Thank goodness for Germany. In crushing Argentina by four unanswered goals on Saturday, once again they filled the 2010 World Cup with a spirit of freshness and optimism while elsewhere, as three other teams emerged to contest this week’s semi-finals, a sense of injustice and disillusionment threatened to devalue the tournament.
Holland won through against Brazil after a largely joyless encounter disfigured by countless fouls, big and small, and the sort of theatrical responses that are now a standard part of many footballers’ repertoire. By next Sunday night Arjen Robben may turn out to be the individual star of the tournament that Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaká, Didier Drogba, Wayne Rooney and – thus far – Fernando Torres so failed to dominate, but the automatic melodrama of his fully choreographed plunges to the turf is as irritating, even alienating, as the original offences provoked by the Dutch winger’s penetrative skills.
