On a warm and cloudy evening at the Maracana eyes of the world were solely focused on defending champion Spain’s 2nd match of the tournament as La Furia Roja (The Red Fury) would square off against La Roja (The Red) in a group B match-up in Rio de Janeiro.
After being exposed by the Dutch 5-1 only 5 days earlier, expectations would have been for an immediate reaction by the World’s #1 team Spain. For a team that had been used to winning for so long in major tournaments, how would they react with their backs against the wall?
Would it be a repeat of 2010 where they would lose their opening match to Switzerland only to bounce back with wins against Honduras and current foe Chile? Or would they fail to adapt and adjust on the fly?
A team thrashed 5-1 only 5 days before would certainly have understood if their manager made wholesale changes to the starting 11. Instead del Bosque put a near identical lineup to the task of erasing the misery of their heavy defeat to the Dutch in Salvador.
The only changes for Spain would be FC Bayern defender/midfielder Javi Martinez replacing Barcelona’s Gerard Pique, and Barcelona winger Pedro Rodriguez coming in for club teammate Xavi.
The early game belonged to Chile who with the predominantly Chilean crowd behind them nearly stunned the Spaniards with a goal in the first minute as a ball passed in from the left wing by Barcelona winger Alexis Sanchez would find its way to Juventus midfielder Arturo Vidal on the edge of the box. Vidal would cut the ball back and attempt a pass across goal towards a teammate before Spain cleared for a corner.
The ensuing corner brought a 2nd chance in quick succession as Sanchez’ pass would bounce low across the face of goal, the ball would bounce up for Nottingham Forest defender Gonzalo Jara whose standing header nearly missed Casillas’ goal high and to the left.
Chelsea FC transfer target Diego Costa would have an excellent look at goal in the 15th minute as he ran in past his defender to the goalkeeper’s left. Costa would scuff his shot, sending it barely trickling across the 6 yard box where a chasing David Silva would receive the miss hit shot before it eventually would find its way to Real Madrid’s Xabi Alonso whose point blank effort would be stuffed by Real Sociedad goalkeeper Claudio Bravo.
Loyalty to players based on past successes would catch up with La Furia Roja manager Vicente del Bosque in the 20th minute when Mourinho & Ancelotti reject Iker Casillas would make yet another goalkeeping mistake at this year’s tournament to put the Chileans up 1-0.
The eventual winning goal would start off of an incisive Chilean counter-attack down the right side where several passes into tight areas unlocked the Spanish defense before making its way to Valencia CF forward Eduardo Vargas who would fake out the Spanish goalkeeper with a step-over from left to right, opening up the net and the scoring to put Chile up 1-0.
It would all unravel for Spain in the 43rd minute when del Bosque’s reluctance to make a change in goal would be the dagger in Spanish hearts as yet another goalkeeping mistake by Casillas would lead to the goal for Chile and the demise of defending World and European champions Spain.
Charles Aranguiz would score for the Chileans as Casillas failed to clear a free kick driven straight at him on target, punching the ball only a few yards away and straight to the waiting Aranguiz. His outside of the boot shot would swerve left to right and into the net to make it 2-0 to Chile and end Spain’s title defense two games in to the tournament.
Chelsea FC’s Cesar Azpilicueta and Fernando Torres would both feature, with Azpilicueta once again getting the start at right back and Torres coming on to replace possible future CFC teammate Diego Costa in the 64th minute. In a tournament where the entire Spain side had failed to score from open play, shipping 7 goals in two games (after only surrending 2 through 7 on the way to the title in 2010), it has been hard to gauge the performance of Azpilicueta as an individual.
To his credit all of Spain’s goals had been given up due to errors in the middle, with Dutch and Chilean strikers getting the better of Pique, Ramos, and Casillas.
Torres as the scoreline reflects offered very little to the game after he entered, but in a team that had lacked service into dangerous areas, blame cannot be solely placed on him.
For the 2nd game in a row it was a result for Spain that most had not expected, in a group that they were favored to advance from they simply weren’t good enough yet again. Whether it was down to arrogance, lack of fitness or lack of care we may never know. The only thing for sure is that the knockout stages will not be featuring the Spanish, and the tournament’s first European giant has fallen at yet another World Cup in South America.
