The football world was left reeling yesterday when Spain, one of the strong favourites to win the World Cup 2014, were sent crashing out of the tournament before they’d even reached the knockout stages.
Following some poor goalkeeping by out-of-form goalkeeper Iker Casillas and an all-around poor performance from the rest of the squad, the defending World Cup champions ensured that there was no way they’d qualify for the next round of the tournament after losing 2-0 to the increasingly impressive Chile team.
While Casillas could have done little more to prevent Chile’s first goal, which saw the Chileans pass the ball neatly around the lacklustre Spanish defense before Valencia forward Eduardo Vargas tipped it into the back of the net, his inability to catch a mediocre free kick, instead punching it out to Chile’s Aranguiz who blasted it into Spain’s goal, sealed the once dominant country’s fate.
Speaking after the match to Spanish newspaper AS, Casillas said: “We have a few players who are over 30, it’s just a shame that this generation had to bow out (of Brazil 2014) in this way.” He was then asked whether it would be the last game he would play for Spain, to which he replied “I don’t know, I really don’t know” before walking away from the interview.
Spanish coach Vincente del Bosque admitted that a deeper analysis of the current Spain squad is now necessary, saying: “It’s true that when such things happen during a World Cup or a tournament like this then it has consequences but I don’t want to start thinking about that right now. We have time to analyse that and it is not the right time now.
“There will be time to think and reflect what we are going to do. I think this team is good but we have to take a decision about what is good for Spanish football and that applies to myself as well.”
Photo: Getty Images
