The pain of Spain

By J.S. and L.P.

Why Spain's exit from the World Cup is good news for goal-hungry fans

ADIOS, Spain. The World Cup holder's early exit from the 2014 tournament has already been assured after two dismal defeats. On June 23rdLa Roja will attempt to salvage some pride in their third and final match, against Australia. Spain's innovative "tiki-taka" style of play, typified by zillions of short passes, had once propelled it to the top of the world rankings, two European championships and World Cup glory. But even then, for goal-hungry fans, watching Spain pass the ball into the back of the net could at times (whisper it) be a little dull. Nor was it frequent.

Spain scored the fewest goals of any World Cup winning team, as the chart above shows, finding the net only eight times in 2010 (while conceding twice). It also has the lowest average goals per game, managing just 1.14 across seven matches. The next lowest-scoring team in the modern era, Brazil, managing 11 goals over seven games in 1994, and has the next-lowest average too. (England in 1966 and Italy in 1938 also scored 11, but at completely different periods in the Cup's history and over fewer games.)

This World Cup has seenmore goalsat this stage than at any time in decades. Could West Germany's record of averaging more than four goals a game in 1954 be surpassed? That will be difficult—football 60 years ago is a world away from the hyper-trained sport it is today. But one candidate may be the Netherlands—who put five goals past hapless Spain in their first match.