Johannesburg:
It began with a clunk off the post. Of course it did. Nothing has been easy and very little has ever been good for Spain in the World Cup, so it was no wonder that a promising moment, maybe a seminal moment, could be punctuated with a solid bounce off the left post.
This was no way for Spain to try to qualify for the first actual semifinal match in its otherwise glorious history. The home of Real Madrid, the land of Barcelona, had never played a semifinal. And now a sub named Pedro was bouncing a gimme off the post after a nifty pass from Andrés Iniesta.
Spain is probably soccer's most underachieving nation. Make a list of the countries that have qualified for the semifinals -- both Turkey and South Korea in 2002 come to mind, and all right, South Korea was the host. But still, Spain had never been there. For Spain, something always hit the crossbar of life.
But this time, the ball deflected straight to David Villa, the hot man of this tournament for Spain, and he plunked it into the net in the 83rd minute for the only goal of the night, the goal that put Spain where it has never been.
It took a kick save from Iker Casillas, the great Spanish keeper, to protect that lead in the closing minutes of the 1-0 victory over Paraguay. Now Spain will play Germany in one semifinal on Wednesday in Durban after the Netherlands plays Uruguay in the other semifinal in Cape Town on Tuesday.
"We are proud to be here," said Pepe Reina, the backup goalkeeper who plays for Liverpool and speaks English. "And we are still hungry. Now we play Germany, the best team in the tournament."
With all that talent, now so visible on the television screens around the world, Spain has been a popular and potential semifinalist for the past generation. But there are more potential semifinalists than can fit into that tight little quadrangular box.
Two other A-list teams went out in the past two days -- Brazil fell on Friday when its sturdy defense failed it, and Argentina was demolished on Saturday in a shocking 4-0 loss to Germany. Now Diego Maradona can take off his genius suit and get back into his comfortable track suit.
Everything is relative about the World Cup. Spain versus Paraguay seemed like a quarterfinal -- a nervous-making quarterfinal, to be sure. Paraguay played defense and not much offense, the kind of soccer that makes people want to perform the wave or blow into a vuvuzela or go out for a sausage.
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But Paraguay was also tough and resourceful, more than enough to make the bad old things happen all over again to often quivery Spain.
Germany versus Argentina, earlier in the day, seemed like a semifinal -- two once and no doubt future champions colliding too soon.
The third goal sent Chancellor Angela Merkel virtually stutter-stepping around the dignitaries' tribune almost like a majorette from a marching band.
The Germans never seem to have a down era, although the record insists they went out in the quarterfinals in 1994 and 1998. All the firepower on Maradona's team meant nothing because the Germans put up a perimeter defense and dared the Argentines to skitter around the edges and try to crack the code. Once in a while, the Germans went out and got a goal.
Some nations I could mention would just love to reach the quarterfinals as a measure of their growth; other nations dread the quarterfinals as a treacherous hurdle. Brazil and Argentina will not have happy flights across the Atlantic.
For Spain, playing Paraguay was like a required exercise, like in figure skating. And Spain has a history of slipping on the mandatory jumps.
The only time Spain finished in the top four was in 1950, when it qualified for a four-team round robin and finished last.
The Spanish were elbowed out by Italy in a quarterfinal in Massachusetts in 1994 and outrun by Nigeria in the Round of 16 in Nantes, France, in 1998. And its fans are still smarting over South Korea in 2002 and the officiating that allowed the surging Reds of the host nation to advance to the semifinals.
In recent years, the Spanish talent has been familiar around the world. The Spaniards won the European championship in 2008, a wonderful tournament, but players often become old or sated or unlucky in the two years leading to the World Cup. But Spain remains the most enjoyable team in the world to watch, at least for soccer lovers who are not tied up emotionally in its jittery fortunes.
On Saturday, Spain handled the ball beautifully -- 19 touches on one sequence in the second half, opening up the field. But everything Spain does has the tradition of disaster behind it. Casillas saved a penalty kick. Xabi Alonso made a penalty kick, but it was nullified because the referee detected a Spanish player in the area. On the replay, Justo Villar guessed right and stopped Alonso.
Any American baseball fan would think of the hideous disasters that have befallen the Boston Red Sox and the Chicago Cubs in the past. But Spain had enough talent, enough maturity, to play through the disappointment and collect its goal on one ultimate break. For the first time ever, Spain more than looks like a semifinalist; it is a semifinalist.