Spain Stumbles to Goalless Draw as De la Fuente Faces Questions

Spain opened its 2026 World Cup campaign with a disappointing 0-0 draw against Cape Verde in Atlanta, a result that left supporters and viewers expecting star teenager Lamine Yamal to rescue the match after he came on in the 71st minute. Even his flashes of brilliance were not enough to break the deadlock against one of the tournament’s smallest teams, a country of about 500,000 people that had not even qualified among Africa’s top 24 sides for the recent continental championship.

The performance exposed major problems in Luis de la Fuente’s side. With Yamal, Nico Williams and Victor Muñoz unavailable or not fully fit, Spain had only one natural winger, Yeremy Pino, so De la Fuente pushed Gavi into a wide midfield role and moved Ferran Torres to the right. The result was a far more direct and less fluid team than the one that impressed at Euro 2024, and a return to the stale, side-to-side style that haunted Spain in the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.

The numbers underline the malaise. Gavi had no shots, no key passes, no accurate crosses and lost the ball 10 times in the first half. With no real left-sided attacker, left back Marc Cucurella became Spain’s most prominent player. Mikel Oyarzabal, Spain’s leading scorer in World Cup qualifying and a standout for Real Sociedad, did not touch the ball once in the first half hour, an unprecedented Opta statistic since data collection began at the 1966 World Cup.

De la Fuente was also criticized for waiting too long to change the game. Yamal entered only in the 71st minute, Williams in the 86th, while Martín Zubimendi came on in the 71st minute, Dani Olmo in the 81st, and natural striker Borja Iglesias never played. Spain made only four substitutions. The article says the new 48-team World Cup format may also be unhealthy for the competition, since Spain can still advance with a win over Saudi Arabia or Uruguay, or even three draws, which softens the pressure after such a shock result.