A World of Hope

By ROGER COHEN
NYT

JOHANNESBURG — What’s the difference between Brazil and Argentina?

One day.

That’s the line doing the rounds in Rio de Janeiro after Argentina took just 24 hours to follow favorite Brazil in tumbling out of the World Cup. In Buenos Aires, people had been celebrating the Brazilian defeat. Argentine Schadenfreude is an unpleasant commodity with a thankfully short shelf life.

O.K., time for confessions, I’ve morphed into a German fan — and not just because the language has a word for pleasure in someone else’s pain.

A German fan is something I never expected to be. Germany has become the country I could never settle in yet love most. It has played the most exciting football here, not least in demolishing Argentina 4-0, and made the most exciting political statement with its Benetton-ad team.

(More here.)