English and the English: James Lawton on Yesterday's German Defeat of Argentina

The scruffier UK press is usually stuck somewhere in ham-handed Nazi references when dealing with the Germans on just about anything, but the Sunday Independent's James Lawton had a nice article about how the well-trained and youthful German Mannschaft destroyed the starry-eyed Argentine team in yesterday's quarterfinals game at the World Cup.

The article's worth a read, if you share my enthusiasm for such things. But if you don't, you might still enjoy this excerpt, which I think is a nicely worded and intelligent bit of color – and a reminder that the English journalists are often much better at using our somewhat shared language than are American journalists (what few are left):

Here, as the sadness on the face of [Argentine coach] Maradona lacked only the make-up of the most tragic clown, the new German team showed that they belong not to the future but now. Whether they are mature enough, and their defence of sufficient resilience, to see them through to the final, is a matter of some intrigue but plainly a gleeful Chancellor Angela Merkel was ready to give them the benefit of any doubt. She was made so exuberant by the goals of Müller, Miroslav Klose, Arne Friedrich and then the old hand Klose again, she planted a kiss on the cheek of the South African president Jacob Zuma, a man of noted enthusiasm for such overtures.

Nice, that last bit.