Mighty Casey

 

I fully expected France to win The World Cup.

And I can admit now that it is not just the phenomenal talent on the team: Dembele, Olise, Mbappe, etc., but it is also that, and this is important, I didn't want them to win.

I DIDN'T WANT THEM TO WIN!

It is a well known and classic strategy to concede the loss ahead of time in these sorts of situations. If one has already accepted defeat, the theory goes, then if one loses it is a mere continuation of the status quo, and if one wins?

It is the most glorious miracle of all time!

So, it is the most glorious miracle of all time then. 

Spain beat France.

Of course, this strategy only works well if one can make a reasonable case for being the underdog, if the neutral press and the bookies are strongly favoring the other side, and probably if the dread team, in this case France, has sailed with terrifying efficiency and sparkling brilliance through the Cup, while my team here, Spain, has merely... er, steadily improved? 

It should be noted that this method only works if you actually believe it. An eeyorish disposition is also a useful asset.

Because Spain looked like the most brilliant team in world soccer, and so also like a seriously better one than France in this semi final, it is worth remembering that this same Spain team kind of only got it together against Portugal when Portugal's best player, Nuno Mendes, went out injured, and then only really managed a win against Belgium when their best player, Thibaut Courtois, also went out injured. 

But I guess we should also note with the wisdom of hindsight, it might be a more ideal situation to start peaking late in the tournament, to improve, rather than to imperiously crush teams you just weren't going to lose to anyway.

Do you want to see me try this trick again?

Argentina is going to lose to England. 

I think they will. 

I believe they will.

Argentina took the opposite strategy to France, they came within a desperate hair's breadth of losing to all those teams they were "never" going to lose to. Like the proverbial nine lived cat, they have died more times than I can count.

I think they might be out of lives. 

And like a clock ticking down, I have been watching the great Messi's moments shrink. When I started watching him well over a decade ago now, there were 15 minutes of Messi magic a game. Through the years it dropped down to a few minutes a game, still amazing. Now, though they are still magical and brilliant, they can be measured in mere seconds.

It is getting very close to dwindling down to one, super dense molecule of the purest brilliance, and then blinking out all together.

Is this expectation of defeat a trick that magically makes it not happen, like with Spain and France?

Oh, I wish.