Spain shot-stopper, Iker Casillas believes he must shoulder much of the blame for Spain\u2019s humbling 5-1 defeat to the Netherlands.<\/p>\n
Louis van Gaal\u2019s side recovered from falling behind to a first-half Xabi Alonso penalty, with Arjen Robben and Robin van Persie both scoring twice and Stefan De Vrij adding another to avenge the 1-0 defeat the Dutch suffered in the final of the 2010 World Cup.<\/p>\n
Casillas, whose heavy touch allowed van Persie to nip in and score the Oranje\u2019s fourth goal on the night after he had earlier missed the cross for De Vrij\u2019s tap-in, acknowledged that he was below the standard expected of him and apologised to the Spain supporters.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s time to be quiet, to reflect and think about the next match against Chile as a final,\u201d the 33-year-old was quoted as saying by Marca.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe apologise, and I am the first in line. Our fans must give out the criticism that comes to us and forget what happened soon.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have not been up to par and I accept that. We have not been fortunate, starting with me. Now only we think about the next game.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have to take the blame. All we could do is think about the next game when they scored the third goal and went further behind. I am mature enough to receive all criticism. We must sort ourselves out.\u201d<\/p>\n
La Roja boss Vicente Del Bosque, however, insisted that no one player should shoulder the burden of responsibility for the loss, especially not their goalkeeper.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen a team loses a match it\u2019s not just the performance of one single player, its a weakness in the total squad,\u201d the 63-year-old said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can\u2019t blame anyone, least of all Iker Casillas.\u201d<\/p>\n
Spain, who sit bottom of Group B after the first round of games, face Chile on June 18, who beat Australia 3-1 in their first match<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Spain shot-stopper, Iker Casillas believes he must shoulder much of the blame for Spain\u2019s humbling 5-1 defeat to the Netherlands. Louis van Gaal\u2019s side recovered from falling behind to a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27915,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n