AL THUMAMA STADIUM (DOHA): If this was the Group of Death they said it was, then Spain was simply killing it. Either you'd die of boredom, or like Costa Rica, of sheer fatigue in trying to stay in the game without a feel of the ball because the other team, those ball-hogs just wouldn't let you have it. It all depended on which side of the idea you stood.
Spain took the field knowing that they had to start off things well. Anything less than that, especially in the light of Japan's tumbling Germany over in the opening Group E game, a terrific 2-1 win for every underdog, would be making things difficult in what was considered as the World Cup's toughest group at the draw.
Three-nothing up by the first half-hour, if you really wanted to understand the extent of domination (72 % possession) of the Spanish side, you'd have wanted to understand the nature of it first – the number of missed opportunities within that half-hour would have matched the number of passes they stitched together just before. While it looked as if almost for fun, there was method to it. It would leave the Costa Ricans simply too exhausted to react, leave alone try to make a game of it.
After a point, there was a futility to proceedings. First game in a World Cup in the middle of a busy league season, it being more or less settled, more certainly to follow, why were Dani Olmo, Marco Asensio or Ferran Torres needing to do more by running in at the Costa Rican defence rather than preserve themselves especially when room for recovery is at a premium this time at Qatar. Most big teams prepared to go ahead in such a challenge format would probably slip to a lower gear, but this Spain's system begs that question that borders on the existential. For, if you don't keep passing like they do, or finding the tiny final third gaps and tormenting the defences, and then running those few strides into space, then what else do you do? There is no other way to play, no Plan B when it is not needed. You could knock the ball around to wear down the clock, but that is not the end to the means. It is the very means for Spain instead.
Keylor Navas in the Costa Rican goal, must have had that familiar sickening sense of déjà vu when the draw was announced. His days as Real Madrid goalkeeper must have flashed before his eyes all evening here on Wednesday especially for the fifth goal, one which probably had the biggest Spain's imprint. Drawn wide left of his area in the 75th minute by Alvaro Morata, who relinquished his starting post for Asensio, Navas had to scamper back as he saw the ball being played back cross-field to an advancing Gavi. The youngster would show no nerves, striking it first time while on the run with the outside of his foot. It would hit the near post and have it rocket in to leave Navas beaten, and make Gavi Spain's youngest-ever World Cup scorer.
What Barcelona had first espoused and then themselves discarded, Spain's coach Luis Enrique seems adamant to persist with. The high passing game stays in his mind the purest way to play the game. It showed with six Barcelona regulars making the first XI here, and three on the bench. Ferran Torres made most the opportunity, with a penalty after club-mate Jordi Alba over-dramatized his appeal and got away with it. Then in the second half, he showed some nifty skills to add Spain's fourth squeezing a goal between Francisco Calvo and his goalkeeper and then duly signed off for the day, allowing Enrique to try out the array of personnel in his plans. The idea was simple, even if the short numbers were different, the philosophy remained the same. They continued to tap in goals long after the issue had been settled, leaving their coach with no mood to celebrate them. Carlos Soler, second half change for Asensio, got Spain's sixth, Morata, after his customary half-dozen misses banged in the seventh.
All this began with a Dani Olmo miss off a smart release by Pedri as early as the third minute. It would set the tone of things to come – exploiting the holes and finding the man between the lines. Soon after Olmo then kicked things off with an individually done goal after Gavi set him up well. Then Asensio followed, his strike a volley home off a low Alba offering. Torres converted a first-half, first half-hour penalty and Spain's World Cup was underway in truly emphatic fashion. Question is whether it had put you to sleep watching their domination.
