Well. Spain beat Saudi Arabia four goals to none. That is what happened. I watched the numbers come in and I thought about how sometimes you already know what a thing is going to be before it happens, and sometimes you still can't quite believe it when it does. The score at halftime was three to nothing. By the time it was all done it was four. Mama always said some people are just further along than others, and that's not a cruelty, it's just the truth.
Spain passed that ball around like a shrimp boat crew that had been working together for a long, long time. Every man knew where the next man was. Every man knew his job. I've seen teams pass a ball before. I've seen a lot of it. But watching Spain do it is something else. The ball just moved and moved and moved, and Saudi Arabia had to keep running after it, and running after it, and I know what it feels like to run a long time and not get where you're going.
Saudi Arabia did not quit. I want to say that clearly because it matters. They kept trying all the way through. Mama said trying is always something. You can be outmatched and still have dignity in how you carry yourself, and they did. Four goals is a lot of goals to give up. But they gave up those four goals while still showing up, and I respect that more than I can properly explain.
Now, the Stock Liga algorithm — that's the one with forty things it looks at, forty different pieces of information all at once, which is more things than I can hold in my head at one time — it called this whole match just right. It said Spain would win, and Spain won. It said there would be goals, and there were four of them. It said Saudi Arabia would not score, and Saudi Arabia did not score. The algorithm picked Spain at one point fourteen, which I believe means the machine was very sure, and the machine was right to be very sure. I counted the picks and every single one of them landed. I don't know if that happens all the time, but it happened today.
Group H keeps moving now. Spain are in it, really in it. Saudi Arabia have some hard thinking to do. That's the World Cup though. You come in not knowing quite what you'll get, and then you get it, and you have to figure out what to do next. The scoreboard said four to nothing and it meant every word of it. Sometimes the number on the board is just the simple, honest truth of the whole afternoon, and there's nothing more to add. Spain were better. By a lot. And they were beautiful about it too.