It was 5am when a phone rang in a house near Palma de Mallorca, Spain. The time did not bode well, but Cata Coll’s father picked up.
“Dad, today I’m starting,” said Coll, calling from almost 12,000 miles away in Auckland, New Zealand.
Spain’s best game of the Women’s World Cup, a 5-1 win against Switzerland in the round of 16, was preceded by some big surprises. Head coach Jorge Vilda decided to make changes to his starting line-up — a lot of them. And the most striking one was in goal.
Coll, the 22-year-old goalkeeper, would make her international debut in the knockout stages of a World Cup. It was an unexpected gift for the second-choice keeper given that Misa Rodriguez, Spain’s No 1 at this tournament, was fit and ready to play.
A gift, but also a double-edged sword. Against Japan, Spain had just suffered their worst defeat in 11 years and going into the game against Switzerland knew only too well that the country had never won a knockout match at a Women’s World Cup.
Coll was not alerted in advance by Vilda and found out she would be starting when her name was written on the board during the pre-match talk. It was her first competitive match in 90 days.
“I didn’t care that it was so late,” Coll said of her call to her father. “I was a starter. I saw it…
