Charismatic Reina gives Spain plenty in reserve

Goalkeeper Pepe Reina is more than just an understudy to Spain captain Iker Casillas; he is the charismatic heart and soul of the changing room and a valued source of technical advice.

It was largely thanks to him that Casillas was able to repel Oscar Cardozo’s penalty in Spain’s narrow 1-0 defeat of Paraguay in the quarter-finals.

“Reina told me where Cardozo tended to shoot and he was right. He’s a phenomenon,” said Casillas.

The former Villarreal shot-stopper had conceded two penalties by Cardozo in the first leg of Liverpool’s Europa League quarter-final at Benfica in April.

“He’s good at that,” says Xabi Alonso, Reina’s colleague at Liverpool for three years and now a team-mate of Casillas’s at Real Madrid.

“He trains for it and prepares himself a lot, just like the players selected to take them.”

Reina has proved himself as one of the Premier League’s top goalkeepers in recent years but the presence of Casillas between the posts for Spain means he has been restricted to just 20 international caps.

The 27-year-old harbours no bitterness though and when Casillas came in for criticism due to some errors in Spain’s pre-World Cup friendly matches, Reina leapt to his defence.

“The 10 years (that Casillas has played for Spain) speak for him,” said Reina.

“Iker’s career and performances for the national side have always been exemplary and playing more than 100 matches for La Roja is the reserve of a select few players.”

Though confined to a supporting role on the sidelines, Reina’s status within the squad is secure.

“I feel important within the squad because people trust me and I have a good relationship with everyone,” Reina says.

“It’s your friends who make you feel popular. And I know that, when we’ve all retired, these friendships will be the things that remain.”

Reina established his place at the core of the squad in the aftermath of Spain’s triumph at the 2008 European Championship.

In the plane taking the squad back to Spain, Reina, David Villa and Alonso took turns to mimic coach Luis Aragones and his humorous sermons before Reina took the microphone to send up each of his team-mates in turn.

The performance went down so well that he was encouraged to repeat it in front of the whole country and he did so with the panache of a natural showman in a live television show from Madrid.

“It really didn’t surprise me from him, but there’s a difference between doing it in front of a few people and then doing what he did,” said Alonso.

“Most of what he said were little jokes that we’d been saying all through the tournament.”

Reina also instituted the ritual of a hot chocolate session among a select group of players on the eve of each match, which began the night before a crucial game with Denmark in 2007 that is credited with launching Spain’s march towards glory.

Kept out of the limelight by Casillas, Reina has found solace in a back-stage role that makes sure the stars around him never fluff their lines.