体坛英语新闻：Spain's coach proud of team competitiveness following breakthrough at World Cup

LE HAVRE, France, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Spanish women's football team head coach Jorge Vilda said that he felt pretty proud of the team's competitiveness shown in the tournament after Spain progressed from the FIFA Women's World Cup group stage for the first time following a goalless draw with China here on Monday.

Spain registered 24 shots throughout the Group B final round action, compared with China's one. However, the Chinese goalkeeper Peng Shimeng managed to keep a clean sheet with several crucial saves.

Spain take up the second spot of the group with superior goal differential over China, with both sides snatching four points from three matches.

"We are happy to qualify for round of 16 and make history. We knew that it was possible to finish a draw. We were good to have scored, but the Chinese goalkeeper was very deserving. We tried from all angles, but the goalkeeper was very good," commented Vilda.

"We didn't achieve everything that we wanted to achieve, but we were very happy to make into the knockout stage. Let's move on to the next stage now," he pointed out.

"We're very proud that we know Spain are going to compete and make things difficult for every opponent that they face.

"Playing against Germany, we were really close to winning. We tried to create chances when playing against China today. We hope to make progress in our everyday performance," Vilda said.

For Vilda, "We won, we lost, we drew in the group stage. We faced different opponents. We faced South Africa who posed great pressure in terms of defense. Then we played one of the title favorites (Germamy). The match was difficult and we were competitive, but lost the match. We did well on our defense and tried to create chances today.

"Now we're just preparing ourselves for the next step," he said.

Spain are scheduled to face Group F leaders in round of 16, possibly the defending champions United States. In their first meeting ever this January, the United States triumphed 1-0 in a friendly.

Vilda thought that playing against the best team for the first time made the Spanish team understand what playing against such fast players with great technique within a well-learned system would mean.

"This is something we've studied. This is a game where any small detail can change things, so we're going to look at what we've done and try to correct our mistakes and recognize our strengths in the run up to the game. We'll try our best."

"We will wait and see if the United States top the group. We know they are the best team in the world. Even facing Sweden, they are a very physically strong team. We will prepare accordingly for the next game," Vilda commented.

Spain have one week prior to their next match. For Vilda, the one-week preparation time is important and ideal.

"First we need to recover and keep going with our training sessions. Having this week to prepare for such an important game is ideal, because we need it to recover, train and prepare mentally for playing against one of the best teams in the world," he noted.