After midnight on Tuesday, Montse Tomé was still a trending topic on X. The first one. Even though social networks, as we should already know at this point, are often very different from real life, the data was revealing. Before the match, during, and at the end of it, The national coach had monopolized all the attention.
The substitution of Alexia Putellas lit the fuse. The two-time Ballon d’Or winner was having a good tournament, with a more than recognisable version, and she had scored two great goals. However, Montse Tomé had decided to leave her on the bench in the semi-finals of the Olympic Games. “I think that internally we were fine. Alexia, of course, contributes and has contributed to the team. On other days it was the turn of other players. Not all of them can enter,” She explained to the media in Marseille after the match. The Barça captain came on to the pitch in the 75th minute – the last change – and hit the woodwork and was the best player… of the whole match.
Inaccurate in changes and obtuse with the board
The situation, far from improving during the match, got worse. And how. Montse Tomé, who had already passed several tests with flying colours, succumbed at the Olympics. The disaster against Brazil summed up the path of the Spanish team throughout the tournament. With fatigue lurking and with the best version of many of its players far away, improvements were not coming from the bench either. Unsuccessful in changes and obtuse with the board.
Spain forgot how to play football and the Brazilians were quick to do so. “Brazil had a lot of legs today and they were going full throttle. And, well, I think we conceded goals at certain times. At first, very early on, then before the break and they didn’t give us a chance to react. We got out of that intense pressure by trying to go into the opponent’s half. It was clear that the way out was on the outside with the full-backs and we managed to turn well. But, well, in the first half we weren’t able to score a goal. And then when we wanted to shorten the gap, they scored another goal…”, the national coach explained.
“We have seen the players broken, crying after this hard blow […] Football is like that. There are times when it will work out for you, as it did in all the other games. Against Colombia, even, reacting to a 2-0 in the 78th minute, but today it didn’t work out for us,” she accepted, resigned and visibly affected. “I’m pissed off because we compete to win and when this doesn’t happen you’re not okay, it hurts you”he added.
Montse Tomé also highlighted the path of her players towards the Olympic Games and the milestones they have achieved. “I think that these players deserve the utmost respect for everything they have given us and will give us. And today is a tough moment, which you may not have expected, against a great team that has played a good game.” And she recalled the time wasting by the Brazilians throughout the tournament. “It is desperate. We continually see so much time being wasted during the championship… In the end, this does not help the spectacle. It is detrimental to us, like the other teams, and I think that we have to play honestly, cleanly, and football is about continuity. It is not something that I can determine, but we do not have to focus on that either, that is nothing that has influenced the defeat,” she concluded.
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Alexia Putellas
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Montse Tome
