奇速英语

世界杯卫冕冠军西班牙提前出局

The headline Thursday in Spain’s biggest sports newspaper, Marca, said it best: “The End”.

Crowded around televisions in bars and in living rooms across their country, Spaniards let out painful disappointment late Wednesday when their favorite national soccer team was removed from the World Cup, losing to Chile 2-0. It was one of the worst-ever performances for a reigning(卫冕的) world champion.

Spain had made history by winning titles one after another: The European Championship in 2008, the World Cup in 2010 and the European Championship again in 2012. Now it is over.

“It is a shock now, because we were used to winning all the time in Spain!” said Iñigo Carmona, 19, walking aimlessly in empty Madrid streets with three of his college buddies after watching the game. “A lot of people just forget their problems watching the team. They don’t deserve the thing that we watched -- the humiliation(耻辱) we watched.”

A few dozen depressed fans, some drunk, gathered early Thursday around a fountain in front of a 19th century palace in downtown Madrid, where their country normally celebrates soccer victories. They sang patriotic(爱国的) songs almost until sunrise and joked their team — which was 5,000 miles away in Brazil.

Spain was ranked No. 1 in the world by world soccer’s governing body, FIFA, and was a favorite to win the World Cup in Brazil. The team, nicknamed “La Roja” for the red uniform they wear, still has one game left to play, versus Australia on Monday. But two losses — to the Netherlands on Friday, and Chile on Wednesday — mean it’s nearly impossible for Spain to advance.

“We cannot complain we did not deserve to go out. They were better than us,” the Spanish team’s coach, Vicente del Bosque, told Spanish TV. “We were certainly inferior to our contestants here. It is not the moment to think about the future. Little by little we will make the necessary assessments.”