The collapse of an empire: sorry Spain the first major casualties of the 2014 World Cup

Spainful: Casillas concedes against Chile

THE reign of Spain falls mainly on the plane home. That incredible wave of Spanish conquest dating back to 2008 is OVER. Vicente del Bosque’s World Cup winners broke all records in their bid to return home rapidly from Brazil.

Walloped 5-1 by Hup Hup Holland in their opening Group B game and convincingly ousted 2-0 by a super hot Chile in their second, the football-speaking world had a field day with the kings of tika-taka, ignoring those 2008 and 2012 European Championships wins either side of their dour 2010 World Cup triumph.

It’s unfair. We all love to see the giants fall. But this was a Jack and the Beanstalk return to earth for a Spanish side which conceded just two goals in South Africa four years ago (and scored a record low of seven to conquer the world). In just thee halves of football – 135 minutes – they conceded SEVEN, Iker Casillas was exposed and without Carles Puyol, they seemed incapable of stopping the rot.

Seven-goal champs: Spain in 2010

Diego Costa, the Brazilian striker who opted for Spain after two friendlies for his homeland last year, turned out to be about as popular as Kingston Nkatha at Kaizer Chiefs, as effective as Ndumiso Mabena at Orlando Pirates. In short, a huge boo-boo.

Ironically, it was soon-to-depart South African head coach Gordon Igesund who said in Australia last month: “Spain have become too predictable” as he explained Bafana’s surprise 1-0 friendly win over Espana at Soccer City, venue of their greatest triumph.

Even more ironically, it would not surprise this writer if Del Bosque now becomes a target to succeed Igesund, given his CV. But there is a rarely-mentioned detail in the 63-year-old Spaniard’s career: he took over Spain in 2008 only after Luis Aragones had led them to their first European Championship success.

Ultimately Del Bosque was undone by his reluctance to change a winning set-up: he stuck with the old guard and it worked for the years – until their record-breaking demise in Brazil. No champions have ever lost their first two games in defending the World Cup.

It’s one thing to see World Cup winners fall at the first hurdle (as France and Italy did before them) it’s quite another to see such a great side, filled with Barcelona and Real Madrid all-conquering giants, slip out of the tournament without a fight.

Though they managed a couple of shots late on, it was Arsenal’s Santi Cazorla, on the periphery of the great Spanish successes, who produced most of the late urgency after coming on as a substitute.

I said before this tournament that South American sides would dominate, pointing out that Europeans have never won on the continent. I said too that Chile (and Colombia) could spring a surprise or two.

A crest-fallen Del Bosque, 63, said: "We were inferior to both Netherlands and Chile. It is a sad day for all of us. We are sorry we didn't succeed, now is too early to analyse where we go from here.

"The first goal really buoyed them and they really got into our faces. They got the goals and gave us a mountain to climb. We were too timid in the first half and did not react sufficiently in the second."

But as we glory in the fall of the giants, joined at the early exit door by brave Australia (beaten 3-2 in a cracker by the Netherlands) it’s worth remembering other big guns could soon join them – notably England, who cannot accept anything less than a win over Uruguay.

Ouch: last look at that Spanish defence

As the smoke clears, it would be hard to say that the South American big guns – Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay – are in scintillating form on their home continent. Holland and Germany look the form sides with Aarjen Robben, Robin van Persie and Thomas Muller leading the race for the Golden Boot with three goals each so far.

But I suspect Argentina will get stronger and stronger. Brazil, with Neymar isolated up front thanks to the incompetence of Fred, Hulk and Jo, have a lot of work to do after their 0-0 draw with Mexico.

But this World Cup remains a fascinating journey. Scoring at a rate of nearly four goals a game, this is a tournament marked by attacking exuberance and super substitutions. Long may it continue.

And I leave you with this thought: were Spain single-handedly responsible for lowering the tone of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa? Tika-taka may be great for the purists, but the lack of direct, exciting, thrusting football can be blamed on those pesky Spaniards four years ago. Germany were a far more attractive proposition and I said so at the time as they scored 21 goals and crashed out in the semi-finals.

Giants are not always attractive. They can even be mistaken for ogres. I for one am not sorry to see this particular Espana thrown in the works.

Disgrace: Assou-Ekotto and Moukanjo square up

Later last night, we had the unedifying spectacle of Cameroon crashing out and joining Spain and Australia in the queue at the Brazil exit door. Going down to Croatia 4-0 is one thing. But the unedifying spectacle of Benoit Assou-Ekotto and Benjamin Moukanjo squaring up to each other before the Spurs man (currently on loan at QPR) threw in a head-butt was too much.




Earlier former Arsenal man Alex Song, now at Barcelona, had been sent off for a ridiculous off-the-ball swing which left Cameroon coach Volker Finke summing up his night thus: "It's clear we have to find the reasons what's going on because such behaviour is really disgusting, it won't do, it's impossible. There will be repercussions."


All this of course, happening on television screens around the world to Cameroon, the nation which gave us the infamous son-of-a-sultan Issa Hayatou, who has run CAF, the African Football Federation, since 1987. Little wonder Africa is going backwards internationally if the dictator can't even keep his own nation in order. The current CAF situation in Brazil: Played 6, Won 1, Drawn 1, Lost 4. That's relegation form.

SOCCERBALLZ! my innovative football show on www.ballz.co.za with Mark Fish airs every Thursday from 9am-11am. See Ballz' channel for our growing library of fascinating football interviews with the big names. Ballz will also provide daily World Cup updates from next week.

You can also follow me on www.twitter.com/nealcol for all the latest sports news and read my “Neal and Pray” column every Tuesday in www.thenewage.co.za.

When the World Cup means everything: Chile fly the flag for 521 killed by earthquake

When your country has been hit by an earthquake and then a tsunami, you’d think football – even the World Cup – tends to become a minor detail. You’d be wrong.

At 3.34am on February 27 this year, Chile fell apart. The Richter scale registered 8.8 and 93 percent of the country's population were left in the dark as power failed. First the ground shook for 90 seconds, then the waves came. The huge off-shore quake moved the earth’s axis 8cm and shortened the day by over 1.28 microseconds.

The city of Concepción moved 10 feet west. The capital Santiago was shifted 10 inches, and Argentine capital Buenos Aires, a thousand miles away, moved one and a half inches. Chile gained an extra square mile of territory after their strongest quake since 1960.

It left 521 dead, 200,000 homeless and 500,000 houses damaged. But it also left a flag. The flag in this picture. Ripped and muddied, this is the standard around which Chile will gather today as they prepare to face Spain to decide Group H at Loftus Versfeld tomorrow.

A chap called Bruno Sandoval rescued the flag (white for the Andean snow, blue for the sky, red for the blood of the independence fighters) from the ruins of Pelluhue, about 200 miles south west of the capital Santiago. At the time, Chile’s president Sebastian Pinera said his actions would “lift the spirit of a nation.”

And that La Roja flag is still doing its job, fluttering over the team’s plush base at the Ingwenyama resort near Nelspruit. Chile’s captain Claudio Bravo, their unbeaten goalkeeper in 1-0 wins over Honduras and Switzerland so far, says: “We brought the flag with us to remind the team of what happened. The whole nation is watching. We remember our disaster.”

The delightfully named defender Waldo Ponce said: “It’s extra motivation. I always go to the flag after we finish training. It shows the suffering of our people – but it also reminds us we can bring a little joy after what happened."

Back home, between gathering around televisions to watch their side in distant Africa, the rebuilding goes on. Pedro Poblete lives in Talca, right at the epicentre of the earthquake. He lost his off-licence/bottle store but argues: “The World Cup helps me forget I’m homeless. This flag shows we have suffered and bled. And continue to blee. The flag and the football soothes our pain.”

Fortunately for Chile, that soothing process is likely to go on for a while yet. As long as Switzerland don’t beat Honduras in Bloemfontein, they can even afford to lose against the world’s second-best side and they will still march on to the last 16.

In a tournament dominated by the Latin American teams, Spain’s opening loss to Switzerland means they are the side that has to do all the running at Loftus. Mind you, Chile have never beaten Spain. The last time they met, in 2008, the recently-crowned European champions crushed their former colony 3-0.

Spearheaded by Durban-born Mark Gonzalez, whose father Raul signed for Umlazi Bush Bucks in 1984 (I should know, I broke the story in the Durban Daily News!) Chile have got what it takes to be the surprise package at South Africa 2010, though they are ranked a mere 18 in the world.

Gonzalez scored the only goal against Switzerland and President Pinera, watching with earthquake victims in Concepción, issued his verdict: “Humberto Suazo is a great player, but today was not his day. I think that the best was Jorge Valdivia. He opened the field, he made beautiful passes and he gave the pass for Esteban Paredes to make the cross for Mark Gonzalez to score the goal."

That kind of political and emotional judgement, with the muddy flag flying in the background, might just spurs Suazo and Co on to greater things against Spain. The European champions had better be wary. They could be the last side knocked out in the group stages. This one could make England v Germany look pedestrian.

Neal Collins is in South Africa to complain about England's performance and promote his first novel A GAME APART. See www.nealcollins.co.uk .

To see Neal at the National Arts Festival on July 4, go tohttp://www.computicket.com/web/event/neal_collins_a_game_apart/148367625 .