Spain’s reign atop soccer world may be ending
RIO DE JANEIRO — More than a mere team, a great champion, finds itself at risk.
An idea is squarely in the crosshairs. A style. A concept. A unique way of playing that actually altered a landscape.
Whatever your evolving viewpoint on tiki-taka possession football — mesmerizingly beautiful or blandly banal — or any gnawing resentment over the staggering success rate since beating Germany 1-0 at the Euro 2008 final at Vienna’s Ernst-Happel-Stadion, there can be no denying the richness of their legacy, regardless of what may come to pass Wednesday at Arena de Sao Paulo.
Spain has elevated game.
And now, like all dynasties must eventually, Le Rojas stand on the brink, a loss Wednesday to pesky Chile away from an early exit at this World Cup that would certainly ring in a new order. At the top of the football food chain. And internally.
There is no shortage of new bullets to reload the musket.
“I don’t know if there’s anxiety, but we only have one shot. It’s a final and we know we can’t mess up,” midfielder Pedro acknowledged earlier this week. “Chile are a hard side. We’ll prepare well because we don’t we won’t get another chance.”
After being clubbed into
GEORGE JOHNSON
the grisly submission 5-1 by a revitalized Dutch side in its opener, the World No. 1 finds itself more vulnerable than at any time since it ascended the gates of Olympus.
Four years ago while conquering South Africa, remember, the Spaniards were slapped off the starting line, too, shaded 1-0 by the chocolate-loving, cuckoo clock-making, yodel-bellowing Swiss. So this is not new territory to Xavi, Iniesta, Casillas and the rest of those famous names instantly familiar around the globe.
The feel back then was vastly different, however. That was a gobsmacking upset, a Twilight Zone-ish one-off, far less problematic to take stock of and move on from. This, this was nothing less than a cruel exposure of growing frailties by a traditional world power, a contender to its throne. Which is a vastly different proposition, indeed.
Still, no one in possession of all their faculties would ring the death knell on Spain just yet. If so, they simply haven’t been paying attention.
“Everyone,” said manager Vicente del Bosque, “feels that we can get out of this situation. If there are changes, it’s not a knock on anyone. We will do what is best for the team. Nobody should be alarmed by the changes we make. The team comes before the system.
“There might be two or three changes. This is the situation we’re in and we can manage it. We’re flexible, but we can keep some things.”
Of those debated alterations the most contentious revolves around goalkeeper Iker Casillas, so instrumental in the blinding success over this memorable sixyear run and so woefully poor against the Dutch. With Manchester United’s David de Gea sidelined for the tournament, if a switch is made it would fall to Napoli’s Pepe Reina to plug the dike.
The old Spanish guard would wager a chest of sunken doubloons that their embattled ’keeper will bounce back in a big way.
“Casillas is different from the rest,” maintained Cesc Fabregas. “He has something. He has demonstrated that with Real Madrid. In the important moments he is always there. He is the absolute leader and must be between the sticks.”
Casillas himself is unsure of what del Bosque will do.
Whoever does get the gloves, the Chileans promise to present a tricky proposition. A win, they go two-fortwo and would assure themselves of a place in the Round of 16. Fabregas rightly calls them “a warrior team,” stockpiled with oodles of speed, tenacity (that can, from time to time, get out of hand) and quality players the calibre of Arturo Vidal, Mauricio Isla, Alexis Sanchez and Eduardo Vargas.
There is nothing for Spain, for now, beyond Wednesday.
The vultures are circling. The covetous family members waiting for the patriarch to kick the bucket so they can hear the will read aloud.
“I don’t get angry these days,” del Bosque said of the poison darts being tossed at his side. “Everyone has an opinion and there’s a lot. If we can’t win, it’s because they’re better and if we lose, we’ll be sporting.”
Great men die. Heroes fall. Mighty civilizations tumble.
La Rojas stands on the brink, as one day we all knew they would. What can’t kill you, it’s often said, only makes you stronger.
And if not, well, it’s been a memorable, arguably unparalleled, ride. One we’ve all, whether we want to grudgingly admit it, been fortunate to witness.