Spain looks to add Olympic soccer gold to list of achievements

By Jahanzaib Bin Liaquat

Correspondent, SAM Daily Times

MADRID —Spain wants to follow up its European Championship victory by winning soccer gold at the London Olympics. The World Cup champions won a third straight major title on Sunday after defeating Italy in the Euro 2012 in the final in Kiev, Ukraine.

Spain forward Iker Muniain said, It would be nice to win the games after all they have achieved, We’re starting an adventure that we’re very motivated to get started on and finish with a medal. If Spain manages to win the men’s Olympic final on Aug 11 at Wembley Stadium, it would become only the fourth team to hold both the World Cup and an Olympic title simultaneously, after Uruguay, Italy and West Germany. Spain goalkeeper David de Gea said, we’re young and we’ll go into the competition with the same motivation as them, They achieved something historic and there are a lot of expectations on us now, but it won’t be as easy as people think, There are a lot of games, so we just have to take it game by game, see how strong our rivals are and hopefully get to the final.

Spain coach Luis Milla said, the Euro 2012 victory is a great source of inspiration for his players on an Olympic squad that includes three players from the winning team—Juan Mata, Javi Martinez and Jordi Alba. Spain’s preparations include friendlies against Senegal on July 13 and Mexico on July 18. The team will then travel to Glasgow to open its Olympic campaign against Japan on July 26. Honduras and Morocco are Spain’s other opponents in Group D.