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LONDON – Before last week, anyway, Great Britain was known as a country of cool analysis, not hot passion. It’s the Land of the Stiff Upper Lip, the Oxbridge reserve. As Churchill once said, his was a country of light, not heat. From British literature to art to the parliamentary government, reason and thoughtful detachment trumped fervor and impetuous emotion.
Which makes British sports culture especially mystifying. An hour after play ended at Wimbledon Monday night, England lost to Iceland in Euro 2016.