What Tiki-Taka?!

The Spanish team. Tiki-taka, their so-called style of playing. Their mastery in each of the last three major competitions in which they took part.

All gone after this match.

Spain was humiliated today by a team which they - some might say, luckily, - deprived of a World Cup title, just the last World Cup, in South Africa.
(Iniesta goal, minute 116, but, prior to that, two huge misses by Robben will be remembered from that World Cup final.)

For the first 40 minutes, everything seemed okay in the Spanish camp, however. Spain was even leading.
Penalty goal, by Xabi Alonso, in the 27th minute.

Then...

One word.

Casillas.

The first Dutch goal, too. Some people would say that was a wonderful strike by van Persie. But Casillas was certainly caught out in the middle of nowhere, too.
And, from there, the downfall...

Iker Casillas had not been the goalkeeper of choice at Real Madrid for the past almost two seasons, during the leadership of two very reputable managers, Mourinho and Ancelotti.

So, then, why did Vicente del Bosque use him? With Victor Valdes injured, why not Diego Lopez, the main Real Madrid goalkeeper?

Why Casillas, who was clearly (at least kind of) rusty?
And who was coming off a bad performance in the Champions League final, on May 24, which Real lost because he dropped the ball in a critical situation.

And Casillas, sure enough, made several fumbles in this match just as bad as that one.
The one fumble in which he lost the ball to Robin van Persie for the fourth Dutch goal was probably much worse than any mistakes he had previously done, even.

The Spanish defense was not too good, either. Casillas does not deserve all of the blame.

Nevertheless, four years ago, Spain bounced back from an opening-day defeat to Switzerland to win the whole thing. Now they were really slaughtered on opening day. But the scoreline is a little too harsh, though. And a defeat by just one goal is not much better than a defeat by four goals. We should expect Spain to bounce back again, and defeat Chile next matchday.

Highlights:

Netherlands 5:1 Spain FIFA WC 2014 Highlights