This is how our thinking should be and not attack, and insults. Look at Spain, won no match, conceded 7 goals, but no single insult and bad mouthing. Thats patriotism. No one claimed to be more than the players and the coach, rather, its even Nigerians that are defining who should play for Spain and who shouldnt, and even the strategy they should have played. Only in Nigeria a carpenter will tell you how a Doctor should operate. From the fig tree, lets learn a lesson. If we bring ourselves open to the outsiders, they will ridicule us. Thats fact. No Spanish Press insulted anyone, but celebrated them and understood that they played and now a new era will begin. How i wish we can bring this type of engagement to bear in our everyday lives especially in homes and politics. Spanish media mourn early exit 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, AFP reports. Photographs of midfielder Andres Iniesta with his head in his hands made the front pages of the press, sharing the space in some cases with coverage of the swearing in of Spain’s new king, Felipe VI. “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”. “A monumental challenge awaits their successors. They will have to restore the prestige suddenly lost by Spain.” Marca analyst Angel Lara said the defending champions’ World Cup exit in the first stage marked the end of the international careers of heroes of the Spain’s squad of recent years such as Xavi Hernandez, top scorer David Villa, Fernando Torres and Xabi Alonso. Veteran goal keeper Iker Casillas, who apologised to fans after a string of mistakes in Spain’s losses to Chile and on June 13 to the Netherlands, had not planned to leave the squad after this World Cup, but may now do so, Lara added. “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.
Posted on: Fri, 20 Jun 2014 09:46:42 +0000