After a 2-0 loss in their must-win clash against Chile, defending champions Spain have crashed out of World Cup 2014 at the first hurdle. Whilst many are quick to label La Roja’s dismal showing in Brazil as the death of Tiki-Taka, there is precedent for the holding champions failing at the first stage of a World Cup.
Spain join Italy’s 2010 side and France’s 2002 squad as World Cup holders in the modern era who have failed to get out of the group stage as they sought to retain their trophy. Brazil’s 1966 and Italy’s 1950 teams are also members of this unhappy club.
Many commentators are attributing Spain’s failure in 2014 to the age of the squad. It is true that they are the eighth-oldest squad in Brazil with an average age of 28.2, but, this is not a spectacularly old team. The problem could perhaps more accurately be attributed to a somewhat stagnant rather than old squad.
Much like Marcello Lippi did in 2010, Del Bosque appeared to picked a team in the hope of emulating the achievements of four years prior. Del Bosque seems to have personal favourites in the squad who feels he can trust but such players would likely have been overlooked by a different coach.
A case in point is the unfortunate Iker Casillas. The Real Madrid goalkeeper has notably been dropped by his club side and only features in cup competitions for Los Blancos. He is not especially old for a goalkeeper at 33 and his replacement at Real Madrid Diego Lopez is only one year younger.
Questions could also be asked as to why Lopez kept Casillas out of the Madrid side but has only one Spain cap to his name when on the basis of club performances he is the better player.
Del Bosque’s perseverance with Casillas despite his lack of playing time and his error in the Champions League final was admirable from a human perspective, but ultimately questionable from a professional standpoint. In the end Casillas repaid his coach’s faith in him with poor performances against The Netherlands and Chile.
Another example is the much-maligned Fernando Torres. The striker only scored nine times for Chelsea during the 2013-14 campaign and with forwards such as Fernando Llorente and Alvaro Negredo not even included in the squad it is hard to justify his presence other than that he is a Del Bosque favourite. With Spain losing against The Netherlands and Chile, Del Bosque was twice forced to bring the former Liverpool man on in a desperate attempt the save the game. Both times he was ineffectual, with Torres fluffing Spain’s best chance against the Dutch. 
Diego Costa was supposed to add a more physical element to the side but the ex-Brazilian has only succeeded in being the pantomime villain who in the eyes of Seleaco fans has received his comeuppance in failing with Spain.
If anything, it is possible that he has muddied the side’s identity as the players appeared to have a better understanding of how to enact Tiki-Taka with a nimble false number nine up front.
Tiki-Taka is probably not dead but Spain will have to rethink things and they have a good base from which to do so considering their success at youth levels. Against Chile the limitations of the system were exposed against a hard-pressing opponent capable of working extremely hard for 90 minutes. The South Americans were touted as one of the competitions dark horses, but in the racing analogy Spain were one of the frontrunners and should have been able to see them off.
Chile’s pressing and attacking intent seemed to surprise the Spanish who are used to teams sitting deep in a mixture of fear and respect for one of the world’s greatest international sides. Chile played with three at the back with the wing-backs extremely attacking-minded and yet Spain with their lateral passing were unable to create many clear cut chances, Australia posed a far greater to Chile in the previous game with their strategy of getting crosses in from wide.
Spain achieved something remarkable by dominating and winning three successive tournaments. It will be a tough ask for any side to match such an achievement. La Roja can bounce back and challenge soon for honours and they should not return to being the loveable losers they were before the silverware filled years of 2008-2012. It is probably time for Del Bosque to call it a day and bask in the glory he delivered to his country and allow its destiny to pass into the capable of hands of somebody new.
