A century ago: 1923, the year of Zabala and the first hat trick of the Spanish National Team

Milestone anniversaries are a particularly opportune time to look back at our own history. With nostalgia, with curiosity, or with pride (as appropriate), looking at our own trajectory as a team is a healthy exercise and full of possible lessons.

100 years ago the Spanish team, still with the silver medal in the Olympic Games in Antwerp, was considered one of the great European football powers of the moment. The national team had its eyes set on revalidating the Olympic success in the 1924 event in Paris. That year of 1923 - now a century ago - the matches that the national team played were, therefore, preparation for the following Olympic Games and the results that Spain obtained only confirmed its favoritism.

The year began (January 28) with another victory for a team that did not know what it was like to lose since Antwerp: the result was a 3-0 defeat in Atocha (San Sebastián) against France with two goals from Monjardín -the favorited center forward then- and one from Zabala. Fury continued to be the key to these victories, which, despite their brilliance, did not fail to show certain problems, as Jornada Deportiva pointed out: “We Spaniards don't have any tactics. Everything that happens on the field is the result of feverish improvisation; but as a Latino improvisation, fertile in… resources… their tactic consisted of not having any”.

Later, Spain, led by Luis Argüello, stumbled 1-0 in Belgium (February 4) against the hosts in what became the first defeat in a three-year period, which did not make the team lose its self-confidence or their “invincibles” halo. “An unusual event - assured Madrid-Sport - has stopped the triumphant march of our INVINCIBLE national eleven. The reckless decision of a referee, has affirmed, even if it is only in a very flimsy way, the title of world champions, of the Belgians. Surely they will not be very satisfied with their petty victory. A penalty does not decide the supremacy of one team over another. This match, despite its friendly status, was seen as a kind of duel to decide world supremacy by bringing together the Belgians (gold medal in Antwerp) and the Spanish (second classified).

At the end of that same 1923 (December 16), the team with José García Cernuda and Pedro Parages on the bench, resumed the path of that “invincibility” managing to prevail by a resounding 3-0 against Portugal. That winter day, José Luis Zabala Arrondo, striker for Deportivo de Oviedo, one of the two clubs that would become Real Oviedo with their merger, scored the first hat trick in the history of the Spanish soccer team. It was in this game played in Seville, when Zabala scored at minutes 14, 57 and 70. He achieved the first goal of his hat-trick when he took advantage of a rebound from the Portuguese goalkeeper after a shot from Peña. The second came after receiving a good pass from Sancho. And the third, was preceded by a cross from Alcántara.

This is how the year 1923 ended for the Spanish team, which was shaping up to be a prelude to new victories in 1924… but that was another story.