It was Euro cup 2008 I watched Spain play new style in the football. They pass the ball to each other quite often and score beautiful goal. The style was named Tiki-Taka. Spain beat the mighty German by 1 goal. A beautiful goal was scored by star striker Fernando Torres. I became fan of the playing style ever since.
Spain repeat the strategy in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, they beat Netherlands 1-0 at the final to become the world champion for the first time. Andres Iniesta scored in the extra time to beat the fellow European.
Spain was eliminated from the group stage of World Cup 2014 after humiliating defeat from Netherlands. 5-1 was the score line. Netherlands have their revenge for World Cup final defeat, and the revenge was sweet they said. Spain have conceded 5+ goals in a an international for the first time since losing 6-2 to Scotland in 1963. On the second game of the tournament, Spain faces Chile. Spain hadn't lost to Chile before, but this time they were 2-0 down. In 2010 world cup tournament Spain had conceded only 2 goals so far in 7 games played, and they already conceded 7 in 2 opening games.
I'm not a football pundit to analyze the team, but still; here is my view.
Spain Squad
18 out of 23 players were unchanged from previous tournament. Fernando Torres has been out of form, Gerrard Pique can not run fast. Sergio Busquets always make mistake, David Villa, Juan Mata, Santi Cazorla are bench warmer, Andres Iniesta is always good as he always was, Sergio Ramos Iker Casillas, Xabi Alonso and Xavi Hernandez are getting older, Pedro is still learning to dive. New faces like Azpilicueta, Javi Martinez and Koke are doing great. Diego Costa has just started playing for Spain International, before the tournament he was Brazilian International player. One shouldn't change their Nationality, it is your Country, not some club. If he couldn't be loyal to Brazil, how can they trust that he will be loyal to Spain?
Playing Style
Still playing Tiki-Taka, everyone gets bored now. Spanish club Barcelona are another team to play Tiki-Taka, they also won a lot of trophies with the style of playing. Now every other team knows how to beat them. It's time to modify the style of playing.
On the other side, Brazil and Germany have status of world cup finals. They always have new faces. They do not depend on old players. For example Brazil had dropped Ronaldinho, Ricardo Kaka, Alexandre Pato and Robinho from their world cup squad. Everyone knows they are the world class players. Germans have new faces in their squad, 4 of they had their first ever Internationals.
The bottom line is Spain is out of World Cup 2014. Spain is the fifth world champions to be knocked out of the group stage. They join the list with Brazil in 1966, France in 2002, Italy in 1950 and 2010 and Spain in 2014. I just hope they are back with a beautiful game of football again.
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