The core of the team, Xavi Hernández, Xabi Alonso, Iniesta in midfield, and Sergio Ramos, Carles Puyol, even Gerard Piqué, at the back, have run so many miles for club and country, won so many cups, that 2014, in the heat, the humidity and with the vast distances to cover in Brazil, could prove a tournament too far.

Del Bosque, however, knows these players better than anyone else. He didn’t buy into the ageist argument of his president at Madrid, and he looks now at Xavi (130 national team games and still running), Alonso (109 caps and just back, refreshed after a long injury), Puyol (100 caps and something to prove about fitness).

Yes, age creeps up on them. Yes, there is sometimes a limit on how many times a champion can run through the wall of effort in a monthlong, sapping tournament. But like life itself, sports is a balance between youth and experience. If players like these think they have another World Cup in them, why would a coach discard the talents, and the know-how, that has delivered?

When del Bosque says the team is in “one of its best-ever phases,” he surely is understating the players once again. But even now, even six months from the event, the coach knows something else.

The records at youth international tournaments show that the production line of Spanish talents — and the methods of nurturing those talents — have far from run dry. Another estimable coach heading for the World Cup, Italy’s Cesare Prandelli, said over the weekend that “we all will need 23 athletes in these temperatures.”

Spain has talent still coming through the system to make that squad competitive. Del Bosque trusts the senior players as long as their form and fitness hold out. He also has emerging players, such as Isco, the 21-year-old Real Madrid prospect. And with Sergio Busquets, Cesc Fàbregas, Iniesta and David Silva experienced beyond their years, the cards he holds could still be a winning hand.

The fact that Spain has a difficult start suits Spain.

“It’s good for the mentality,” del Bosque suggested on Friday. “When you play lesser teams, there is a problem with concentration.”