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Spanish football

The milky refractions of history: Brian Phillips at Slate argues all soccer romantics (i.e., lovers of Dutch soccer history) should be rooting for Holland’s true heirs Spain Sunday, saying that “great teams in other sports beat their opponents. Great teams in soccer beat both their opponents and the game.” Stefan Fatsis at The Goal Post wonders for whom Papa Cruyff will be rooting. And Charles Holland (!) at Minus the Shooting says such “myths of the near past” obscure our clarity of vision for national teams — so we can’t see how boring Spain really is, or Bastian Schweinsteiger as subtle and sophisticated.

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Life After Bambi

Is it just me, or is there palpable relief at the puncturing of Spain’s balloon of virtue? Indeed, World Cup history is littered with the failures of favored purists and romantics — Hungary 1954, Holland 1974, Brazil 1982, etc. The lesson: Soccer is about artisans, not just artists: “Football without its grinding 0-0 and 1-1 draws, without its unpredictable collisions of mind and muscle, of beauty and bruises, would be like music with nothing below middle C.” (Richard Williams/The Guardian)