The end of the world as we know it

On Wednesday we witnessed the end of an era.  But rather than find faults and criticisms with the Spanish team and performances at this competition I’d like to take a moment to remember what a fantastic team this has been.  To be World and European champions at the same time is an extremely rare feat, but to win three straight tournaments, to still have that hunger, desire and still have the right group, the right blend altogether for that length of time is a very special achievement.  And let’s not forget how good Spanish club teams have been in Europe for the last decade aswell.  I know this is supposed to be a World Cup blog, but it is well worth mentioning that in the Champions League – a competition that is notoriously difficult to win back-to-back – Barcelona have come as close as anyone to achieving this, with their victories in ’06, ’09 and ’11, with Real Madrid finally winning their tenth European crown last month.  Only Bayern Munich (with 3 final appearances in 4 years from ’10 – ’13) comes near this level of consistency.

It does look to be over…but who’s to say they won’t bounce back in the next Euros in 2016?  They don’t become bad players overnight…but certainly their capitulation here was difficult to fathom.  I can only imagine there are rifts in the camp, or something going on behind the scenes.  Their poor body language as they came off the pitch at half-time of the Chile game was all too obvious to see, reminding me of France at the World Cup in 2002 – another team that was defending European and World Champions – going home without a goal to their name after the group phase.

I find it difficult to blame the manager, for Del Bosque is a great coach, but I genuinely think it was just one tournament too many, one too far, and in football – as with all the great teams we’ve seen down the years – it had to come to an end at some point.  But what a story, so early in this World Cup.