Home   >   MOTDs   >   WC MOTD – Spain 0-2 Chile – The End of An Era

WC MOTD – Spain 0-2 Chile – The End of An Era

By on June 18, 2014

Long has it been thought that the era of Barcelona and Spain’s dominance has been coming to an end. That the teams that conquered Europe at club level and at international level each twice, and that both conquered the world at club and international level, are past their peak. That the style of football so accurately coined “Tiki-Taka” has finally been cracked. But while Barcelona didn’t exactly prove that their way of football was over, after all, despite “poor” seasons in the past few years they reached a Champions League semifinal and nearly beat out the likes of Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid to a league title, the real test was whether Spain could keep up their dominance with an aging squad at World Cup 2014. And even after a 5-1 loss to the Netherlands in their first match of the tournament, they still had hopes of title glory, but with a loss tonight, they are out of the World Cup at the group stage. They have allowed seven goals in two matches, more than three times the amount they allowed in their run to glory in 2010. The era of “Tiki-Taka” football and Spain has now come to a close. As Spanish news paper Marca put it, it is “The End.”

And it is not just the end of an era, the end of an international dominance, it is undoubtedly the end of the international careers of some of the best players to have ever graced a football pitch. Spain goalkeeper Iker Casillas hinted that he might have played his last match for Spain tonight. Xavi is already thirty-four-years-old, and legendary dribbler Andres Iniesta is already past his prime as well. Casillas is not likely to be the only Spain international ready to call it quits after tonight. For Spanish fans, the apocalypse has finally come. The flowing football and possession they are so used to having was taken away from them over the course of the past week. When playing the Dutch and Chile, they saw just an average of only 56.5% of the ball. They witnessed poor finishing, sloppy play, and their side not stepping up when it mattered most.

To be honest, they seemed doomed from the start as they faced Chile tonight. They setup so their center-backs were not to be exposed at the back as they were against Holland, with Pedro playing out wide allowing left-back Jordi Alba to stay back and support the center-backs, but the tactical switch or its intentions were clearly not working from the very first kicks of the ball. Under a minute in Spain were given a massive scare as the ball deflected inches wide of their goal, and from the following they were exposed once again, with Gonzalo Jara allowed miles of space to place a header from ten yards out. Only a very poor header wide of the frame from Jara kept Chile from taking an early lead.

Spain attempted to settle in after a poor start – Chile had bossed them in the opening minutes and played neat one-touch football around the back and in the midfield – yet even once they gained their footing the final ball just wasn’t there, and nor the finish to top it off when it occasionally was.

Spain (are) looking like a sad parody of their usual selves.” – ESPN commentator Ian Darke

This was highlighted by two mistakes from Xabi Alonso, the first with his free-kick from the right, in a very dangerous position, that evaded everybody at the far post, and the second has Chile goalkeeper Claudio Bravo managed to block the midfielder’s poor finish from six yards following ping pong in the box. And a third mistake from Alonso proved to be the most consequential of all. Nineteen minutes in the Real Madrid defensive midfielder lost the ball in his own third, and Chile broke. Alexis Sanchez slipped a brilliant through ball into the run of Charles Aranguiz down the right side of the box, and sarangi is cut the ball back to Eduardo Vargas in the middle. Vargas took one touch back to the right to get by Casillas, and then poked the ball into the back of the open net. Spain’s defense had been penetrated once again.

Their finishing at the other end was just as woeful, though; Alonso sliced a volley from the edge of the box miles high, before Diego Costa poked a cross from the right into the side netting. It wasn’t as if Chile were faltering, and in fact, they did a tremendous job of holding Spain off, but Spain easily could have equalized in the first half. Yet Spain got punished for their inability to finish, and right before the end of their first half, Chile all but finished off their World Cup hopes with a second goal. And in fitting fashion, it was their own mistake that did them in. Instead of catching or tipping or punching wide a curling Sanchez free-kick from twenty-five yards, Casillas punched the ball right back out into the middle, Goalkeeper do-not No1, and Aranguiz pounced on the ball, toe-poking it past Casillas into the top right corner.

Spain now needed three goals – three times more than that they had produced in World Cup 2014 at that point. They had an entire half to do so, but once again their failure to finish did them in. Costa screwed another golden chance before Cazorla saw two low efforts tipped wide of the frame by Bravo, and even Iniesta couldn’t get one back, seeing his brilliant thirty-yard curler just tipped over at the top left corner by Bravo. By the finish, Spain’s players looked truly ready to pack up and go home. They have one more match against Australia, but they are already knocked out of the tournament. They are already finished. Their era of brilliance has already been shattered.

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.