RIP Spain

Xavi declined, Barcelona and Spain declined. Xavi the best spanish footballer of all time!

Never quite good enough in the 2 games which they've played.

I can understand some of the reactions to "end of an era" and it might very well be the case. This has arguably been the greatest national side ever that we've seen for the past 6 years.

But I think the "death of tiki taka" responses are still a bit OTT. I know that's this believe that it's dying out has been there for a while, but I think it won't be long before some team finds another way to make it work.

And also the "RIP Spain" is premature. Spain still produces the best young talent of all the nations in the world, and they'll certainly be back among the favourites for France 2016. Even now they have a good crop of young talent at their disposal that just needs to be handled in the right way.

RIP

@Art Morte wrote:Not ashamed to shout out that I called it

You did, and I laughed it off.

You're a good man.

@harhar11 wrote:Xavi declined, Barcelona and Spain declined. Xavi the best spanish footballer of all time!

Good excuse. All of them are declined, including messi, alves, pique, casillas. Another good excuse is Guardiola left and tiki taka died

@Hapless_Hans wrote:

@Art Morte wrote:Not ashamed to shout out that I called it

You did, and I laughed it off.

You're a good man.

And you're f****** too eccentric for my liking at times, but can't hate you when you're the only one recognizing my genious on this matter, oh come here and give me a hug you pos

@Art Morte wrote:

@Hapless_Hans wrote:

@Art Morte wrote:Not ashamed to shout out that I called it

You did, and I laughed it off.

You're a good man.

And you're f****** too eccentric for my liking at times, but can't hate you when you're the only one recognizing my genious on this matter, oh come here and give me a hug you pos

That Bro-Luv   

@Higuain09 wrote:

@harhar11 wrote:Xavi declined, Barcelona and Spain declined. Xavi the best spanish footballer of all time!

Good excuse. All of them are declined, including messi, alves, pique, casillas. Another good excuse is Guardiola left and tiki taka died

Iniesta was actually the only decent player from Spain today, so he hasn't decline 100%. Pique was still pretty bad in 11, not as bad as he is today, but not at his best either and yet we still won the CL which shows you that Barca/Spain could still win with him not on top form. Alves nor Messi plays for Spain, so obviously Spain could win without those 2. Casillas I agree with.

@Art Morte wrote:

@Hapless_Hans wrote:

@Art Morte wrote:Not ashamed to shout out that I called it

You did, and I laughed it off.

You're a good man.

And you're f****** too eccentric for my liking at times, but can't hate you when you're the only one recognizing my genious on this matter, oh come here and give me a hug you pos

I love you man

The whole Spine of the team declined from Striker to keeper.

Casillas (sad to say it) looks done being elite (Although I could see him being great again)

Puyol should go down as one of the best defenders of all time but him and Pique are over and the partnership is dead.

Busquets sucks and has for a while IMO so a Xavi/Busquets midfield is dead.

And then you have David Villa who isn't elite anymore.

That's front to back the whole spine of the team. It's sad to see as when Spain were on form there really wasn't much better to watch, they could take apart anyone and could kill a game off in 10 minutes when they wanted to.

They made that winning/non-losing streak look easy. They made winning 3 major tournaments in a row look routine.

People celebrating it's over be careful what you wish for because you may not see anything like it again.

This was a great team for a long period of time and I liked to watch them play their intensive passing game combined with their angry bee/wasp defense when they lost the ball. They have influenced other national teams who have incorporated some of their style into their own. Italy, for example, plays a little more direct but they reminded me of Spain in their game against England. It is a compliment to Spain that Italy, a big team with many more world cups than Spain and with their own football culture, have adopted some of Spain's footballing technique.

Villa had a great season but didn't play a second.
Instead Torres got subbed on twice who has now been constantly abysmal for, what, 4 years?

@harhar11 wrote:

@Higuain09 wrote:

@harhar11 wrote:Xavi declined, Barcelona and Spain declined. Xavi the best spanish footballer of all time!

Good excuse. All of them are declined, including messi, alves, pique, casillas. Another good excuse is Guardiola left and tiki taka died

Iniesta was actually the only decent player from Spain today, so he hasn't decline 100%. Pique was still pretty bad in 11, not as bad today, but not at his best either, and yet we won the WC. Alves nor Messi plays for Spain. Casillas I agree with.

WE ? aren't you a chilean living in sweden or something ?

Yeh, the spine of the team has declined. It is still possible to play possession, but they need to tweak certain things. Need more runs/pace down the wings and also a better forward. Also the pressing/defending has to improve. Costa hasn't been good enough nor has Torres.

Adapt or perish.

Alonso's performance today

Yohan Modric wrote:Yeh, the spine of the team has declined. It is still possible to play possession, but they need to tweak certain things. Need more runs/pace down the wings and also a better forward. Also the pressing/defending has to improve. Costa hasn't been good enough nor has Torres.

Adapt or perish.

Costa really proved that he does not fit for Spain's style of play..

I personally loved seeing their dominance and had called they wouldn't get past the quarterfinals. However I didn't think they would fall so short as they did.

RIP Spain, it was a pleasure seeing one of the most dominant sides on the national side of our era, if not all.

How does Torres continue to get playing time??   

Can't remember the last time a player was shit for several years, yet continued to get called up by his NT and actually play

@LeSwagg James wrote:How does Torres continue to get playing time??   

Can't remember the last time a player was shit for several years, yet continued to get called up by his NT and actually play

All of Portugal's strikers.

Maybe Jogi Löw saw the signs of the time after all by just omitting to call up strikers that maybe wouldn't be 100% up to par?

I thought Chile's defense would have been breached more times than what Spain managed today. I knew Spain wouldn't win the WC but I'd expected them to at least take out Brazil in the 2nd Round. Seems Spain was in way worse shape than I thought. Mind you, they didn't play bad against Chile. They actually played much better than when they played against Netherlands but Sampaoli played to his teams best attributes. Chile's ball recovery is real, folks. I stand contradicted as I ridiculed Chile's Defensive capabilities. At least, the Aussies made them look bad. Couldn't be further from the truth, though. Still Spain are out sooner than expected and ultimately one can say that they flopped. Simple as that.

Can't believe I was being generous having them getting knocked out in the round of 16