WORLD CUP: Spain goes home early

Spain's World Cup defence is over after just
two games after they lost 2-0 to Chile at the
Maracana in Group B.
First-half goals from Eduardo Vargas and
Charles Aranguiz were enough to give Chile a
deserved win, which spells the end of Spain's
defence of their title.
With Holland's win over Australia earlier in the
day, Chile's three points - which takes them
onto six points with the Dutch after two games
- means Spain cannot now progress into the
knock-out stages.A tactical masterpiece from
Chile's Argentine coach Jorge Sampaoli laid
the foundation for the South Americans to
humble their more-glamorous European
opponents.
It is not the first time the reigning world
champions have failed to make the knock-out
rounds - Italy suffered that indignity in 2010
and so did France in 2002 - but never before
has it happened after the first two games.
The 5-1 hiding handed out by Holland in the
opening match was still reverberating for
Spain, and the pattern of that nightmare
second half of last Friday night continued in
the same agonising vein.
Vincente del Bosque's side appeared frozen
into inaction, and it did not help that they were
playing a Chile side whose spirit was stoked
by tens of thousands of fans bouncing off the
walls of the Maracana - in some cases
literally as thousands without tickets remained
outside the stadiums with around 200 bursting
through a security cordon prior to kick-off.
From the start, Chile - who have looked hugely
impressive in the last couple of years, not
least in a 2-0 win over England at Wembley in
November - were fired up for this fray.
They served noticed of their threat when
Gonzalo Jara, of Nottingham Forest, headed
over from a good position - and held his head
afterwards too: he knew it was a gilt-edged
chance.
Spain knew they had to win and Claudio Bravo
in the Chile goal stood in Xabi Alonso's way
when the Real Madrid midfielder pounced on
Andres Iniesta's deflected pass with only the
keeper to beat.
He looked certain to score but Bravo stopped
it with one hand at close range, and Alonso's
next involvement was to lose the ball in the
move which saw Chile go ahead.
Alexis Sanchez snapped up possession and
played in Charles Aranguiz who picked out
Vargas with a brilliant centre. The Valencia
forward kept his head while Spain were losing
theirs and neatly sidestepped Iker Casillas
before sliding it home.
Alonso attempted to make amends but blasted
high and wide from Diego Costa's lay-off,
before the naturalised Brazilian striker scuffed
a shot into the turf and side-netting as
Spain's frustrations increased.
Two minutes before half-time and Spain's
looming crisis became a fully-fledged
disaster.
Casillas, heavily criticised after the Holland
debacle and fortunate to keep his place, did
himself no favours with a fairly pathetic
double-handed fist at Sanchez's gentle free-
kick and the ball dropped to Aranguiz who
controlled it and then toe-poked back past the
sorry keeper to make it 2-0.
Another bad miss from Costa, who was
mercilessly taunted by the Chile fans, was
followed by Jordi Alba spraying his shot wide
as desperation set in for Spain in the second
half.
Chile then turned rather wasteful, failing to kill
off the game completely with Vargas shooting
straight at Casillas, Mauricio Isla scooping
over at full-stretch and Sanchez dallying too
long when in space.
Del Bosque sent on Fernando Torres and Santi
Cazorla to try a last-ditch rescue attempt and
the Arsenal midfielder came close to scoring,
denied by a sprawling save low to his right by
Bravo with 10 minutes left.
Bravo was bravura to the last with more top-
class saves, notably from Cazorla's free-kick.
Spain looked like broken men. After the 2010
triumph sandwiched by two European
Championship wins - their world has come
crashing down.