Aitana Bonmatí also danced in front of the goal, just as she had learned. A hook, a second hook, the Swiss didn’t know where to stretch their legs – then followed the conclusion to the decisive 3:1, missed all legs, like a slightly sharper pass it flew into the net from a short distance. That’s how you learn in La Masia the scoring, al estilo Barcain the style of Barcelona, to which Bonmatí is so attached: The 25-year-old names Xavi and Iniesta as her role models – and thanks to performances like the one in Eden Park in Auckland on Saturday, she could soon be on the same level as her heroes of yore.
“La España de Bonmatí” played, dominated and won this round of 16 against Switzerland, wrote El País: The Spain of Bonmatí, the midfielder who not only scored two of the five goals but also set the rhythm for the team. “It’s not just about the goals,” she said afterwards: “I tried to go forward sometimes, sometimes to slow down the game, that was the most important thing.”
However, it was all about the goals. Spain have now scored 15, in four games at this World Cup, which is an impressive number. And yet the round of 16 against Switzerland was chosen as a test because the third group game had called everything into question: Spain lost 4-0 to Japan in Wellington on Monday, despite endless possession and precisely because the game was too slow to chances to come.
“I think it was an accident,” said captain Irene Paredes, looking back on the bankruptcy: “Today we were Spain. We had the ball, but above all we created chances. And we had a different team.”
Suddenly Alexia Putellas, the queen, is just sitting on the bench
Coach Jorge Vilda decided to make some radical changes. For the coach, who had been under great criticism after the Japan game in the middle of the Spanish style crisis, the changes became a triumph: Vilda replaced his first-choice goalkeeper Misa, he brought in winger Alba Redondo from the start, but above all he took La Reinathe queen, on the bench Place: Alexia Putellas came on when the score was already 5-1.
So it’s entirely possible that that game in Auckland was historic for Spanish women’s football in a number of ways. Certainly given that the women’s national team has reached a quarter-finals for the first time ever in a major tournament, which says a lot about the impressive development that Spanish football has come from over the past 15 years, from a country dominated by women’s teams paid little attention to one that is now considered a favorite for the world title.
One against all: Aitana Bonmati scores Spain’s third goal. They cannot stop five Swiss women.
(Photo: Molly Darlington/Reuters)
For Bonmatí, one reason why she followed Xavi and Iniesta was that she had no female role models. Only when she had gone through all the youth teams at FC Barcelona and was just faced with the question of whether she would have to move to the USA as a prospective professional footballer in order to earn money, did Barça form a professional women’s team. Bonmatí stayed where she always wanted to play, just like the core of today’s national team, which is mainly made up of players from Barcelona and Madrid. This is one of the reasons why the Camp Nou for the women’s Clasico against Real Madrid was sold out for the first time last season.
Putellas was also decisively involved in this development story, except for a few years in Valencia also associated with FC Barcelona, whose personal development reached a high point with the election to the world footballer in 2021 before she tore her cruciate ligament and was out for a year until in the preparation for the World Cup. For a decade she led a team known as “España de Putellas”. It was her Spain, the only question is how that will develop in the future.
Bonmatí really enjoys the role as the central character
The personal relationship between the two outstanding midfielders is considered shattered, even though they both support the association’s criticism of the “Las 15”, the group of players who last autumn complained about insufficient support and threatened a World Cup boycott. Bonmatí realized in time that not taking part in the tournament would damage her personal career. Rightly so, because the changing of the guard that was already seen against Switzerland is now looming.
Putellas and Bonmatí together on the field could be an ingenious combination, but as the tournament progressed it led to more static in the game than combinations as both more or less subtly claim the role of boss. Bonmatí was cryptic after the game: “I felt very comfortable on the field today, a lot has to come together for something like that.”
You could tell she was enjoying the role as the central character. On the field, because she had the freedom to do hooks anywhere, just like in front of her goals: “That’s what happens when you’re completely in the flow,” said Bonmatí, who later stayed seated at the press conference despite the players of the game usually leave after the first few minutes when they’ve done their part.
But Bonmatí stayed. Question after question to her trainer sounded as if she would prefer to answer them all herself. She just flinched once. When Vilda was asked if Bonmatí wasn’t guaranteed to be the next world player, she briefly buried her head in her hands. In a way, the question was only logical after apparently taking on Putella’s role as queen. The question is when the official coronation will follow – an appointment in Sydney would be an option in the near future.