"Adios España."

Spain now has to come to grips with the awful reality of its embarrassing early exit from the 2014 FIFA World Cup after a 0-2 thrashing by Chile, a team it had never lost to in all their 10 previous international matches.

Sports writers observed that Spain seemed tired and listless against the fleet footed and younger Chileans. Chile scored both its goals in the first half.

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Throughout the match, Chile held fast to its smart strategy of yielding ball control to the Spaniards but swarming on whichever Spanish player had the ball inside the danger zone in front of their goal.

Chile was ranked 14^th in the World Cup. Chile had lost eight times to Spain and drawn twice in all their 10 previous meetings.

Why did Spain lose in such embarrassing fashion in both its defeats?

Much of the talk in Spanish media is focusing on team managers deciding to play with "los ancianos," or "the old men" of Spanish football who have amassed unrivaled international experience but at the expense of stamina and agility, which declines with age.

Spain had the seventh-oldest squad in the World Cup, with an average age of almost 28. It also had the largest collection of veteran soccer players among all the 32 World Cup teams.

Sixteen players on the Spanish team appeared in at least one World Cup game before this World Cup. Spain's active players have appeared in a total of 1,375 international soccer games, the most of any contender.

None of this protected Spain from defeat by two younger teams, the Netherlands and Chile. Spain yielded five goals to the ferocious Dutch in their opening game on Friday the 13^th, the most goals surrendered in any single World Cup game thus far.

The average age of Dutch players that beat Spain is 26. The average age of the German team that blew away Portugal 4-0 is also 26. The Netherlands and Germany along with Brazil are now the favorites to contend for the World Cup.

Argentina, however, is the oldest team in the games. Its players have an average age of almost 29 years. The next-oldest squads are Portugal, Uruguay, Greece and Honduras.

In a telling example of the disadvantages of "old" players, Argentina was the only team among the top five oldest to win its first match.

History seems to be on the side of the young guys. The average World Cup winner's age in the 19 tournaments before this World Cup is 26 years old, said The Daily Telegraph. 

TagsSpain vs Chile, World Cup 2014