Soccer as a stand in for nationalistic character traits is ubiquitous. It's especially badly done by the English. Chelsea won being led by a Swiss-Italian manager, an Ivorian striker, a Czech keeper and a rainbow coalition of complimentary performances. Frank Lampard and Ashley Cole were the only English participants of note and somehow this is a win by England, for England. I think due to the lack of quantifiable statistical ways to evaluate the sport compared to other sports, the free-flowing pace of play and the easily comparable national football cultures that play each other on the international and club platforms, it's easy to get silly when talking about the sport.