{"id":2343,"date":"2010-07-09T12:02:50","date_gmt":"2010-07-09T16:02:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=2343"},"modified":"2013-02-06T17:13:27","modified_gmt":"2013-02-06T22:13:27","slug":"and-then-we-came-to-the-end","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/07\/09\/and-then-we-came-to-the-end\/","title":{"rendered":"And Then We Came to the End"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the World Cup, as in any tournament, half of the field is eliminated in the first round, and half again in each succeeding round\u2014a method of crowning a champion devised by Zeno and guaranteed to bring the whole thrilling spectacle to a buyer\u2019s-remorse anticlimax. (You can see the diminishing interest in the now-trickling coverage in outlets both mainstream<\/a> and semi-pro<\/a>.) Whichever second-rate European nation triumphs on Sunday\u2014if they can control the midfield as smugly as they did against Germany in Wednesday\u2019s semifinal it will surely be Spain\u2014will look a lot less truly top-dog than simply last-man-standing. <\/p>\n

In his Winner-Take-All Society<\/em>, the academic Robert Frank famously described<\/a> the American economy as such a tournament, devoted to the production of champions at the expense of the welfare of many many losers; in South Africa this summer we will have thirty-one of them to one likely-uninspiring winner, a fairly devastating ratio. But it\u2019s not only the partisans of those thirty-one countries that\u2019ll be left bewildered, wondering what might have been, all the rest of us will, too, indeed anyone who paid any attention to the opening of the tournament and its round-the-clock stream of giddy action and deluded, infinite-horizon expectation. The games played in those early days were often stilted by deliberative tactics, player caution, and coaching prudence, and their outcomes were rarely decisive. But they embodied what another academic, Barry Schwartz, might\u2019ve called the paradox of chance<\/a>—we want each game to contain all the possibilities and promise of the entire cup, to unfold as though the shape and character of the whole month-long tournament hangs completely on its outcome, but we don\u2019t want any particular result to disclose the possibility of any other. On this score a tournament is designed to disappoint. But those early games offer, always, the best of both worlds, yielding perhaps less quality of play than the contests that follow but making up for it, many times over, in volume. Or, as I like to call it, abundance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the World Cup, as in any tournament, half of the field is eliminated in the first round, and half again in each succeeding round\u2014a method of crowning a champion devised by Zeno and guaranteed to bring the whole thrilling spectacle to a buyer\u2019s-remorse anticlimax. (You can see the diminishing interest in the now-trickling coverage […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[84],"tags":[396,212,247,398,397,395,86,215,89],"class_list":["post-2343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-world-cup-2010","tag-barry-schwartz","tag-football","tag-germany","tag-paradox-of-chance","tag-paradox-of-choice","tag-robert-frank","tag-soccer","tag-spain","tag-world-cup"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAnd Then We Came to the End by David Wallace-Wells<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"July 9, 2010 \u2013 In the World Cup, as in any tournament, half of the field is eliminated in the first round, and half again in each succeeding round\u2014a method of crowning a\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/07\/09\/and-then-we-came-to-the-end\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"And Then We Came to the End by David Wallace-Wells\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"July 9, 2010 \u2013 In the World Cup, as in any tournament, half of the field is eliminated in the first round, and half again in each succeeding round\u2014a method of crowning a\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/07\/09\/and-then-we-came-to-the-end\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Paris Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-07-09T16:02:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-02-06T22:13:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-1.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"675\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"David Wallace-Wells\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"David Wallace-Wells\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/07\/09\/and-then-we-came-to-the-end\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/07\/09\/and-then-we-came-to-the-end\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"David Wallace-Wells\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/150747d5050e1320e762d957512fd0e7\"},\"headline\":\"And Then We Came to the End\",\"datePublished\":\"2010-07-09T16:02:50+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-02-06T22:13:27+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/07\/09\/and-then-we-came-to-the-end\/\"},\"wordCount\":349,\"commentCount\":1,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Barry Schwartz\",\"football\",\"Germany\",\"paradox of chance\",\"paradox of choice\",\"Robert Frank\",\"soccer\",\"Spain\",\"World Cup\"],\"articleSection\":[\"World Cup 2010\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/07\/09\/and-then-we-came-to-the-end\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/07\/09\/and-then-we-came-to-the-end\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/07\/09\/and-then-we-came-to-the-end\/\",\"name\":\"And Then We Came to the End by David Wallace-Wells\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2010-07-09T16:02:50+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-02-06T22:13:27+00:00\",\"description\":\"July 9, 2010 \u2013 In the World Cup, as in any tournament, half of the field is eliminated in the first round, and half again in each succeeding round\u2014a method of crowning a\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/07\/09\/and-then-we-came-to-the-end\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/07\/09\/and-then-we-came-to-the-end\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/07\/09\/and-then-we-came-to-the-end\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"And Then We Came to the End\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"description\":\"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"width\":696,\"height\":696,\"caption\":\"The Paris Review\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/150747d5050e1320e762d957512fd0e7\",\"name\":\"David Wallace-Wells\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2b699a611b4d10ba01733dbcfd7c2c0fbaf3e5a5cbd016ac410f9dce4f890d1b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2b699a611b4d10ba01733dbcfd7c2c0fbaf3e5a5cbd016ac410f9dce4f890d1b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"David Wallace-Wells\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/dwallacewells\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"And Then We Came to the End by David Wallace-Wells","description":"July 9, 2010 \u2013 In the World Cup, as in any tournament, half of the field is eliminated in the first round, and half again in each succeeding round\u2014a method of crowning a","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/07\/09\/and-then-we-came-to-the-end\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"And Then We Came to the End by David Wallace-Wells","og_description":"July 9, 2010 \u2013 In the World Cup, as in any tournament, half of the field is eliminated in the first round, and half again in each succeeding round\u2014a method of crowning a","og_url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/07\/09\/and-then-we-came-to-the-end\/","og_site_name":"The Paris Review","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","article_published_time":"2010-07-09T16:02:50+00:00","article_modified_time":"2013-02-06T22:13:27+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":675,"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-1.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"David Wallace-Wells","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@parisreview","twitter_site":"@parisreview","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"David Wallace-Wells","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/07\/09\/and-then-we-came-to-the-end\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/07\/09\/and-then-we-came-to-the-end\/"},"author":{"name":"David Wallace-Wells","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/150747d5050e1320e762d957512fd0e7"},"headline":"And Then We Came to the End","datePublished":"2010-07-09T16:02:50+00:00","dateModified":"2013-02-06T22:13:27+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/07\/09\/and-then-we-came-to-the-end\/"},"wordCount":349,"commentCount":1,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"keywords":["Barry Schwartz","football","Germany","paradox of chance","paradox of choice","Robert Frank","soccer","Spain","World Cup"],"articleSection":["World Cup 2010"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/07\/09\/and-then-we-came-to-the-end\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/07\/09\/and-then-we-came-to-the-end\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/07\/09\/and-then-we-came-to-the-end\/","name":"And Then We Came to the End by David Wallace-Wells","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2010-07-09T16:02:50+00:00","dateModified":"2013-02-06T22:13:27+00:00","description":"July 9, 2010 \u2013 In the World Cup, as in any tournament, half of the field is eliminated in the first round, and half again in each succeeding round\u2014a method of crowning a","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/07\/09\/and-then-we-came-to-the-end\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/07\/09\/and-then-we-came-to-the-end\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/07\/09\/and-then-we-came-to-the-end\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"And Then We Came to the End"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","name":"The Paris Review","description":"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization","name":"The Paris Review","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","width":696,"height":696,"caption":"The Paris Review"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/150747d5050e1320e762d957512fd0e7","name":"David Wallace-Wells","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2b699a611b4d10ba01733dbcfd7c2c0fbaf3e5a5cbd016ac410f9dce4f890d1b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2b699a611b4d10ba01733dbcfd7c2c0fbaf3e5a5cbd016ac410f9dce4f890d1b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"David Wallace-Wells"},"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/dwallacewells\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2343"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2343\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46415,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2343\/revisions\/46415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}