I think I remember the commentator actually suggesting during the match that the game was an aberration and simply could not be happening, something had to be wrong, Spain could not lose to Nigeria!.

¡Este no puede ser! exclaimed a similar Spanish commentator when the Spanish International Handball team were defeated by the French…seems they have difficulty accepting that the days of the Conquistadores may have ended some time ago.

As for the General Alcazar chin, it’s a rather unfortunate Iberian characteristic which implies smugness. Its bearers face a similar fate to a child born with one eyebrow permanently raised.

Raul didn’t even make the squad - so Aragones (at least) doesn’t consider him world class anymore.

It’s reasonable to ask how often all-time greats are produced (or what countries produce ‘em). I’d imagine that Balague’s point was that having such a player in an already competent team gives you the extra push needed to win major competitions.

Actually, when you break it down like that it seems a pretty unremarkable and obvious point! Greece, for example, proved that you don’t need great players (or even very good players) to win things.

Still, it’s hard to argue with the suggestion that Spain have never really produced someone of the class of Platini, Van Basten, Gullit, Zidane, Baggio, Hagi etc, etc. What that actually means RE: their failures is, of course, another matter.

The last true, all-time-great for England surely has to be Gascoigne. But that is easy to say, and besides, how many countries ever produce a true all-time-great? If we are to be sensible about it we can say very few indeed, for these players are few and far between.

Tapioca (his main rival) had a more discrete one - sunk into the folds of his flabby face:

I’m not sure where Balague’s chin fits in…perhaps somewhere between the two.

“I don’t think Spain have had that player to take them on to the next level for a long time, a player like Marco van Basten, or Zinedine Zidane - we have had famous players, but not world-class ones.

“Everywhere, especially in England, people have overestimated the value and quality of Spanish players, mainly because they can pass the ball and maybe do things the English guys cannot do as easily.”

I’ve never actually heard that view articulated. The fact that they have the players to do it is generally accepted as a given.

It’s a very similar situation with England - where (one could argue) the actual “world-class-ness” of the national squad is consistently overestimated. Who, for example, was the last English “all-time great”?

I should add that I’m not sure what to make of Balague’s theory (maybe he’s underestimating the team) but it’s certainly a refreshing take.

I think I remember the commentator actually suggesting during the match that the game was an aberration and simply could not be happening, something had to be wrong, Spain could not lose to Nigeria!

That’s priceless. It’s like Brecht’s Galileo!

“Here have a look in my telescope, Church fathers”, says he, “and you’ll see the proof of what I claim. Copernicus’ heliocentric model of the universe is correct!”

“We don’t have to look”, say they, “For we know that this cannot be. Whatever we see in that tube of yours would have to be a mere illusion. Like Spain’s defeat to Nigeria centuries from now”.

RE: “Colonel Tapioca” - wasn’t he a General?!