Everybody forgets things. Jason Bourne forgot who he was in the Bourne films, but, like troopers, the cast and crew made it work. British Prime Minister David Cameron once left one of his kids at a pub he’d been at for the afternoon. Oops! I myself went through a similar experience, frantically retracing my steps back to the pub in question, half-naked, shouting at passers-by, before realizing that in fact I don’t have any kids and that I rarely go to pubs—an anti-climax to say the least. Spain, equally embarrassingly, appear to have forgotten to qualify for the next World Cup. Their faces will be so red!
Now, okay, Spain’s forgetfulness hasn’t been punished just yet; they play France in a match they really should think about winning if they’re going to avoid a tricky play-off to reach Brazil 2014. But that’s not the point: either way, for the current World and European Champions, even the idea that they might not qualify automatically for the next World Cup marks a break from an era of difficult-to-believe dominance: they would never have forgotten to qualify a few years ago. Their coach actually read out the stats about that dominance at his last press conference (there is no need to repeat them here: we know they’re good and I simply will not be the host for sycophantic fawning). They’ve been the best team in international football for the last six years, no question, and suddenly they can’t beat Finland and are two points behind France in their qualifying group. There’s been a change.
And this is brilliant news.
It’s brilliant news for a few reasons, ranging from the reasonable to the apparently not so. I’ll include both here but I won’t tell you which is which so as to keep you on your toes. This will be either fun or tedious, but again I won’t tell which so as to reinforce the on-the-toes mentality.
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