Let's take you back to 2008. It was a strange year for me and soccer. I wasn't that much of a soccer fan, following mainly just the EPL and getting very interested in the World Cup in 2006 because of Zidane. I didn't really know much about soccer outside England. I had a few friends who were as die-hard as they came, but again mainly about England. Then, Euro 2008 happened. It changed my life, in soccer terms. The sport was never really the same to me. It stopped being about goals, and drama, and became about art.
My Mom and Sister were in India that summer from May onwards. My Dad was working on-site in Connecticut from Monday through Thursday, and he would drive up Sunday night. I was still in high school. Add that all together, and yes, I was alone four days and four nights a week. I had already finished my SAT's, and by mid-May had finished taking the 6 AP Tests I took as a Junior, and most of my classes were reduced to nothing. I was living the dream. I always say my Senioritis started the very first week I was left alone. So, what did I do during those weeks alone? I rented a shit ton of movies from Blockbuster. I watched a ton of NBA and NHL playoffs. I just got my license in April, so I was driving around a lot. It was wasteful, since gas was like 3.75 a gallon, but I drove all over the place.
I also watched soccer. I mean really watched it. For the first time. I didn't know too many players, but I watched all of it. Euro 2008, which took place in Poland, was a great tournament. Spain was dominant, but Germany was starting their youth movement in earnest, Holland was rounding into the team it has been since, Italy was still good with the last remaining '06 winners. Teams like Russia and Turkey came out of nowhere to make the semifinals (and make Andriy Arshavin millions). It was a glorious tournament, and Spain won it playing a brand of football I have never seen. Remember, now, this was the summer before Pep Guardiola unleashed tiki-taka on the world, before Lionel Messi became LEO EFFING MESSI, and before the Barca revolution. This predated all that. In fact, the term tiki-taka was mostly created in that Euro '08 run.
I would have never been nearly as much of a soccer fan had I not sat down, alone in my parent's large house, sneaking (although no one was there to stop me) a few beers, and imbibed that tournament. Spain in 2008 was still the most dominant tournament team I have ever seen. Spain in the 2010 World Cup won all their knockout games 1-0, and easily could have lost the Semifinal and Final had Germany or Holland made one play. Spain in 2012 probably should have lost to Portugal in the Semifinals. Spain in 2008 probably shouldn't have done anything but win. My love of soccer started in earnest that day. More importantly, Spain's legend did as well.
That legend is over. Gone. Spain's Greatest Generation ended in a way no one would expect, and truthfully no one would want, with losing two games in the World Cup, by Four Goals and then by Two Goals. Worse, they never seemed threatening. The only goal they've scored was a (dubious) penalty, and I can count the amount of real chances they have had on one hand. It didn't used to be that way. In the past, when they would go to penalties at 0-0 (Italy, Euro '08 Quarterfinal), it was because they somehow hadn't scored on their million chances. Now, it was amazing they scored at all.
It was sad. My Dad, who is a Barca fan, was really sad. My Mom, who doesn't know much about soccer was sad, as even she knew the names Xavi and Iniesta and Casillas based on how prevalent they've been at the top of World Football recently. They didn't just lose. They got hammered. They got embarrassed. They got killed. Long Live the King.
The bigger question is how did this happen? How did it all end so quickly? They won Euro 2012 with one of the more dominant wins, a 4-0 win over Italy. Less than two years later they've been outscored 1-7, the worst of anyone in the tournament. The answer is complicated, but it is partly the same reason Barcelona's reign has pretty much ended as well. That is not surprising given the obvious ties between the two teams. The other is even less surprising, age. Xavi is 34. Puyol, their heart and soul in the past, is 34 and seemingly hasn't played in years. Xabi Alonso is 32. Fernando Torres is 10% of what he was in 2008. David Villa is 10% of what he was in 2010. The core is aging and pas their prime. This is what happens.
Spain was never going to last forever, but did it have to end that way? ESPN commentator Roberto Martinez spoke after the game how Spain fans shouldn't feel bad, they should feel happy, they should thank those players for giving them the best 6 years any country has ever had. I agree, and although their artistically beautiful, but boring style got grating come 2012 (somewhat by design, as as the years passed teams were more and more willing to give Spain the ball and slow the pace, as Spain in '08 ripped teams with speed as much as possession). But still, they gave me 2008.
I missed seeing a legendary team in France from 1998-2000. Brazil's legendary peak happened either before I was born, or coincided with France (1994-2002). Germany doesn't really have a legendary team because their essentially always about as good as any other time in history. Argentina once was a legendary group from 1978-19876. Holland had 1974-1978. Other than maybe Germany I can't see any team right now that can take that mantle next, and that's partly why I'm sad. There was a regal aspect to what Spain was doing, something that made me sense that this was more than soccer, it was royal, it was historical. That is all gone now.
In a larger way, maybe it is about a period of soccer, the first one I followed greatly, ending. Spain defined the post-Zidane era of soccer. They defined it at the National Level (this will be the first major tournament won by someone else since Zidane's last game). They almost equally defined it at the club level. They're style defined it most certainly at the tactical level. All the debates of whether Spain were beautiful or boring (answer: both, but increasingly the latter), whether teams that played against them were smart or cowardly in parking the bus (answer: the former, times 100). Whether this was the Greatest Collection of Players Ever (answer: at the National level, almost definitely). Whether this would ever end? And the answer to that last question is yes.
What is sad for me isn't that they lost. They were bound to not win a major tournament at some point. It was the way they lost, the way they bowed out early. It was a lot like watching Roger Federer in 2013 actually, losing earlier in slams than ever. Legendary teams should go out fighting, like Brazil in 2006, or France in 2006. They shouldn't go out in the 1st round without winning a game or even really being competitive. When we see Spain next in full in two years, Casillas will be gone, Xavi will be gone, Villa and Torres will be gone. Most likely Xabi Alonso will be gone. The whole gang will be gone. An era ended last night, it ended in the most stunning fashion ever. As a sports fan who is slowly realizing a full generation of sports has passed, as a sports fan who is realizing that the rookies in each sport are getting younger than himself, Spain's era ending so soon was hard to take.
