A cousinly contest crowns the Cup

  Little could require less

  thematic development than

  the impression we must all

  be under, to a degree, of

  déja vu in a sentence link-

  ing Germany and Argentina

  in a species of organized

  masculine struggle. There

  are positive suggestions

  to extract, we're likely

  to find, in this interest-

  ingly incestuous match;

  and the central one seems

  to be, that it may be time

  to disassociate the illu-

  sion of sport from any res-

  idues of the nation state.
  To tie teams to a political
  entity has never been sport-
  ing; and to burden States with
  the fickleness of teams, can     be incontinently cruel.

In Milan, of late, our coutur-iers have reminded us that we can still color-code our sportsmen along nationally nostalgic lines, without having to hoist any society's 
self-regard on the bounce of a single ball. We, for our part, have unconditional confidence 
in the justice of such a bounce, but would be just as glad to see its genius for caprice not sug-gesting a political consequence. True, this would reverse millen-nia of corruption of chance, but why not?
Everyone can get behind a color
scheme of his taste, moreover,
without having to justify it 
as, That is Rhenish, That is
Patagonian. Let the sentiments
of place mingle freely without
force. 

ii   Linus Wördemann
iii  Sam Alexander