New botch. Another nonsense that is difficult to understand. If in the previous selection window Spain could not call up several players due to “a computer error” when entering the call in the official UEFA application, yesterday, in the match against Italy, Montse Tomé’s team gave one more step towards absurdity. After the break, Spain started the second half with 10 players. Neither Athenea nor Aitana were there. Lucia García jumped onto the field in extremis just at the opening whistle. Esther González did it once the match had started and when Spain had already conceded the goal that tied the score.
The lack of coordination was total and embarrassingly grotesque. Spain left the game. After that goal came two more and the team knelt down against Italy. To the major mistake of taking the field with ten players, Montse Tomé later added a public accusation against Aitana Bonmatí, declared the best player in the world by UEFA and FIFA. The coach, to excuse herself, declared after the match that the Barça player informed them late that she could not continue in the match.
“At half-time we made the change from Athenea to Lucía and then when we were going to enter the second half Aitana warned us with little time that she could not continue. That is why we do not have time for Esther to warm up and enter the game, for We started that with one less player,” Tomé explained at a press conference.
However, Athenea del Castillo, replaced along with Aitana, completely dismantled the coach’s version by ensuring that the changes were communicated at the beginning of the talk. “”It was everyone’s mistake. I’m finding out now. It cannot be allowed, she has mentioned the changes at the beginning of the talk. We already knew that we were left on the bench. It must have been a miscalculation, I couldn’t tell you. “It’s something we have to learn from because it can’t be repeated,” she said.
The truth is that neither Lucía García nor Esther González were notified in time. In fact, the first had to lace up her boots with the match already started. This fact would also dismantle the coach’s version. Everything indicates that Aitana did not feel 100% after the break and informed the coaching staff that he was the one who managed the change. The responsibility for managing change escapes from the players and belongs to the coaching staff, who everything indicates did not have sufficient diligence. “I honestly don’t know what happened, but we can’t allow those things. These things must be corrected, it can’t happen again,” said Teresa Abelleira.
Both the error in question and the singling out of the team’s best player do not help Montse Tomé and her coaching staff, who are increasingly conveying a very worrying sense of provisionality and unprofessionalism. While inside the field the ball moves with judgment and success, outside of it anything seems possible.
