Chuck your links to the better features, opinion pieces and essays in here.
I liked Barney Ronay's take on football celebrity culture:
There is perhaps a purely sporting angle to all this, another side-effect of the collapse of Spain’s supremacy at this tournament. That great team were above all a force for tactical collectivism, a team in which – despite their high-grade talents – the ball was always the star. In its absence there is naturally a sense of bracing contrast at the sight of thrillingly expressive individuals driving on a clutch of often rather flawed teams. It is, in part, Spain’s gift to this tournament. The grown-ups have now left the building. In their absence we can enjoy the ragged edges, games decided by moments not method, the rebirth of the lone star.