Selection of Spain 🔴 Julen does well not to give his ticket to anyone
Dani Carvajal deserves to be in the World Cup. And if there is minimal hope that the injury will allow him to play, Lopetegui does well not to give his plane ticket to Russia to anyone else. 'Carva' has earned the right to have Julen wait for him. For football, group, sentimental and all kinds of reasons. Because no one can doubt a kid who, at the end of the Champions League, starts crying, disconsolate, broken, and two days later has managed to rekindle that little spark of hope until raising again a fire that burns inside with a unique Obsession: Be with your teammates in the World Cup.
Carvajal is not just another player, he is an essential part of the Spain that arrives at the World Cup with expectations in the clouds. Key in the classification phase, a fixed one in the eleven type of any of the forty or so millions of Spanish selectors. The best right side of the world. If Dani does not deserve to wait for him, then who? His band is a lane of acceleration by which you reach the target faster, a freeway exit direct to the most coveted trophy.
He is also a respected and important player in the group. In a selection of Real Madrid majority, Carvajal plays a role of great personality. And Lopetegui, who respects the codes of the changing rooms, who knows what it is to live inside one of them, also takes these aspects into account. As the sentimental, the psychological one of a player who already missed Euro 2016 after being injured in another Champions final, against Atlético. After that nightmare, he deserves a dream.
In addition, the variant planned by Lopetegui in the event that Carvajal had been left out of the list is not pure replacement either. The entrance of Bartra or a central would imply a rearrangement of the back, turning the center on the side and embroiling a delicate position. Odriozola is a player with global projection and who can (and will) fulfill the title role with total solvency. And so he will while Carvajal can not play. But if the Leganés is at the top to play the eliminatory, dispensing with the best side right of the world can be an unnecessary gesture.
Lopetegui is a football man and has known, for a long time, since his stage in the sub 21, what Carva can offer him and what a gesture like that represents for the wardrobe. With him on the field, and the Spanish National team knows it, the dream for them is more real.