MADRID, Dec. 6 (Xinhua) -- Spain coach Luis de la Fuente tried to brush off his team's favorites' tag for the 2026 World Cup and expressed concern about the traveling his side will have to make after Friday's draw for the finals.
Spain was drawn in Group H along with Uruguay, Cape Verde and Saudi Arabia with the games played in either Miami (Florida), Houston (Texas), Atlanta (Georgia) or the Mexican city of Guadalajara.
"I don't think we are favorites at all," said the coach.
De la Fuente said being favorite was a "recognition of Spanish football," but added there are "other teams that fall into that category as well."
"The level of the World Cup is extremely high. Cape Verde is making its debut, but Uruguay has a coach like (Marcelo) Bielsa," he pointed out in Spanish sports paper Diario AS.
The Spain coach admitted he was not happy about the potential traveling his side will have to do across the southern states of the USA and into Mexico.
"What worries me most is the amount of travel or the long distances between matches (…) What concerns us most is having to travel so many kilometers every three or four days," he said.
The draw also offers the possibility of Spain meeting reigning world champion Argentina in the second round, but De la Fuente said that once in the knockout stage of the World Cup, "nothing is easy… Anyone can beat you and whatever happens after we get through the group stage, we'll face tougher opponents."
"What we have to do is focus on what we can control. If we finish first in our group, in the following knockout rounds it's just win, win, and win. That's what we can control," he concluded. ■
