When Spain faces France for the third time in two years in Dallas in the World Cup semifinal on Tuesday, the Spanish team could be forgiven for reflecting that this is a tournament in which it has covered plenty of ground, both on and off the pitch, reported Xinhua.
Few things highlight the scale of this World Cup better than the journeys Spain's players have made during their progress to the last four.
Spain's first two matches were in Atlanta, relatively close to its training camp in Chattanooga, but after facing Cabo Verde and Saudi Arabia, there was a long flight to the Mexican city of Guadalajara for a bruising match against Uruguay, which also involved a two-hour time-zone change.
A comfortable round-of-32 win over Austria came in Los Angeles on the U.S. west coast, bringing another time-zone change, before Spain faced Portugal in Dallas and then returned to Los Angeles for its quarterfinal against Belgium.
Those trips mean Team Spain has traveled more than 16,500 kilometers during this World Cup while also making six time-zone changes before returning to Dallas for Tuesday's showdown.
To put that into perspective, if Spain wins on Tuesday and then travels to New Jersey for the final, it will be only around 500 kilometers short of traveling halfway around the world.
France has had a much easier journey by comparison. Every match Didier Deschamps' team has played in the competition has been within the New Jersey-Philadelphia-Boston triangle, meaning that up to and including the quarterfinal, it had traveled less than 3,000 kilometers, with all of its matches played in the same time zone.
Even with its trip to Dallas, France has now flown only 5,700 kilometers, just over a third of the distance covered by Spain.
France could argue that it has faced a disadvantage because all of its matches have been played in open-air stadiums, leaving its players to contend with high temperatures, while most of Spain's games have been played in stadiums with the roof closed and in far more manageable conditions.
- Spain
- France
- WC
- Semi-finals
Source: www.dailyfinland.fi
