There can't have been many England fans watching Argentina getting dismantled by the wonderful German side of World Cup 2010 thinking "I admire them, but I wouldn't want anything they've got". But there was certainly one very high profile former England player who expressed precisely those sentiments. Gary Lineker probably wanted to be unqualified in his praise, but sensing the mood of a nation still in the fug of a mauling by Jogi Low's team he mumbled "It's not hard to not envy the Germans". You could read it like this: "We don't really like Germany, but boy they are really good".
Will we ever see people purring about the delights of German football in the way they get themselves in such a lather about Brazil and Argentina? Not likely. It suits many observers to retreat into stereotyping that stumbles clumsily into jingoism and on occasion, casual racism of the laziest kind (Africans don't understand defending, but y'know they can be very skilful). When the pain of having an average at best national side just won't go away then what else is there to make them feel better but to patronise everyone else?
If a nation's football team can say something about how that nation feels about itself then this country must really be in the doldrums. And let's face it- oh the irony - it's those English players who are cold, uninspiring & robotic. German players are excelling at a brand of modern football more technically skilful than Argentina and Brazil, better in defence than Italy (when they were good!), and more enterprising than Holland and Uruguay. They deserve full and unreserved credit. Should they fail to win the tournament they will have still set a standard that others will have to rise to - and it's a standard that England can only imagine in their wildest dreams.
