Spains Backline Bulwark Pau Cubarsi Will Make Life Tough For Belgium

. He summoned a youth coach by his side and told him he wanted the boy to train with the senior team the next week. On the day of training, when Xavi entered the training ground, he was there with a warm smile and introduced himself in a firm tone: “Hi, I am Pau Cubarsi.” Xavi was impressed. “He had none of the shyness you think of when a teenager called for his first training with the senior team,” the manager recalled to Spanish outlet MARCA.

In months, along with the wunderkind Xavi had visited the academy to check out, Cubarsi became a regular in the senior team. After his debut, a Copa del Rey game against Unionistas de Salamanca, Xavi told the media: “With Lamine Yamal, he would mark an era.” He was only 16 then, but in Xavi’s assessment, he was already a leader.

“He doesn’t seem 16 when you speak with him.” The pass-master’s words were not hollow. In only three years, since debuting under a child protection protocol in 2022, he has become the cornerstone of the stingiest defence in the World Cup. Five games on, Spain have the most impregnable defence in the tournament.

In 609 minutes, they are yet to see their nets ruffle. Not only that, they have faced the fewest shots (29), fewest shots on goal (six), and on an average the opponents had only seven touches per game inside their box.

Spain are perhaps classical Italians in disguised red shirts — and they defend beautifully and not savagely. The fixation, unflinchingly, is on Spain’s midfield, the disarming passing oeuvre of Pedri, the mechanical grace of Rodri, and the blinding dynamism of Dani Olmo. Or certainly, the impish genius of Yamal. But stealthily, the backline has emerged as Spain’s unbreakable armour. At the heart of the resoluteness is Cubarsi, born in the village of Estanyol that has only 195 residents, in Girona.

He produced a masterclass on defending against Portugal by containing the creative head Bruno Fernandes. Marking Cristiano Ronaldo was stress-free. He possessed a half-a-second advantage over the Portuguese invaders, was always the first to the ball, seldom tackled or lunged in the fine tradition of Barcelona centre-backs. He purred through the game with a vanishingly rare blend of timing, physicality and speed. So much so that his centre-back ally Aymeric Laporte, 13 years his senior, calls him the “leader” of the backline. “In the dressing room, everyone listens to him, like he is a senior player,” manager Luis de la Fuente observed. Passing accuracy

His control is impeccable; passing accuracy nearly perfect. Across the tournament, Cubarsi has attempted 449 passes, missing just 17, giving him an exceptional passing accuracy of 96 per cent. Five of them were key passes. He became the quickest to five clean sheets, striding past Italian metronome Paolo Maldini. “It’s not an individual thing, it’s a collective effort,” Cubarsi deflected the glory to his teammates after the Portugal game.

It’s both individual and collective, as all sturdy defences are. Laporte, his side-kick, is as silken as Cubarsi. He defends without violence, without strained sinews. Before he fell out with Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola, the latter would rate him the finest left-footed centre back in the Premier League. “He reads the attackers’ intentions even before he (the attacker) had decided his plan of action.” He has lost some of his speed to injuries, but is arguably the best around in positional play and in one-on-one situations.

Flanking them are Marc Cucurella and Pedro Porro, the team’s metaphorical hitmen, painting Spain with a nasty streak, streaming through the wings with their purposeful sprints and capacity to make both underlapping and overlapping runs. Both are proven goal-scorers and assist-makers, and both are essential to the wide passing triangles. Teams look to overload their midfield, and Spain find an outlet through the wings, the full-backs keeping wingers Alex Baena and Yamal busy. Cucurella assisted two goals in the Australia rout; Porro nailed the third. De la Fuente, a full-back himself, has masterfully used his wide players to unlock cussed defences.

The midfield, certainly, facilitates defensive control with masterful possession. Spain has enjoyed an average of 68 percent possession. But it’s not the possession as Spain once advertised. There is less of short, relentless passing, not the death (at times suicide) by a 1000 passes, but a mixture of short, midrange and long passing. De la Fuente also shook the traditional high defensive line fixation of Spain. He often sets up Spain in a mid-block, and has not been averse to the mid-low block either. Each defender can hold on his own, but they isolate their comrades. If Laporte is not with Cubarsi, Cucurella would be, and so and so forth.

The defensive unit has a personality to match their skills. None of them have looked frazzled under the pressure of the World Cup. Belgium freewheeled against the USMNT; they benched Kevin de Bruyne. Perhaps, they would recommission him to bypass the languidly dogged defence of Spain. The highest praise came from Austria’s tactician, Ralf Ragnick. “I cannot remember any unforced errors they made. We attacked them and challenged them; we were brave, but we could not always prevent this combination tactic. They are a perfect clockwork,” he noted. And at the base and heart of it is a 19-year-old whose voice is most valued in the locker room.