3: 0)
1-0, 4-0 Sonia (14th, 58th / penalty), 2-0 Torrejón (28th), 3-0 Hermoso (45th), 5-0 Natalia (72nd), 6-0 Paredes ( 81.)
Spain - Italy on October 31, 2013 in Las Rozas de Madrid	02: 0 (1: 0)
1-0 Sonia (37th), 2-0 Natalia (56th)
Spain - Romania on November 23, 2013 in Aranjuez	01: 0 (1: 0)
1: 0 Ruth (40th)
Spain - Czech Republic on November 27, 2013 in Fuenlabrada	03: 2 (2: 0)
1: 0, 2: 0 Sonia (15th, 45 + 1.), 3: 0 Corredera (78th), 3: 1 L. Martínková (80th), 3: 2 Voňková (82nd)
Spain - Macedonia on February 13, 2014 in Logroño	12: 0 (4: 0)
1: 0, 9: 0 Verónica Boquete (4th, 72nd), 2: 0, 5: 0 Sonia (11th, 46th), 3: 0, 8: 0 Hermoso (26th, 70th), 4th : 0 Losada (44th), 6: 0, 7: 0, 10: 0, 11: 0, 12: 0 Natalia (58th, 64th, 83rd, 90 + 2nd, 90 + 3rd)
Italy - Spain on April 5, 2014 in Vicenza	00-0
Macedonia - Spain on April 10, 2014 in Skopje	00:10 (0: 5)
0: 1, 0: 2, 0: 6 Sonia (29th, 30th, 59th), 0: 3 Torrejón (33rd), 0: 4 Natalia (45th), 0: 5, 0: 9, 0 : 10 Hermoso (45 + 1., 65., 73.), 0: 7, 0: 8 Calderón (62., 64.)
Estonia - Spain on May 8, 2014 in Tallinn	00: 5 (0: 3)
0: 1, 0: 4 Losada (21st, 59th), 0: 2, 0: 3 Natalia (32nd, 35th), 0: 5 Hermoso (63rd)
Romania - Spain on September 13, 2014 in Iași	00: 2 (0: 1)
0: 1, 0: 2 Natalia (28th, 59th)
Czech Republic - Spain on September 17, 2014 in Písek	00: 1 (0: 0)
0: 1 Verónica Boquete (90 + 1.)

Overall, sat Ignacio Quereda , longest acting coach, a 23 players. Only Natalia , Sonia Bermúdez , Jennifer Hermoso and Irene Paredes were used in all ten games. The best goalscorers were Natalia (12 goals), Sonia Bermúdez (10) and Jennifer Hermoso (7).

The team

Contingent

On April 23, 2015, a provisional squad with 35 players was named (players marked in bold were also in the 2013 European Championship squad , but players in italics were not used). The final squad of 23 players (including three goalkeepers), which must be communicated to the FIFA general secretariat at least ten working days before the opening match, was announced on May 12th.

No.	Player	birth date	society	Country games	Country goals	World Cup 2015
						Sp.
goal
13	Dolores Gallardo	06/10/1993	Atlético Madrid	7th	0	0	0	0	0	0
1	Ainhoa Tirapu	09/04/1984	Athletic Bilbao	45	0	3	0	0	0	0
23	Sandra Paños	11/04/1992	Levant UD	3	0	0	0	0	0	0
Defense
16	Ivana Andrés	07/13/1994	Valencia CF	2	0	0	0	0	0	0
5	Ruth García	03/26/1987	FC Barcelona ^M	46	3	1	0	0	0
17th	Elisabet Ibarra	06/29/1981	Athletic Bilbao	44	2	0	0	0	0	0
3	Leire Landa	December 19, 1986	FC Barcelona ^M	23	0	3	0	1	0	0
2	Celia Jiménez	06/20/1995	United States Alabama Crimson Tide	6th	0	3	0	1	0	0
20th	Irene Paredes	07/04/1991	Athletic Bilbao	25th	1	3	0	0	0	0
4th	Melanie Serrano Perez	10/12/1989	FC Barcelona ^M	9	0	0	0	0	0	0
18th	Marta Torrejon	02/27/1990	FC Barcelona ^M	52	7th	3	0	0	0	0
midfield
9	Verónica Boquete (C)	04/02/1987	Germany 1. FFC Frankfurt ^C	51	30th	3	1	0	0	0
12	Marta Corredera	08/08/1991	FC Barcelona ^M	28	2	3	0	0	0	0
10	Jennifer Hermoso	05/09/1990	FC Barcelona ^M	25th	11	1	0	0	0	0
15th	Silvia Meseguer	03/12/1989	Atlético Madrid	36	4th	1	0	0	0	0
21st	Alexia Putellas	02/04/1994	FC Barcelona ^M	26th	4th	3	0	0	0	0
22nd	Amanda Sampedro	06/26/1993	Atlético Madrid	4th	0	0	0	0	0	0
6th	Virginia Torrecilla	09/04/1994	FC Barcelona ^M	16	0	2	0	1	0	0
attack
8th	Sonia	11/18/1984	FC Barcelona ^M	55	28	3	0	0	0	0
11	Priscila Borja	April 28, 1985	Atlético Madrid	24	6th	2	0	0	0	0
14th	Vicky Losada	08/08/1991	England Arsenal LFC	26th	4th	3	1	0	0	0
19th	Erika Vázquez	02/16/1983	Athletic Bilbao	46	7th	0	1	0	0	0
7th	Natalia Pablos	October 15, 1985	England Arsenal LFC	24	19th	3	0	0	0	0
Coaching staff
	Ignacio Quereda	07/24/1950	Trainer			3

↑ Numbers according to the FIFA squad list (published on May 28, 2015)
↑ As of April 24, 2015 (C = Champions League winner , M = Champion of the 2014/15 season, the English league runs from spring to autumn and is interrupted for the World Cup.)
↑ ^a ^b Status: June 17, 2015

Players who were only in the preliminary roster

No.	Player	birth date	society	Country games	Country goals
goal
	Sara Serrat	09/15/1995	Sporting Huelva ^P	3	0
	Esther Sullastres	03/20/1993	CD Transportes Alcaine	0	0
Defense
	Ane Bergara	02/03/1987	Real Sociedad San Sebastian	3	0
	Miriam Diéguez	05/04/1986	FC Barcelona ^M	29	0
midfield
	Nagore Calderón	06/02/1993	Atlético Madrid	10	2
	Irene del Río	10/06/1991	Oviedo Moderno CF	0	0
	Carolina Férez	06/26/1991	Valencia CF	0	0
	Débora Garcia	10/17/1989	Atlético Madrid	4th	0
	Maitane López	03/13/1995	UD Collerense	0	0
	Paula Nicart	09/08/1994	Valencia CF	0	0
attack
	Adriana Martín	11/07/1986	Levant UD	35	26th
	Maria Paz Villas	02/01/1988	Valencia CF	7th	12

↑ As of April 24, 2015

preparation

A training camp took place in the Ciudad del Fútbol from January 12th to 15th. A friendly against Austria followed on February 10th in San Pedro del Pinatar , which ended 2-2. A day later, Belgium was defeated 2-1 at the same place. On March 3 (2: 2) and March 5, 2015 (0: 0), the Spaniards played against New Zealand in Guadalajara and La Roda, and for the first time against a team from another confederation. On April 8, a friendly against Ireland was won 1-0 in Gijón . After the final of the Spanish Women's Cup from May 20 to 24, the team first played a training camp in the Ciudad del Fútbol in Las Rozas and then went to Murcia , where they trained until June 2. On June 5, the team flew to Montreal .

Games at the World Cup

Ottawa

Montreal

Venues

When the groups were drawn, the Spanish women were not seeded and were drawn into group E with South American champions Brazil. As further opponents, newcomers to the World Cup, Costa Rica and South Korea, were drawn. Spain had not previously played against any of these teams. Spain and South Korea had to deal with the smallest distance between the two preliminary round venues. There are only about 200 km between the two stadiums.

In the first game against Costa Rica, the Spaniards took the lead in the 13th minute through Vicky Losada . The equalizer fell in the euphoria about the Spain's first World Cup goal. After that, Spain pushed for the winning goal, but were too much in love with the ball to shoot it into the goal. A 1-0 defeat against Brazil followed, but the South American champions couldn't convince. In the last game against South Korea, which had not yet won a World Cup, the Spaniards took a 1-0 lead through Verónica Boquete and would have qualified for the knockout round as second in the group. In the second half they conceded two goals and were eliminated from the bottom of the group.

Pl.	country	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points
1.	Brazil Brazil	3	3	0	0	004-000	+4	09
2.	Korea South South Korea	3	1	1	1	004: 500	−1	04th
3.	Costa Rica Costa Rica	3	0	2	1	003: 400	−1	02
4th	Spain Spain	3	0	1	2	002: 400	−2	01

Tue., June 9, 2015, in Montreal
Spain	-	Costa Rica	1: 1 (1: 1)
Sat. June 13, 2015, in Montreal
Brazil	-	Spain	1: 0 (1: 0)
Wed. June 17, 2015, in Ottawa
South Korea	-	Spain	2: 1 (0: 1)

After the world championship

Before the trip home, the team published a letter signed by all 23 players in which the preparation was sharply criticized and the coach's replacement was requested.