Spain’s girls’s soccer staff is lastly getting consideration for its play on the sphere, relatively than the habits of its officers.

Spain adopted up its Women’s World Cup title in August with victory within the inaugural Women’s Nations League on Wednesday, and this time the speak in Spain is in regards to the nice performances of the staff and never about an undesirable kiss that ruined the staff’s World Cup celebrations.

The kiss by former soccer federation president Luis Rubiales on the lips of participant Jenni Hermoso in the course of the World Cup awards ceremony sparked widespread outrage in Spain and ignited one of many sport’s worst crises. Rubiales finally resigned, and prosecutors later accused him of sexual assault.

The scandal overshadowed the staff’s performances and its historic achievement in what was solely its third World Cup look.

There was no controversy this time after one other large victory, solely reward for the ladies who triumphed once more and have been lastly being acknowledged for his or her expertise, not their struggle in opposition to sexism or lack of equality.

“Invincible,” stated the sports activities every day Marca in one of many many front-page headlines that includes the ladies’s nationwide staff on Thursday, each on the sports activities and basic information dailies.

The staff was formally welcomed by Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez in Madrid, the place captain Irene Paredes reiterated requires extra assist for girls’s sports activities.

“I take this opportunity to talk about the need to support women’s sports with more than just words,” she stated. “We need laws that protect us and help us.” On the sphere, Paredes and her teammates have been drawing comparisons to a few of the nice gamers who helped Spain thrive in males’s soccer for a few years, together with a few of those that led “La Roja” to consecutive titles within the 2008 European Championship, the 2010 World Cup and the 2012 Euro.

Many native sports activities pundits have been fast to make the hyperlink between the ladies’s staff’s success to these achieved by Xavi Hernández, Andrés Iniesta and Sergio Busquets.

France coach Hervé Renard made the identical connection after his squad was overwhelmed by the Spaniards on Wednesday.

“I played against Spain while coaching Morocco in 2018, against a midfield with Iniesta and Busquets, and it was the same feeling,” he stated.

The 2-0 win over France got here in entrance of a file crowd of 32,657 at La Cartuja Stadium in Seville, the most important ever to observe Spain’s girls’s nationwide staff within the nation.

“For us it’s a pleasure to be able to win trophies here in front of our fans, to feel their support and I think it goes further than that — this is proving that women’s football is the future,” Hermoso stated.

By reaching the Nations League closing, the Spanish girls additionally secured their sport on the Paris Games for what might be its first-ever participation within the Olympics, when it is going to attempt to construct on its momentum.

“It will be an honor to welcome you here again with a medal after the Games,” Sánchez stated.

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