SPAIN WORLD CUP HISTORY

Except for a fourth-place finish in 1950 in Brazil, Spain has had a history of teasing its supporters. The Spanish are good enough to qualify and sometimes good enough to get out of the first round, but have rarely made an impact when it really counted. After a rather discouraging result when they hosted the 1982 Cup -- a second-round elimination -- one Spanish newspaper refused to publish the team's lineup because it was so disgusted.

Spain reached the quarterfinals at USA '94, but could not stop Italy's Roberto Baggio from scoring with three minutes left in a 2-1 loss. Spain embarrassed itself at France '98, failing to get out of the opening round. The side might have pulled off its greatest tease in the 2002 competition, finishing undefeated at 3-0-2, but still eliminated in the quarterfinals (remember, FIFA considers penalty-kick eliminations as ties, not losses, in the knockout round of the cup). Spain swept through its opening round group at 3-0 and squeaked past Ireland in the second round via penalty kicks. But Spain wound up on the other side of the PKs in the quarterfinals, having three goals called back before it was given the boot by host South Korea via penalties, 5-3, after playing to a scoreless draw.