“How did you go bankrupt?”
“Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.”
I think this quote from Hemingway’s “The Sun Also Rises” summarizes Spain’s swift demise in the World Cup. They were flattened by the Netherlands and Chile, unable to hoard the ball with their trademark stylish passing and too old and slow to keep up with the opposition when it had possession. Xavi, the talismanic midfielder who orchestrated it all for Spain and the dominant Spanish club, FC Barcelona, the last eight years or so, sat on the bench for the Chile match.
I’m still not sure how it all unraveled, but teams have been finding chinks in Barcelona’s armor for the past couple of years, parking the bus on defense one way or the other, then stinging the Catalan club on corner kicks and other set pieces. The role of Carlos Puyol, the lion-hearted defender for both Spain and Barcelona, is apparent after he is gone. He had the size and determination to snuff out free kick chances and also to win back possession.
The hyenas are already snickering about how passe Spain’s tika-taka passing is, but let us pause a moment to mourn the …. passing … of one of the all-time great football squads. They didn’t just win games; they won the hearts of many people who might still barely register the other football. Instead of just booting the ball toward the goal and hoping for someone to head it in, they threaded clever passes to a place where sport met art.
