Saturday, July 10, 2010

Pieces




So, with Germany having just beaten Uruguay in an entertaining 3rd place game, we are down to the last two. I don't normally like to run with the crowd, but as far as this world cup goes, I am with the crowd………it has been mediocre. There has been no outstanding player, no one who has you on the edge of your seat with anticipation; no Pele, or Cruyff, or Kempes or Maradona and there has been no outstanding team. Germany have played with some vibrancy and Spains ability to pick teams apart with the utmost delicacy is a delight, but, as with individual players, we have not seen masters at work, but, you know, it's been alright. Any football through the long, long summer is better than no football.


As the World Cup enters its final game on Sunday, be sure to admire the poetic and sometimes melancholic Total Football of the Netherlands and Spain—and compare it to the prosaic, rather efficient style of Germany in Saturday's third-place match



There is a certain puritanism about Spain's approach, a kind of "talibanismo de tiki-taka" -- as if scoring a goal from distance is a bit crass, as if bundling one in or scoring from a corner is rather grubby, as if hitting a team on the break or with a long ball is vulgar

This is a brilliant article on Englishness.

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