The defending World Champions, Spain, features one of the greatest soccer teams of all time. Oddsmakers across the board listed them as favorites to win the gold medal. Instead, a loss to Germany in the bronze medal match saw the Spaniards come away empty-handed. Of all the unexpected upsets at the Olympics, Spain coming away without a medal in women’s soccer had to be among the most shocking. It begs the question, what went wrong with Spain at the Olympics? Let’s take a deep dive into what happened with Spain’s stacked squad.
Olympics’ Smaller Roster Size
The first factor is how the Olympics is set up with scheduling and roster size. Olympic teams are allowed 18 players with four alternates, and the alternates come in only if there’s an injury. That’s a significant decrease from the 23 players allowed at the World Cup. Plus, the time between games is one fewer compared to the World Cup. When you consider less depth and one fewer day of rest, it’s far more taxing on the group of players without rotating the squad and getting more time to rest. Spain had an incredibly deep team at the World Cup. But they couldn’t use that depth to their advantage with a smaller roster size. These reasons tie directly into the next factor: how all of Spain’s star…
