After giving it over a week to marinate and getting friends' feedback (yes, Bokolis has real-life friends, though, like the top speed on your basic Chevy Monte Carlo, that number is electronically limited), for all the quality football, we saw a rather drab final.We were shortchanged in that we should have seen a 3 - nil Spain victory. But, Spain were not able to finish chances. If we were going to settle for 1 - nil, some drama, like Spain clearing off the back line or some rattling of the woodwork, was necessary. Instead, Germany could not get anything going on offense.
Further, the goal wasn't typical Spanish brilliance. Simply, it was Torres outpacing and out muscling a de-puckered Lahm and beating Lehmann with a flick. Perhaps it is fitting that making something out of very little is what separated Spain in this tournament, with David Villa's late magic against Sweden being the first instance. Football may be 90% running, but knockout tournament football is about fight and character. Unlike 2004 (and numerous other disappointments), Spain had both.
After all that, I heard gripes about Torres only scoring two goals for the entire tournament, none of them especially pretty (like Villa's goals). The simple retort is that his goals- and how he scored them- was what they needed out of him. In the past, if Spain's pretty style didn't net them goals, they would get frustrated and shut down. This added dimension to Spain's game- and resulting production- eliminated the thought (and resulting pressure/neurosis/paranoia) of losing and, ultimately, is what separated them from the rest.
Unless video surfaces of Poof-naldo taking a strap-on from some broad, this closes the discussion about football and footballers for the time being. I suppose boozin' and poon-tang- blogging about it, anyway- will have to suffice.
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