Spain have been a delight; now they are like a vivid flower which has gone over. Their short-passing, "tiki-taka" style makes them resemble a clock, going tick tock. They have been a precision mechanism. And when one or more part becomes imprecise, it throws the whole. The Spanish clock is out of time.

Spain are not the only World Cup holders to go out in the group stages. In 2010, Italy did so. In 2002, France suffered that fate. Brazil, whose star man Pele was brutalised by first Bulgaria and then Portugal, made an early exit in 1966 and Italy did so in 1950, albeit after a 12-year gap following their 1938 victory.

Pele makes a sad exit from the 1966 World Cup finals after being repeatedly fouled by Portugal ©Hulton Archive/Getty Images

They are, however, the first defending World Cup champions to lose both their opening matches at the next version of the tournament.

Spain's so-called golden generation has finally tarnished, as all golden generations must.  But at least it has shone proudly for almost a decade, unlike some other teams so named. Are we talking about England in 2002, 2006?  Yes we are.

England football supporters will also recall the World Cup winners of 1966, and their subsequent, inevitable, slide from that pinnacle. Although they were defeated in the quarter-finals by West Germany at the Mexico World Cup four years later, the quality of that side was as high, if not higher, than the one which had ensured home success at Wembley.

But by the time they lost to Poland in their campaign to qualify for the 1974 World Cup finals, with the great Bobby Moore's feet finally turning to clay in what was to be his 107th and penultimate game for his country, you could tell the jig was up. England's subsequent failure to earn the win they needed at Wembley in their return match against Poland, which ended 1-1, confirmed that sense of foreboding.

England goalkeeper Peter Shilton cannot watch as Allan Clarke scores a penalty at Wembley which levelled the scores with Poland in their crucial qualifying match for the 1974 World Cup finals but which was still not good enough to allow them to qualify
©Hulton Archives/Getty Images

Rarely do such individuals as Moore emerge. And to witness them sinking is always a rather mournful experience.

At the age of 37, Canada's famed ice hockey player Wayne Gretzky used the 1998 Nagano Olympics - which had signalled willingness to accommodate the professionals from the National Hockey League - to make his international farewell as a player after a career reputed to have earned him more than $100 million (£59 million/€73 million).

The man who finished his career as the NHL's all-time record points scorer showed only glimpses of a sublime gift that had already been diminished by a serious back injury five years earlier.

Wayne Gretsky, number 99, makes his final international appearance at the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics ©Bongarts/Getty Images

But at 5ft 11in, and dwarfed by his 6ft 4in colleague Eric Lindros, Gretzky - in his trademark 99 shirt - still demonstrated a game which, like his face, was all angles. The progress of the years was evident in one obvious respect in Japan, however. While his younger colleagues vaulted to and fro over the barrier between bench and ice, Gretzky used the gate provided.

He departed with dignity after Canada had lost their semi-final to the eventual winners, the Czech Republic, commenting: "When you don't win, you have to accept the lumps and take your bruises. When you win, you accept the flowers and roses."

That quote could have stood as comment for the final dying falls of two of Britain's superlative athletes, Steve Cram and Sebastian Coe.

By the time Cram got to the 1990 European Championships in Split, the memory of his annus mirabilis of 1985 - when he set world records for the mile, 1500m and 2,000m in the space of 19 days - and his sublime performances at the following year's Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh - had been overlaid with the frustration and pain of injuries. In Split, he gave it a right go, but eventually faded to fifth in the 1500m final. I was there in the stadium - and it just didn't seem right.

Earlier in that year, Coe, double Olympic 1500m champion and multiple world record holder, ran what was to be his final international race at the Auckland Commonwealth Games in the final of the 800m, for which he held a world record of 1min 41.73sec which would not be beaten for another seven years.

Seb Coe (left) chats to Scotland's Tom McKean before the 800m final at the 1990 Commonwealth Games. He finished sixth ©Getty Images




Coe was suffering from a chest infection at those Games. As he tracked Kenya's Nixon Kiprotich into the final bend, BBC's commentator David Coleman commented: "And Coe is waiting to strike." But the finish the world had seen so often from this great athlete was not there, and as the field reached the halfway point in the final straight, Coleman was dismissive: "And Coe is beaten". The beleaguered Englishman finished sixth in a race where his team mate Matthew Yates came through for a surprise bronze behind Kiprotich and the Kenyan winner, Sammy Tirop.

I was there in the Mount Smart Stadium that day. I felt glad for Yates. But I felt sad for Coe.

Spain's conclusive 2-0 defeat by Chile prompted the following tweet from John Sinnott, senior sports producer for CNN's International Digital team:

"Nobody wanted it to end this way - the humbling of a side which has brought so much joy to world"

But that's the way it always ends, John.

Mike Rowbottom, one of Britain's most talented sportswriters, covered the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics as chief feature writer for insidethegames, having covered the previous five summer Games, and four winter Games, for The Independent. He has worked for the Daily Mail, The Times, The Observer, The Sunday Correspondent and The Guardian. His latest book Foul Play – the Dark Arts of Cheating in Sport (Bloomsbury £12.99) is available at the insidethegames.biz shop. To follow him on Twitter click here.