It has been one the most surprising results of the World Cup thus far: Spain, the reigning World Cup champions, have not only been outscored this time around 7-1, but have been eliminated in the first round of matches. After a 5-1 romping by the Dutch over Spain in the first match, Chile made the old guard look foolish with a 2-0 victory on Wednesday.
Long considered to be one the best teams in the world, the two losses come as huge shocks, both within the tournament itself and the country. Spanish goalkeeper Iker Casillas, a longtime all-star, was at fault for Chile's two goals, and has looked lackluster in the two matches.
In an increasingly ageing team that has remained largely the same since its Eurocup Championship win in 2008, Casillas is one of many that will likely not appear on the national team again. Vicente del Bosque, manager of the Spanish national team, stayed loyal to the goalkeeper and captain even though he committed several errors against the Netherlands.
It isn't just Casillas that is undoing the Spanish ship, however; another ageing star, Xabi Alonso, looked unlike his former self, giving away the ball to the Chileans, which led to one of the two goals.
Conversely, Netherlands and Australia played an increasingly tense match where the lead was tossed back and forth before 20-year old Memphis Depay hit a long-range strike to cement Netherlands' victory over the Socceroos.
The match, at times, got heated, with several confrontations breaking out between Australian and Dutch players. One of the more controversial decisions by the referees was to award a penalty kick on an inadvertent handball by Daryl Janmaat off of an attempted cross by Oliver Bozanić. A handball typically has to be perceived as being purposeful, whereas Janmaat's arm was apparently in its natural position.
The penalty kick gave Australia the lead, though only a few minutes later, Robin Van Persie hit an equalizer, and minutes after that, Depay gave Netherlands the lead.
Netherlands next plays Chile in the 16-team elimination round on Monday.
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