shows the official

Corner for Spain

Their midfield is aging. Most of the Barca players (the heart of the team) are out of form. Casillas is horrible. They aren't hungry. And Costa looks painfully out of place.

They will have to promote younger, hungrier players and retire the old guard. Tiki taka doesn't work when the other team can outwork and outrun you.

Still they had a great five years at the top dominating all football.
Maybe by the next time they rise again they'll have dealt with the racism in their stadia.
Remember also they are big time victims of austerity policies.
Bye bye Spain - you leave the trophy behind with one meaningless match with Australia.
First defending champ to lose both first two games.

First two teams through in Group B
The Netherlands and Chile are through!!! One South American team through.
Big win Chile!!!

Although Spain was never my favorite team, they played a style of soccer that was mesmerizing in its artistry. I could watch and admire them for hours. The problem is that such a style is dependent on being at the highest level of skill, and it seems to me that team all got old together -- they could still try to play the same style, but they lacked the last bit of ability to pull it off, and became easy pickings for the pressure game and the counterattack. We'll have a new WC champion this year (maybe it's too much to ask for any team to be at peak for two tournaments four years apart), but I doubt we'll see such beautiful play for a long time to come.

Great run - down comes the crown.

Two European championships and a World Cup recently.

Don't forget UEFA finals this year had two Madrid teams and Barcelona dominated for a decade.

Exhibition game.

This was frightening. Millions across the globe just had their brackets busted.

And not really care who wins

Come on people, you don't HAVE to put the result in the thread title.

I've never been a fan of tiki-taka and Spain with its sterile possession style of play, but this was dispiriting...

Possible amusing scenario: Imagine if Brazil do not wind up top of their group. In that case, Holland and Chile would likely play to lose in order to avoid Brazil

Hahahahaha