Euro 2012: Spain go 'round in circles to find winning formula

The Spanish national team are relaxed, knowing they must only avoid defeat to Croatia to make the quarter-finals of Euro 2012.

Spain's head coach Vicente del Bosque, second from the right at the top, keeps a watchful eye on his players during a training on the eve of the Euro 2012 Group C match with Croatia.

The rest of the Spanish squad have done their rondos, worked through Vicente Del Bosque's drills and stretched down. Still out on the immaculately prepared and heavily watered training pitch in this northern Polish village, Iker Casillas and Pepe Reina are at war over penalty kicks.

Spain's captain and most capped player shoots from the 12-yard spot, then it his backup from Liverpool.

There is banter, bickering and bragging as shot after shot flies in - Reina's frequently to a top corner - or is parried away.

The contest continues deep into sudden death until Reina foils Casillas with a final save and shot.

Victorious, he drops on to both knees and emulates the famous archer celebration beloved of Atletico Madrid strikers and anathema to a Madridista like his victim.

Veteran observers of La Roja, men who watched them wilt in successive major finals then discover a unity and evolve a new form of football through titles triumphs of 2008 and 2010, sense the pieces coming together again.

The group is strong, the training is good, most of the key players (Carles Puyol's drive and David Villa's finishing excepted) are present and performing.

Spain must only avoid defeat to Croatia on Monday night to make the quarter-finals.

Few at their base camp, in Gniewino, Poland, are concerned about missing out.

The custom-built training centre is a sight to behold, hundreds of travelling fans and interested locals crowding around to observe fast, technical sessions then scream for autographs and spare kit at their finish. Set on a promontory above the main training pitch and guarded by six black cut-out bulls reminiscent of the Bigas Luna film Jamon Jamon, the Hotel Mistral Sport had been designed to the national team's specification.

For the World Cup, the favourites had a South African runway extended as a condition of making Potchefstroom their base; this time the demand was their own hotel.

Each player's room is emblazoned with its incumbent's name and squad photograph, as are their dressing room berths.

There is an helipad, bowling alley, "Sala [room] Scalextric" equipped with an immense racing track, "Sala Parchis", the original name for Ludo, a huge fish tank in reception, and Spanish-flag themed cushions on white leather lobby sofas.

Set in acres of agricultural and wind farm land the Mistral Sport is remote enough from the nearest city to provide peace, yet close enough to the Tri-city resorts of Gdynia-Sopot-Gdansk to offer the players bright-light entertainment when Del Bosque grants a post-match night off.

When a federation goes to such lengths to prepare the perfect camp you wonder if it is coincidence that Spain were drawn to play all three group games less than 60km in Gdansk.

"We're well acclimatised here," says the striker Alvaro Negredo. "It's not too hot, a comfortable temperature to train in. It's a great town to be in, we feel we're training perfectly and go to the matches fully prepared."

Everywhere there is Spanish federation branding. Fences surrounding the single-stand Arena Mistrzow - the pitch returfed and nurtured to the players' exacting specifications - are decorated with a telling set of Castellano slogans.

History does not score goals. Talent does! - History does not stop the opponent, concentration does! - History does not win games. Effort does! - History does not make you champion. Humility does!

When the Spanish train the intensity and enjoyment is obvious. Warm-ups excepted every exercise is focused on the ball work. Fast, fluid interplay in condensed spaces - the essence of the team's successes.

The fundamental drill is "el rondo", a circle of seven or eight players with two sent to the middle to chase down and steal the ball.

It is all about passing and possession: keep the ball away from your pursuers for 40 touches and a national team rondo is won.

The drill encourages teamwork, pressing, touch, mental agility and awareness.

The players revel in the discipline, employing it as a measure of the mettle of any new arrivals. And no one is excused them - one goalkeeper to each of three simultaneous rondos is a standard allocation here.

For Saturday's open session Del Bosque had his outfielders play a quarter of an hour of 10 versus 10 on a third-size pitch with two metre-wide "goals" at each corner. Assistants flagged offsides as the teams passed and rotated towards the targets. It was intense and competitive, with both sides pressing, yet you never sensed the risk of a rough tackle. Spanish control extends to the right moment to apply aggression.

To end, the coach bibbed his "reserves" into three groups of three, kept Cesc Fabregas as a fourth teammate for all three teams and had them pass and shoot in to two full-sized goals separated by just 25 metres and guarded by Casillas, Reina and Victor Valdes in rotation.

Del Bosque has a battery of such variations on the core Spanish theme, his guiding principle being to keep his players focused.

"The biggest problem for a coach? 23 players," he says. "I've got guys here who not only don't sit on the bench for their clubs ... they don't even know where the bench is.

"One of the key things with any tournament where you'd like to be away from home for 40 days is to fight player boredom For all the leisure activities the absolute No 1 is to keep players interested in training."

It helps that Spain's is an intelligent squad - the complexity of their game selects for smartness - and that success has kept them unified.

They tease each other in public as well as private, joking about their Euros prediction pool (no one picked the 2-2 draw that will see both Croatia and Spain through to the quarter-finals laughs Negredo) and video game contests.

"You should ask Negredo about PlayStation," says Raul Albiol. "Because he always plays with [Juan] Mata and they always lose."

"The truth is we've got a fantastic group; a mix of young and experienced players, some new faces as well," says Sergio Ramos.

"We're ambitious, with a winning character and that is a part of you. It's a healthy environment because we can have a laugh, a bit of banter, because we all want to win and none of us likes to lose."

And Spain rarely do.

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