- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
When Spain won back-to-back European titles, the World Cup and Olympic gold, football fans everywhere were in wonder.
The blur of red shirts slaloming round their opposition was a given. Pundits waxed lyrical about Spain’s youth set-up and even said the kings of tiki-taka were the best team ever.
Fast forward two years and Spain find themselves out of the World Cup two games in, with a six-goal deficit.
Mental attrition
The writing was on the wall following a 3-0 defeat to Brazil in the Confederations Cup final in 2013. The air is thin at the top and years of expectation to win can be exhausting, with Xavi Alonso saying that Spain had “lost their hunger”.
France and Italy won the World Cup in 1998 and 2006 respectively and both failed to make it through the group stages in the next tournament, with France failing to register a single goal.
A curse or human nature?
Public pressure
Football at its core is a means of entertainment. It has to be said that while the Spanish/Barcelona style of play was fascinating technically, it gradually staled, its ability to quicken the heartbeat fading over time.
Familiarity breeds contempt, leading to calls to overhaul in order to shake off their ‘boring Spain’ tag.
Abandoning their identity, which had brought them unparalleled success, has cost them.
Tactics
A NASA study found that fatigued crews who had a history of working together made half as many errors as crews composed of rested pilots who had not flown together.
Diego Costa’s toothless game for La Roja against Chile was only his fourth. Could Spain have maintained the balance of the team and used Costa as a plan B when required? His tally of two shots, both of which were off target, was indicative of his ineffectiveness.
The Spanish inability to inject any kind of rhythm to their possession, taking the sting out of the Dutch and Chilean attacks, was their downfall. However, if there is one player to take the lion share of the criticism, it is their captain Iker Casillas for turning out two hapless and flappy displays.
The opposition
The world record pace of Arjen Robben, silky through balls from Daley Blind and that magical Robin van Persie header broke the Spanish spell in the first game.
The world expected a reaction from the wounded champions, but it wasn’t to be. With determined pressing, the Chileans overcame the Spanish with a powerful and disciplined performance.
The group of death has lived up to its billing – the king is dead.
Legacy
Players want to be remembered. The Holland team of 1974 never won a trophy but in the process brought total football to the world, forever etching the team’s philosophy into the minds of fans.
Time will tell, but the Spanish team’s legacy is one of a team that passed the ball until the opposition gave up – hardly inspirational, and maybe that’s where it has all gone wrong.
Are you the ultimate team manager? Pick your own superstar team and go head to head with other football fans for glory and cash prizes on Draftstars. Imagine what you could be buying instead. Set a deposit limit.