Lamine Yamal shines in Spain’s World Cup romp over Austria

INGLEWOOD — Lamine Yamal was everywhere.

All up and down Century Boulevard east from the 405 and up Prairie, to and all around SoFi Stadium late Thursday morning, you couldn’t go more than a few feet without bumping into someone wearing the 18-year-old Spanish superstar forward’s red, adidas national team jersey with “Lamine Yamal, 19” on the back.

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There was 10-year-old Lamine.

There was grandma Yamal.

There was XXL Lamine.

His and her Lamines.

The No. 10 jersey the teenager wears for Barcelona is the best-selling jersey on planet, fans buying 1.32 million shirts last year. There seemed to be at least that many of his Spain 19 strip in Inglewood Thursday. And it will seem that there were at least that many on the SoFi pitch when Austria defender Konrad Laimer closes his eyes as a long day turns into a sleepless night.

The great 21st Century Spanish midfield artist Andres Iniesta once said, “To me, football is the simplest and most complex game. Simple because it’s played with a ball, and complex because there are so many ways to play it.”

Yamal and Spain’s 3-0 World Cup Round of 32 romp over Austria was an exhibition of just that, a 90-minute reminder that Spain isn’t so much a side of athletes as it is a collection of artists; impressionists, cubists, abstract expressionists and Yamal, the singular genius of his generation, turning the SoFi pitch into a gallery at Museo del Prado.

“I think Spain showed us their best today,” Austria coach Ralf Rangnick said. “I think we did not only meet the European champion today but the next World champion.

“We had an opponent in a special class.”

Said Spanish coach Luis de La Fuente, “We played an extraordinary match.

“The big teams turn up when their presence is needed,” de la Fuente said. “I think today we’ve seen a great game. I’m happy because in all aspects we’ve been almost perfect – but we have to keep improving.”

Spain, the reigning European champion and pre-World Cup favorite, can slice and dice an opponent with a surgeon’s precision with its “tiki-taka” style of rapid, short passes, a method developed the original Dutch master Johan Cruyff, the former Barcelona superstar and coach, and refined by former Spain midfielder Pep Guardiola at Barca and Manchester City.

Or it can just get the ball to Yamal on the right wing and turn him loose.

“From the outset, I never called the work I was doing … painting, I called it a ‘spatial concept,’” Picasso once said. “Making a hole was a radical gesture which broke the space of the canvas as if to say: after this we are free to do what we like.”

And Thursday, that is exactly what Yamal did. His relentless, always threatening raids down the right side opened up the match to provide Spain the space to reveal a skill and imagination perhaps unmatched in the current game. Spanish forward Mikel Oyarzabal scored a pair of goals, both set up by left-back Marc Cucurella, but Yamal was awarded Man of the Match honors, only confirming what’s obvious for each of the 85 minutes he was on the pitch.

“We need to feel proud of everything we did today,” Yamal said.

Thursday also revealed a Spanish side growing in confidence as it advanced to a Round of 16 matchup against Cristiano Ronaldo and Portugal or Croatia Monday, and after that a potential quarterfinal with the U.S. at SoFi July 10 if the Americans minus star striker Folarin Balogun can get past Belgium’s once golden generation now in their golden years also on Monday.

“As the days pass, I believe even more in this team,” de la Fuente said in his pre-match press conference this week. “I’ve always believed in this team. For me, they’re the best in the world. As the tournament evolves, there’s equality with the results we’re seeing.

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“I’m still just as demanding, still just as realistic, but also more optimistic every day.”

In that sense, de la Fuente was echoing his teenage sensation.

Spain, Yamal said during a radio interview this week, is “the only national team expected to play really well.

“France hasn’t beaten us since the Euros. They can’t be better than us. They’re excellent. They have wonderful players, but I don’t think they’re above anyone. For me, there’s no one above Spain.

“I’m thinking I’m going to win the World Cup.

“Once we hit our stride, we’ll be almost unstoppable.”

Yamal was both against Austria: in full stride and nearly unstoppable.

He suffered a hamstring injury in Barcelona’s April 22 La Liga match with Celta Vigo. He missed Barca’s last six matches of the season, raising concerns that he would not be available for the World Cup. He was limited to just 19 minutes in Spain’s tournament opener against Cape Verde, but has grown increasingly stronger and confident with each match.

“I think he’s an optimistic player, confident about his possibilities and those of his teammates,” de la Fuente said of Yamal. “We know what our potential is. We know how far we can go. (Yamal’s) words, in their context, seem very positive to me. He transmits optimism, confidence, security, and I love that.”

Yamal also exudes a sense that he is capable of the mind-boggling every time he touches the ball.

At 17 years and 1 day, he led Spain to the European Championship title, assisting on the first goal in the final against England, capping his record shattering Euro in which he became the youngest player in the tournament’s history, the youngest to score, the youngest to be on the tournament winning side, tied the tournament assist record and was also credited with the “Goal of the Tournament.”

The goal was a breathtaking example of Yamal’s ability to create space, to read the game and his imagination and daring. With France up 1-0 in the 21st minute, a teammate laid off the ball to Yamal about 30 meters from goal on the right side of the pitch. He juked right, sending three French defenders the same way, cut back to his left and then unleashed a curling missile through four French players into the top right corner of the goal.

“We have seen the genius of a genius,” De la Fuente said after the match.

And so did the 70,492 spectators at SoFi Thursday, thousands of them in their No. 19, Lamine Yamal jerseys. Every time Yamal has the ball, whether he was dribbling past Laimer – or sliding the ball through the Austrian defender’s leg – or just sprinting past opponents, section after section rose to to its feet, a wave of fans chasing him down the right wing as he literally raised the game.

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