What I found most significant was the lack of any of the defensive frailty that had been previously apparent. Even the back four are now playing out of their skins. Finally I know who I want to lift the trophy - and it's not Spain. (Mind you, I wouldn't mind Uruguay pulling a fast one on everybody, simply as a turn-up for the books of major proportions.)
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Something Beautiful
Still breathless after four engaging quarter-finals, all with at least something to get the pulse racing. In the case of the Germany game it was the sheer excellence of the German play that did the trick. On the break they are nothing less than sensational. Without making excuses for England, who don't deserve any on any account, this casts the 4 - 1 drubbing in a slightly different light. Woeful as England were perhaps folks will begin to acknowledge that Germany are playing the game as it is meant to be played. Beautifully.
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2 comments:
Just to note that Uruguay have won the World Cup twice — in 1930 and 1950 — and that neither Holland nor Spain have won it before. :)
I want a Germany-Netherlands final just in the vain hope that they finally put the events of the Thirty Years' War behind them. It is one of the longest rivalries of all time, dating back to 1621 at least.
(Of course, Spain-Portugal dates back to 1481, when the Pope granted all land south of the Canary Islands to Portugal. The subsequent Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494 divided the entire world between them. Grandees indeed!)
Fortunately I don't actually remember Uruguay taking the trophy, but I did remember they had done so. Sadly I do remember Pele getting hacked down in England in 1966 and the ref doing nothing, to the eternal shame of my nation.
And I also remember the last Germany-Netherlands final, with pain. In that case the beautiful game lost out and it did nothing to assuage that particular rivalry - though I think events of the mid-twentieth century might be somewhat more relevant than that mouldy old Thirty Years War business.
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