[lit-ideas] The Footballing Metaphysics of Scottish Folklore
- From: Donal McEvoy <donalmcevoyuk@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 19 May 2010 23:31:11 +0000 (GMT)
From _The Guardian_, reporting how a kidnapping attempt on Cruyff and his
family influenced him to withdraw from the 1978 World Cup:
"But last night, Archie Gemmill, whose mazy run to score the winning goal for
Scotland in their pyrrhic victory over the Dutch at the group stage is the
stuff of Scottish folklore, insisted Cruyff's presence would have made little
difference in that match at least.
"If he had played, it would not have made a blind bit of difference. Maybe we
would have beaten them 7-2 instead of 3-2. We won the game, and that is it."
Leaving aside the ironically Cruyff-like character of Gemmill's goal, the
implications are shocking. There is no difference between 7-2 and 3-2. When a
game is won, it stays won - no counterfactual would have made a blind bit of
difference. These twin pillars of wisdom, fortified by a tradition of
spam-handed goalies, traumatic World Cup anthems and Rod Stewart, have
underpinned Scotland's relentless failure to qualify since and made the case
for full independence unanswerable.
Donal
Cruyff fan
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