Real Madrid striker Raul Gonzalez says he still has a remote chance of being given the nod for Spain's national squad for the Euro 2008 finals if he keeps up his current strong form.
"I have more desire to go than hope. It's complicated when you have been so long without going and there is a group that has qualified and it is normal that the coach trusts that group," he said in an interview broadcast yesterday on television station La Sexta. "The list is of 23 players though and I believe that if I continue to play like this, at this level, I could be called up to be part of the team."
Spain coach Luis Aragones has not selected Raul since September 2006 when the national squad suffered an embarrassing 3-2 loss in Northern Ireland.
PHOTO: AP
But Aragones has faced continued pressure to include Raul, who has 102 caps, in the squad for the European finals which will be co-hosted by Austria and Switzerland from June 7 to June 29 because of his performances for Real.
Raul, 30, now stands joint second, along with Carlos Alonso Santillana, in the club's all-time scorer list after scoring his 290th goal for the club in their 3-1 win over Sevilla last Sunday.
It was Raul's 16th goal of a fantastic season and he is now just 17 goals from equalling legendary Alfredo di Stefano's record mark of 307.
He is also hunting Di Stefano's record of 216 league goals which he netted between 1953 and 1964, needing 13 more to equal the great Argentine.
"I no longer have to prove anything. What I want is to enjoy myself and that is what I have been doing in the last few months, in the last year-and-a-half. The time to prove things has already passed," Raul told La Sexta.
The player said he would like to play for Spain at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
"I would be very excited to take part in my fourth World Cup but it is a far off goal, I am in fine form now but I don't know how I will be in a few weeks or a few months," he said.
In the wake of Spain's unimpressive display at the 2006 World Cup, he was made the scapegoat for Spain's poor start to their Euro 2008 qualification campaign as Aragones desperately searched for radical solutions.
The subsequent revival of Spain gave Aragones the excuse to continue ignoring Raul.
"He [Raul] has been to three World Cups and two European Championships and won nothing," Aragones said in October, although he has recently softened his tone.
Taiwan kept their hopes of advancing to next year’s World Baseball Classic (WBC) alive with a 9-1 victory over South Africa in a qualifier at the Taipei Dome on Saturday, backed by solid pitching. Taiwan last night played against Nicaragua. As of press time, Nicaragua was leading 6-0. Bouncing back from Friday’s struggles on the mound, when Taiwanese pitchers surrendered 15 runs to Spain, Team Taiwan on Saturday kept the visiting team in check, allowing just one run in the bottom of the fourth inning. Starting pitcher Sha Tzu-chen struck out one and allowed no hits, except for a hit-by-pitch over
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