Fast and Furious End of Tiki - Taka

By Azeez Said Who would have thought that the reigning European champion, last Confederations cup finalist and reigning World champion would be out of the World cup before teams like Iran, Bosnia (due respect to the mentioned teams)? Who would have thought that this was how the end of tiki - taka would look like?  Absolutely, no one.  Before the tournament, I had written out Netherlands from making it out of the group stage, tipping Spain and Chile to go through. I was just too sure about Chile, but I had to change my mind after seeing the way Spain were humbled against Netherlands and with just two matches played, Spain is out.  Lets look two years back, Barcelona were humbled at the hands of Bayern Munich 7-0 on aggregate but some of us predicted they were going to come back to life the following season,a season that also ended disappointingly with no major trophy won. Spain could also have been out of the confederations cup earlier if not for the profligacy in front of goal by Nigeria and they managed their way through to the final where they were properly dealt with by eventual winners, Brazil.  All that happened in Brazil then was a disguise of what to be expected in the future but most of us didn't see it coming. The tiki-taka had become so predictable I said in one one of my posts that I can arrange some school boys and still get a decent result playing against Spain. But, apart from their predictability, they have lacked the cutting edge which they were renowned for. They play one too many passes when they get to the opposition box.  Like in the game against Chile, it only downed on them after 80 minutes that they were not playing a 38-game tournament in which they could right their wrong later and they needed to shoot if they wanted to score, something they had barely done since the beginning of the game.  Football has evolved since Guardiola won every trophy with Barcelona using this system, but since Spain and Barcelona have just stagnated and the engine room of the tiki-taka system - Xavi, is past his best now.  For more success for Spain and Barcelona in the future, they have to move on and with players such as Koke, Isco, Alcantara and co coming of age, they don't need to look far for the answer.