FIFA World Cup 2014: Team morale crucial for Spain

Barcelona: Spain coach Vicente del Bosque believes that building strong team morale is far more important than concentrating on tactics as his team aim to retain their World Cup crown in Brazil.

Spain, who have also won the last two European Championships, have a friendly against El Salvador before they embark on the defence of the trophy they won in South Africa in their opening Group B match against the Netherlands on June 13.

“A healthy, positive dressing room is worth more than 100 hours of tactics,” Del Bosque told Spanish newspaper El Pais on Sunday.

“It is good in any business for the employees to be happy and in football if the boys are happy then we will win,” Del Bosque said.

“The more they get on with each other the more success that will come. It is best to have a down to earth group, remind them of their roots and where they come from.”

Spain is a fractious country with regions seeking more power and limited national pride has been blamed in the past for a lack of success.

A great strength of former coach Luis Aragones was in unifying the players and it was under his leadership that Spain’s recent golden period began with victory at Euro 2008.