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As Spain national team manager, Vicente Del Bosque announced the squad that would play a crucial World Cup qualification game against Finland this Friday, it was hardly surprising to see Chelsea duo, Juan Mata and Fernando Torres not named in the squad. The two men have not being playing regular football under Jose Mourinho and the Spanish tactician has always said that he will go for players who are regulars for their clubs.
Ironically though, there was another player who did not make the cut. 31-year-old Diego Lopez is currently Real Madrid’s number one and arguably, the only reason why club legend, Iker Casillas is finding it hard to play second fiddle to a role that he occupied for the last decade or so.
Sadly though, the former Sevilla man’s performances for the club over the past few months have not convinced the national team manager who omitted him from the WCQ game.
It is quite shocking to see that Pepe Reina was given the nod ahead of the likes of Lopez and even David De Gea despite the fact that the on-loan Napoli custodian has not been in any kind of awe-inspiring form for several months now. One should give the benefit of the doubt to Del Bosque for not calling up De Gea considering the fact that the youngster is yet to become the kind of keeper Manchester United had hoped him to be.
However, the same cannot be said of Lopez by any means. The former Villarreal man was one of the best players for Real Madrid in the second half of last campaign and it was his phenomenal saves that guaranteed his team progression to the next phase of the Champions League knockout stages at the expense of Manchester United. It is not easy to see words of praise come so fluently out of Jose Mourinho. “Diego Lopez was the best player in my team,” said the former Real Madrid manager who made sure that the emergency signing during the January transfer window stayed first-choice by the end of the campaign.
And things have not changed for the Spaniard this season either. Despite a new manager and a new philosophy, it is still Lopez who is starting games while Casillas bides his time on the bench. Mourinho and Ancelotti are managers who have won it all at club level just like the current Spain manager which makes one wonder as to why there is such a huge gulf in thinking.
Despite being in the fringes of the national side for some time, Lopez has been granted just 30 minutes to prove his worth. This was back in August 2009 when Lopez made a substitute appearance in a friendly match against Macedonia. Unfortunately till date, this remains the 31 year olds only appearance for La Roja.
In a squad where Juan Mata was omitted for not being a regular player this season, it seems very mysterious that Casillas has been made an exception which quite plainly, smells of hypocrisy and biasness which in the long run, is going to hurt the national team more than it is hurting Lopez at the moment.
One can understand Del Bosque’s reservations about giving Lopez a number 1 role in the national side but the way he has been playing since the turn of this year, Lopez at least deserves a place in the squad if not in the starting eleven.
