The 'new' women's team debuts in a level friendly against Sweden

MADRID, 6 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Spanish women's soccer team will face this Friday (8:30 p.m./Teledeporte) at the Nuevo El Arcángel de Córdoba a demanding duel against Sweden, number three in the FIFA ranking and the first rival for a team that seems to begin a total reconstruction after the last events.

All the controversy that arose around the figure of the national coach Jorge Vilda in the previous concentration was aggravated after the end of this with a private email from 15 soccer players, including Patri Guijarro, Aitana Bonmatí, Mapi León, Ona Batlle , Lucía García, Laia Aleixandri, Sandra Paños or Amaiur Sarriegi, who asked the RFEF not to be summoned for this October break due to the damage that the prevailing situation was causing them.

Far from having a truce or some kind of rapprochement, the RFEF once again showed its total and firm support for the coach, who ultimately did not mention any of those players, apart from the captain Irene Paredes or the striker Jenni Hermoso, for the two powerful friendlies against Sweden and, next week, against the United States.

Vilda also seemed to close the door almost definitively on these 17 players and made it clear that she was strong enough to create "a new team", which in this call still has eight of those who were in the last European Championship: goalkeeper Misa Rodríguez, defenders Ivana Andrés and Olga Carmona, midfielders Tere Abelleira and Irene Guerrero, and forwards Athenea del Castillo, Esther González and Marta Cardona.

Of all of them, Carmona, Abelleira, Del Castillo and González were starters in the quarters against England. Precisely, the Cantabrian winger of Real Madrid will be one of the focuses of attention due to the great state of form in which he finds himself.

In addition, players who already have experience with the national team have returned, such as Claudia Zornoza, Maite Oroz or Alba Redondo, new faces to watch such as Ane Azkona, Laia Codina and Nuria Rábano, and a return like that of Andrea Sánchez Falcón, a player weighed down in their progression from injury. Due to injury, two U-20 world champions fell, like Salma Paralluelo and Ana Tejada, and another from the continental event like Sheila García.

With these new wickers, with much less competitive experience, Vilda will begin a reconstruction to form a new Spain for which she asks for patience and which right now seems to be the one destined to compete next year in the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand if the waters they do not return to their normal course, still waiting to find out what will happen to the great star of the team, Alexia Putellas, injured, but who showed her support for the statement that her teammates later offered.

Spain will no longer have official matches until that date after closing its qualifying phase for this World Cup in September with clear victories over Hungary (3-0) and Ukraine (5-0). The first test for the new project will be a Sweden that happens to be one of the best teams in the world, semifinalist of the last EURO, current Olympic runner-up and number three in the FIFA ranking.

The Swedes, also third in the last World Cup in France, also sealed their World Cup ticket without problems by topping their group, conceding only a draw against the Republic of Ireland, and arrive in Córdoba with almost all their figures, especially in the front.

Peter Gerhardsson has a lot of danger and goals up front with well-known ex-Madridistas Kosovare Asllani and Sofia Jakobsson, who are joined by Stina Blackstenius, Arsenal striker. The power of the blaugrana Fridolina Rolfo also stands out in a team that will require a strong physical display.