This is not only an exit in a stadium; it is an exit from an era.

The Spain team was ousted by an unexpected but impressive Chile with a 2-0. Team coach Vicente del Bosque confessed that he did not even thought that his team would be sent home packing after two scoreless games.

"We're sorry not to have been able to succeed and it's time to think about the future," he said.

"We don't have any excuses. We didn't meet the standards expected of us, though I would like to say that the team showed character. We pushed forward but we didn't have any luck. Now is not the time to think about the team's future or mine. There'll be plenty of time for that, but not right now."

However, he insisted that his team prepared so well for this year's World Cup. "If I think about the 25 days that we have spent together, the work we did, the way the squad got on and the commitment the players showed, I would never have believed that we could go out in the first phase," del Bosque added.

"Sometimes you can see that the players go into a tournament defeated or that they don't have any enthusiasm but that was not the case for us. We have been working for 25 days, doing good work. We thought we were in good condition and it was always hard to pick a starting XI," he declared with optimism.

"Holland and Chile were better than us."

It would be remembered that Spain was triumphat in the FIFA South Africa World Cup 2010. It is only their first time since 1998 that they failed to qualify for the Round of 16.

"I prefer to play football, not just to get the ball forward at the first opportunity. I try to wait for, or to create, the best opportunity for the right pass," said del Bosque in 1981, when he was still a Real Madrid player.