The spirit of Guatemala 20 years later 

"What are they celebrating, if we're going to beat them in the final? Javier Lozano approached the ear of his assistant Juan José Rodríguez Navia, "Cancho", to ask a rhetorical question at a delicate moment. On December 3, 2000, in Guatemala's Duomo, there were 9,000 souls watching the final of the World Cup between Spain and Brazil. The same final as four years earlier in front of 17,000 people at the Palau Sant Jordi in Barcelona. Then Brazil won. As always. A "maracanazo" in full force because Angel Maria Villar's RFEF had invested a lot of money in setting up that tournament.   

In order to remember what happened before, during and after Guatemala, it is necessary to bring together the memories of those who lived through it on the court, on the bench and in the box seat. Julio García Mera, Jesús Clavería, Kike Boned and Paulo Roberto sweated their way through the shirt. Javier Lozano and Cancho were the coaches who were dressed in the fashion of the day in a loose brown suit with a white shirt that did not reach their necks until the referee blew the final whistle. Ángel María Villar shares his memories of indoor football for this report because he has many and very well organised ones. Also, for years now, any time past was better for him.  

From Barcelona to Guatemala. 8,500 kilometres away, the Spanish national indoor football team was embroidering its first star on the shirt and forging the Spirit of Guatemala that would accompany them to another victory in the 2004 final in Taiwan. The road was not easy. The usual difficulties of competing in elite team sports, of doing so in a different country, of carrying the memories of the 1996 World Cup, were compounded by two very compromising situations.     

Javier Lozano had taken over the reins of the Spanish team in 1992, replacing former Las Palmas player Felipe Ojeda, "Trona". Ángel María Villar handed over the national team to Lozano at the age of 31 and advised by "those who knew about this", says Villar himself. The Toledan coach was the revulsive. The image of the new selection of a president who was beginning his term of office.   

Javier Lozano speaks out 20 years after that feat. The war between Luis Rubiales' RFEF and the LNFS is damaging futsal. Lozano himself was relegated from the 2019 commemorative events at the Palacio de los Deportes in Madrid. Even his two great achievements figure shamelessly in the curriculum of José Venancio, his successor in the bench, with no one doing anything to prevent such misappropriation. "When I arrived at the national team we were ninth at the World Cup in Hong Kong and there was a lot of indiscipline. The first objective was to bring order, renew Spain's identity and set a work plan," reveals Lozano.   

In 1997, in Singapore, Spain managed to beat the canarinha team. "There we began to get the mental strength to beat the best Brazil in history," says Lozano, adding that they began to work on the "soul of the national team, on emotional intelligence... Then came the slate and the training sessions.  

Controversial call  

Javier Lorente was a reference in the Spanish national team with 84 matches played. A player to be reckoned with alongside Jesús Clavería and Javi Sánchez. But Spain's '8' in Guatemala would end up on Kike Boned's back and the disaster that was approaching was going to be difficult to manage.  

Lozano counted on Lorente in his first years in the national team. He gave him the importance that a player who was part of one of the most valuable squads in world indoor football, Playas de Castellón, should have. The situation was complicated when Javier Lozano discovered that Lorente had set up a company to represent players. He saw this as a conflict of interest because many players were also team-mates. Conversations with Cancho, drafts of selected players and few hours of sleep. Lozano did not use Lorente for that World Cup. The relationship broke down. 

For Villar there is no Lorente case, it is just another anecdote. "I don't even remember that," he says. And he adds that "the Federation did not get involved in sports issues". The journalists of that time who are now wandering around indoor football also got involved to get a bit of a kick out of it. They say that a cup of coffee would have solved everything, but the end of this story is yet to be written. "Lorente was doing business with the national team and that's why he was expelled," explains the current president of the LNFS.   

Once the trance is over, the number 8 falls on an almost unknown Kike Boned who had not been fixed in the selection. He had just arrived in Valencia Vijusa from Talavera.  His passage through that World Cup was almost testimonial. He did not play a single minute in the final against Brazil. "I remember spending the whole game warming up in case Lozano turned around. He wasn't that unconscious. That final was for other players," remembers Kike. A closing that would end up adding up to 180 internationals throughout his career.   

"I wasn't as aware of that as the rest of my team-mates. I was directly affected by the position I held. I benefited from his departure. The atmosphere was tense in Asturias. I knew I was being a protagonist, but I was 21 years old and that made me see things differently," says Kike.    

Ángel María Villar took indoor football seriously. He let the LNFS organize the League Championship and help the sport grow after the fratricidal war of years before. Villar renewed Lozano before leaving for the Asturias training camp. This is a common gesture with football coaches as well.  

Lozano, Cancho and the rest of the coaching staff prepared a therapy to suture that wound. Left hand and some concessions. The intensity of the training sessions could not be negotiated, but they were flexible with schedules or food. The players evaluated the prebends as the tournament progressed and ended up forgetting the damage to focus on the goal of winning the first World Cup. "There were some beers and hamburgers hidden from Lozano," reveals Paulo Roberto. A player who grew up as the games went on.   

All this was helped by Julio Garcia Mera, the most intelligent player on and off the court. Interviú's "One club men" from alevines until 2005 when he retired with honours. He made his debut with Spain in 1994, the same day as Paulo Roberto. He lost the Barcelona final in 1996 and won the responsibility of competing again as expected from Spain four years later. It is said that he put out more than one fire without being burned by the coach, although his modesty does not allow him to remember such situations.   

Julio is clear that sport devours everything very quickly. "Sport has no memory. Afterwards, in all the World and European Championships that we played from 2000 onwards we had the loss of some important player as it would happen with Daniel or Paulo Roberto", Julio says.  

Jesus Claveria was also a strong man of that selection. He had lost a final four years earlier and knew that Guatemala could be his last train. "We had a clean slate. There was no point in thinking about anything else," he says.    

Spain set to work in Guatemala. They swept through the first phase with a 19-goal margin and two goals against. They beat Cuba in the first match. They discovered that their indoor football team did not leave their country to compete either. It seems that they all returned to Fidel Castro's side, but with their pockets full of cigars because of the Cohiba's strangeness with which they had surrendered to the retinues from other countries. Iran was not too inconvenient either, although it was already apparent that Persian indoor football was being worked on, waiting for Jesus Candelas to put the finishing touches to it years later. The victory against Argentina had added pressure. "The Spanish ambassador in Guatemala expressly asked us to win that game so that he could importune his Argentinean counterpart with whom he shared the street," Cancho recalls. Three goals and three whistles every morning when he left for work put the diplomatic mood into effect.   

Paulo Roberto was the most charismatic player in Spanish indoor football. "The best marketing product" as Lozano defined it. A humble guy who saw the games go by without having the minutes he wanted. He added up to an average of eight minutes played. Once again the psychological work of the coaching staff to align him with the team's objective and avoid his desire to leave the national team in full concentration. It was not the intention of an egocentric player. Paulo assured that, if he did not contribute, it was better to be at home with his family.   

Julio comments on Paulo's situation and looks for an explanation in Javier Lozano's way of being. "He was inflexible with his mistakes. Paulo is a very creative and upright guy for better and for worse. In matches with a lot of equality, if he lost two or three balls in a row he would go to the bench, but not because of the mistake but because of the concept of where he was playing".  

The next phase of the World Cup pitted Spain against Croatia, Portugal and the Netherlands. The level of the rivals was rising and the demand was increasing. The victory over Croatia had a bittersweet taste. The two goalkeepers, Luis Amado and Guillermo, were injured in that match. Jesús Clavería was the third in discord. Never better because one of the best goalkeepers in the world had to assume a secondary role in a World Cup. When the team's doctor appeared at the hotel with the two injured players, "we all thought that the casts were part of the jokes between teammates," Cancho said. Until the faces that drew half smiles began to freeze. A hand injury and a foot injury ended the World Cup for two essential players.   

Kike has a history with both goalkeepers being injured. A nice story with Luis Amado because they made their debut together in 1998 against the Portuguese university team. The other did not have a happy ending. He was the indirect protagonist of one of the injuries. "I shot in the warm-up and the ball went to the post and on the return it fractured Guillermo's finger. I remember going to the hotel and seeing the two goalkeepers in plaster. It was shocking. We all turned towards Claveria. His competitive level had kept him at the top and he proved it," says Kike. 

Julio recalls that "Luis Amado and Guillermo were two very rough but very good goalkeepers. One day, before they were injured, we were training in a room and they started to play rough. They threw away a mirror and one of them even cut himself".  But the responsibility they won in 1996 came to the fore, "we were so focused on the game that we got through it".  

The phones were smoking. From Guatemala they called the RFEF to locate Ricardo, the goalkeeper of El Pozo de Murcia who was going to replace the loss of his teammates. After pulling him out of a club and assuming they weren't kidding with him, he set off for Guatemala to witness firsthand the exploits of Jesus Claveria. "FIFA rules only allowed him to play if Claveria was injured and a doctor certified the injury," Cancho recalled.   

Interviú's first-choice goalkeeper had already played in two World Cups. He was third with Spain in Hong Kong (1992) and second in the final of the Palau in 1996. Lozano was clear with him.  "I wasn't the first-choice goalkeeper because that's what Lozano told me. He tells me that I'm not going to play but that he wants to count on me and my experience. I accepted," Jesus recalls. Lozano warned Jesus earlier: "Don't be a bad veteran. You can be a great help or a distorting element".   

Talk of a 32-year-old guy defending the goal of the best club in the world being Spain's third best goalkeeper may not do justice to what happened next. "The epic speaks of the third goalkeeper. But what was happening is that I was used to playing in my team and I am going to that call to make it difficult for the coach and colleagues as I have always done. I wanted to play, but not because of those circumstances," he adds. "Opportunities don't come knocking," explains Lozano. And he points out something revealing about the training sessions, "Jesus used to train like a youngster, Cancho himself told me that after the sessions".   

Blatter and Villar presided over the final in Guatemala's Duomo. The former president of the RFEF believes that that final was the culmination of the joint work of the Federation and the LNFS, of people who years ago were facing each other and decided to join forces. Blatter joked with Villar before the final by questioning whether Spain would be able to beat the all-powerful Brazil. Villar nodded. Jokingly. And seriously.