Passion and commitment

Well said, James Hamilton:

I never meant it to be a central theme at this site. You can blame the press that it has been. It was their myth after all - that the kind of feelings fans experience watching football are the same feelings that the team needs to have on the pitch in order to win.

James again, lauding Chris Waddle's commentary (after an unpromising start):

Once the match was underway, though, he was superb. Intelligent, thinking, observing. At one point, he mentioned that Spain would pass to a man who had perhaps two yards of space around him - but England were reluctant to pass to anyone with less than five yards. Better, don’t you think, than merely saying that England weren’t passing the ball as well as Spain? Better than saying that they aren’t as comfortable on the ball as Spain?

Because we know those things already. But Waddle’s way of putting it actually makes you think a bit more about what’s going on - it makes you reflect on how much harder it will be for an England player to be in a position where a pass is on; how much harder for England to work the ball; how much more important each England pass becomes, therefore, because there’ll be fewer of them.