Spain's Casillas gets surprise backing from Mourinho

Mourinho, who dropped Casillas from the Real side during his final season in charge in 2012-13 and was widely reported to have fallen out with the club captain, said he would not discard Casillas just because of one poor showing.





Holders Spain suffered a 5-1 loss against the Dutch in Salvador, their worst drubbing at a World Cup finals in more than 60 years, and need a win against Chile on Wednesday to get their bid for a second straight title back on track.

"The goalkeeper position is a very specific one and I wouldn't like to make a change just because of one poor game," Mourinho told Yahoo! Sports.

"I would only change something after a bad run of form that clearly shows a keeper lacks confidence and stability and his body language suggests it would be better to change," added the Portuguese, who is in his second spell at English club Chelsea.

"Iker has had a fine run with the Spanish national team and he has the confidence of his coach. One bad game is not sufficient reason to change keepers."

Spain coach Vicente del Bosque is unlikely to drop Casillas, whose performances in helping Spain win Euro 2008, the 2010 World Cup and Euro 2012 earned him the nickname "Saint Iker" among fans of the Iberian nation.

Del Bosque's options are in any case limited as one of his two reserve keepers, David De Gea, is injured. Pepe Reina is the other stopper in the squad.





(Writing by Iain Rogers, editing by Ken Ferris)


Share

2 min read

Published

Source: Reuters


Share this with family and friends


Get SBS News daily and direct to your Inbox

Sign up now for the latest news from Australia and around the world direct to your inbox.

By subscribing, you agree to SBS’s terms of service and privacy policy including receiving email updates from SBS.

Download our apps
SBS News
SBS Audio
SBS On Demand

Listen to our podcasts
An overview of the day's top stories from SBS News
Interviews and feature reports from SBS News
Your daily ten minute finance and business news wrap with SBS Finance Editor Ricardo Gonçalves.
A daily five minute news wrap for English learners and people with disability
Get the latest with our News podcasts on your favourite podcast apps.

Watch on SBS
SBS World News

SBS World News

Take a global view with Australia's most comprehensive world news service
Watch the latest news videos from Australia and across the world