Joy and Spain

Just got back from a week in Galicia, having been out there for a holiday with mates, and had the pleasure of watching the World Cup quarter- and semi-finals there. The Spaniards always intrigue me with their muted response to winning these games. I was also out there for the quarter- and semi-finals of the European Championship they won a couple of years ago, and their response to their wins in those games was identical. They were extremely pleased but muted by comparison to English fans. In 1990 when England won the quarter-final against Cameroon there were thousands of people on the streets of Brighton, dancing in the fountains, generally ecstatic. No such response out there, at least where I was. Maybe it's a feature of the Galician nature that they only actually go properly bonkers when they win the whole thing. It's almost as if they don't want to believe it's going to happen until they actually see it.

I pointed out that if England ever actually reach, let alone win, a World Cup Final these days, there would be, with apologies to the great Bill Murray, buildings aflame, anarchy on the streets, dogs and cats living together, human sacrifice, mass hysteria. Nothing like the quiet satisfaction I witnessed during both the Euros and the WC. My only regret is that both times I've had to come back on the day of the finals themselves, so have missed what happened when they actually won them.

And, for me, the best team won. They may not have played the scintillating football they're capable of, they may have scored very few goals, but they've been the best team in the world over the last few years, they can play some breathtaking stuff, and the right team won on the night as well I think. Holland, for all their berating a ref who did his best to retain some semblance of a game of football in a morass of dissent and thuggery, would have more right to complain if they'd actually tried to play some football occasionally. They've also got players of very high quality, especially technically, but it felt to me like they were paralysed by fear of losing. They could easily have finished the game with fewer than the 10 they did finish it with. Total Football it bloody wasn't.

One happy bonus on the flight home, though. Flying over the Sussex countryside, and a left turn above Brighton, giving me spectacular views of the new stadium under construction. What a glorious site that was for an Albion man.