Reflections on a Spanish flop

A vibrant Chile won 2-0 in Rio de Janeiro to leave Spain without any hope of surviving the group stage.

Spain, who will face Australia in their remaining fixture, lost 5-1 to the Netherlands in their first match.

Let me make it clear that I never fancied Spain to make a successful title defence in Brazil.

Let me add that I also did not expect them to fall so early.

I felt that they would reach and lose in the quarter-finals.

I also would not have predicted their negative goal difference of 6 after just two matches.

I suspected that several of the Spanish stars were getting on just a bit, but did not anticipate such a weary and uninspired end to a glorious run of success.

Let us remember that Spain won Euro 2008, World Cup 2010 and Euro 2012.

They hammered Italy 4-0 in the Euro 2012 final.

So what went wrong in Brazil this month?

My view is that Spain were sluggish and perhaps not as hungry as either the Dutch or the Chileans.

Diego Costa often looked lost in attack, while Iker Casillas suffered a meltdown in goal.

Casillas did make a fine save or two, but they were more than cancelled out by some glaring mistakes.

The midfield produced some decent passing at times and Spain had more shots on target than Chile last night.

I would speculate that Spain took one or two veterans too many to Brazil, but can fully understand the temptation to stick with players who had achieved some much for their country.

I am still tipping Italy to win this World Cup, but have lots of respect for Brazil, Argentina, France, Belgium, Germany and the Dutch.

I am hoping to see Ivory Coast in the knockout stage...

(File Photo:Gallo Images)

Twitter - @SportswaveAndre