Madrid: Spanish newspapers and football fans on Thursday mourned the end of an era for their national team after the world and European champions crashed out of the World Cup in a humiliating 2-0 beating by Chile.
“The end, a terrible end to the most glorious era”, ran the headline in leading Madrid sports daily Marca. “Goodbye to the golden years."
Marca commentator Santiago Segurola called it “the end of an excellent generation and the start of a new era”.
He blamed Spain’s failure to score or stop Chile on “big mistakes and a sense of brokenness, of exhaustion”.
“It was beautiful while it lasted,” ran the headline on another sporting daily, AS.
AS printed photographs recalling Spain’s past three triumphs: the 2008 and 2012 Euro championships and the 2010 World Cup. “Don’t apologise,” it said. “We owe you a lot.”
The analysis inside the paper was stern, however. “The end was horrible,” wrote AS commentator Juanma Trueba, who said Spain’s failure was directly linked to the flagging fortunes in recent seasons of Barcelona.
That club’s players and quickfire “tiki taka” passing style have strongly influenced the national squad. “It had to happen some day, that was understood, but we never imagined a farewell so pitiful,” Trueba wrote.
Leading general newspaper El Pais called it “a nightmare that will last for all time, as will the successes”.
“They have abdicated,” headlined Barcelona sports daily Mundo Deportivo.
