{"id":73899,"date":"2014-07-14T17:45:04","date_gmt":"2014-07-14T21:45:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=73899"},"modified":"2014-07-15T18:42:37","modified_gmt":"2014-07-15T22:42:37","slug":"schadenfreude","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/07\/14\/schadenfreude\/","title":{"rendered":"Schadenfreude"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Gotze\"<\/a>

G\u00f6tze kicks the match-winning goal. Photo: Danilo Borges\/Portal da Copa, via Wikimedia Commons<\/p><\/div>\n

How apt that the Brazilians are living off Schadenfreude: after the debacle against Germany and a little extra humiliation from Holland, all Brazil\u2019s fans seemed to want was for Germany to prevent Argentina from victory dancing on the beach at Copacabana. Believe me, I get it. As a lifelong supporter of Tottenham Hotspur FC in the English Premier League, much of my soccer pleasure in the last half-century, sadly, has derived only from misfortunes experienced by Arsenal FC, Tottenham\u2019s arch rivals. In the years 1960\u20131962, Tottenham was clearly the superior team\u2014since then, not so much. Like Brazil and Argentina, the two clubs are neighbors, and Arsenal, like Brazil, has the larger fan base and more money.<\/p>\n

But I want to tell you, Brazilians: Schadenfreude (yours and mine) is unhealthy. It mocks the meat it feeds on. Brazil (population two hundred million) is in a much better position that Argentina (population forty-one million) to do something to transform its lackluster team into world-beaters. They need look no further than Germany, where, over a twenty-year period, an entire system from youth soccer up was revamped in the wake of defeat and disappointment to produce the superior team that yesterday won the World Cup in style: a triumph that not a soul would deny they deserved. Is this why the U.S. keeps spying on Deutschland? Looking for the blueprint that will take us to number one? Or are we simply after Angela Merkel\u2019s recipe for Schwarzw\u00e4lder Kirschtorte?<\/p>\n

The sun set behind Christ the Redeemer, and then Argentina went down, too. Lionel Messi won the Golden Ball for best player in the tournament (not that he cared), but it could just as easily have gone to Arjen Robben or Bastian Schweinsteiger or Javier Mascherano. After two overtime games in five days, Messi looked, at times, as if he were walking through treacle. When, as the final minutes ticked away, he stepped up to take his last do-or-die free kick, he was already a forlorn figure; that ball was going wide, or over the bar, and everyone in the Maracan\u00e3 knew it. Messi\u2019s problem? He was too much on his own, dropping ever deeper, as if a retreat into the shadows of his own half would conjure a Di Mar\u00eda to run back up the field with him. In his most successful years, Pel\u00e9 was surrounded by players of great genius\u2014Garrincha, Tost\u00e3o, Jairzinho, and Rivelino\u2014individuals with talents that didn\u2019t quite match the master\u2019s, but enabled them to provide stellar support. While Mascherano was a beast in the Argentine defense, Messi had no one quite at the level required for his game to shine at its brightest. He\u2019ll have to return to Barcelona for that.<\/p>\n

Of course, there\u2019s always the feeling that he should have been able to do it on his own\u2014a feat Maradona is believed to have accomplished in World Cup 1986, when he scored or assisted on ten of Argentina\u2019s fourteen goals. But, even with the great Lothar Matth\u00e4us on board, the West Germany that Argentina beat in that final was not at the same level as Germany 2014, the first team to win a major international championship since the fall of the Berlin Wall. Where Germany is concerned, everyone reaches for the engineering metaphors\u2014it\u2019s knee-jerk\u2014and, this time around, it doesn\u2019t apply. Okay, Germany is well coached: Is this why Ian Darke, the English ESPN\/ABC commentator, described Jogi L\u00f6w as resembling a Bond villain? Baffling. The team played with a smoothness not like that of a well-oiled machine, but more like that of the movements of choreographed dancers. It looked like art out there, not industry. Certainly Mario G\u00f6tze\u2019s lovely goal from Andr\u00e9 Sch\u00fcrrle\u2019s cross was full of grace: one swift movement, chest to foot to back of net. G\u00f6tze\u2019s father is a professor of computer science at Dortmund University. His son\u2019s goal may be the best thing that has happened to academia this century.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve watched fourteen World Cups, and 2014 is the best I can remember since 1970, bites and all. And now we move on to Putin-land, where Russia (population 146 million) will take on their greatest rivals, the eleven courageous young women of Pussy Riot.<\/p>\n

Jonathan Wilson\u2019s work has appeared in <\/em>The New Yorker, <\/em>Esquire, <\/em>The New York Times Magazine, and <\/em>Best American Short Stories, among other publications. He is the author of eight books, including <\/em>Kick and Run: Memoir with Soccer Ball. He lives in Massachusetts.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How apt that the Brazilians are living off Schadenfreude: after the debacle against Germany and a little extra humiliation from Holland, all Brazil\u2019s fans seemed to want was for Germany to prevent Argentina from victory dancing on the beach at Copacabana. Believe me, I get it. As a lifelong supporter of Tottenham Hotspur FC in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":518,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13859],"tags":[362,192,247,14520,86,417,89],"class_list":["post-73899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-world-cup-2014","tag-argentina","tag-brazil","tag-germany","tag-lionel-messi","tag-soccer","tag-victory","tag-world-cup"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSchadenfreude<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Jonathan Wilson on the best World Cup since 1970.\" \/>\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\/2014\/07\/14\/schadenfreude\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Schadenfreude by Jonathan Wilson\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"July 14, 2014 \u2013 How apt that the Brazilians are living off Schadenfreude: after the debacle against Germany and a little extra humiliation from Holland, all Brazil\u2019s fans\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/07\/14\/schadenfreude\/\" \/>\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=\"2014-07-14T21:45:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-07-15T22:42:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/gotze.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"867\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"536\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jonathan Wilson\" \/>\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=\"Jonathan Wilson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/07\/14\/schadenfreude\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/07\/14\/schadenfreude\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Jonathan Wilson\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/b0671dfee1aee11aa7334555825b4b59\"},\"headline\":\"Schadenfreude\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-07-14T21:45:04+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-07-15T22:42:37+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/07\/14\/schadenfreude\/\"},\"wordCount\":788,\"commentCount\":4,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/07\/14\/schadenfreude\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/gotze.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Argentina\",\"Brazil\",\"Germany\",\"Lionel Messi\",\"soccer\",\"victory\",\"World Cup\"],\"articleSection\":[\"World Cup 2014\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/07\/14\/schadenfreude\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/07\/14\/schadenfreude\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/07\/14\/schadenfreude\/\",\"name\":\"Schadenfreude\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/07\/14\/schadenfreude\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/07\/14\/schadenfreude\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/gotze.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-07-14T21:45:04+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-07-15T22:42:37+00:00\",\"description\":\"Jonathan Wilson on the best World Cup since 1970.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/07\/14\/schadenfreude\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/07\/14\/schadenfreude\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/07\/14\/schadenfreude\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/gotze.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/gotze.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/07\/14\/schadenfreude\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Schadenfreude\"}]},{\"@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\/b0671dfee1aee11aa7334555825b4b59\",\"name\":\"Jonathan Wilson\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/addad001f5a43af7af8956b70c804fbff3d33470c44c99505361b20885ae8516?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/addad001f5a43af7af8956b70c804fbff3d33470c44c99505361b20885ae8516?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jonathan Wilson\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/jwilson\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Schadenfreude","description":"Jonathan Wilson on the best World Cup since 1970.","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\/2014\/07\/14\/schadenfreude\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Schadenfreude by Jonathan Wilson","og_description":"July 14, 2014 \u2013 How apt that the Brazilians are living off Schadenfreude: after the debacle against Germany and a little extra humiliation from Holland, all Brazil\u2019s fans","og_url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/07\/14\/schadenfreude\/","og_site_name":"The Paris Review","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","article_published_time":"2014-07-14T21:45:04+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-07-15T22:42:37+00:00","og_image":[{"width":867,"height":536,"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/gotze.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Jonathan Wilson","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@parisreview","twitter_site":"@parisreview","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jonathan Wilson","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/07\/14\/schadenfreude\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/07\/14\/schadenfreude\/"},"author":{"name":"Jonathan Wilson","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/b0671dfee1aee11aa7334555825b4b59"},"headline":"Schadenfreude","datePublished":"2014-07-14T21:45:04+00:00","dateModified":"2014-07-15T22:42:37+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/07\/14\/schadenfreude\/"},"wordCount":788,"commentCount":4,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/07\/14\/schadenfreude\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/gotze.jpg","keywords":["Argentina","Brazil","Germany","Lionel Messi","soccer","victory","World Cup"],"articleSection":["World Cup 2014"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/07\/14\/schadenfreude\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/07\/14\/schadenfreude\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/07\/14\/schadenfreude\/","name":"Schadenfreude","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/07\/14\/schadenfreude\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/07\/14\/schadenfreude\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/gotze.jpg","datePublished":"2014-07-14T21:45:04+00:00","dateModified":"2014-07-15T22:42:37+00:00","description":"Jonathan Wilson on the best World Cup since 1970.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/07\/14\/schadenfreude\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/07\/14\/schadenfreude\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/07\/14\/schadenfreude\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/gotze.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/gotze.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/07\/14\/schadenfreude\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Schadenfreude"}]},{"@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\/b0671dfee1aee11aa7334555825b4b59","name":"Jonathan Wilson","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/addad001f5a43af7af8956b70c804fbff3d33470c44c99505361b20885ae8516?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/addad001f5a43af7af8956b70c804fbff3d33470c44c99505361b20885ae8516?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Jonathan Wilson"},"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/jwilson\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73899","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\/518"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73899"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73899\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73975,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73899\/revisions\/73975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}