Netherlands

[Abstract Idea]

I had pretty well given up on insisting that Spain takes the singular. After hearing so many commentators say "Spain are" I've begrudgingly come to accept it. But "Spain win the World Cup"? That really sounds wrong to me.

Hmm, maybe, following philadelphia's line, there is an implied meaning behind the words here:
If you say "Spain win the World Cup" you are somehow staying that the whole nation achieved it.
If you say "Spain wins the World Cup" you are emphasizing the players achievement.
Well, this is just a guess.

But regarding the difference in BrE and AmE, once again thanks to philadelphia, it is really remarkable to read:
"Spain reign victorious as Dutch dreams ends in pain" (The Guardian)
"Spain survive brutal final to become champions" (The Guardian)
"Spain wins first World Cup" (The New York Times)
"For the next four years, Spain is the champion." (The New York Times)

[kfredson]

Hmm, maybe, following philadelphia's line, there is an implied meaning behind the words here:
If you say "Spain win the World Cup" you are somehow staying that the whole nation achieved it.
If you say "Spain wins the World Cup" you are emphasizing the players achievement.
Well, this is just a guess.

But regarding the difference in BrE and AmE, once again thanks to philadelphia, it is really remarkable to read:
"Spain reign victorious as Dutch dreams ends in pain" (The Guardian)
"Spain survive brutal final to become champions" (The Guardian)
"Spain wins first World Cup" (The New York Times)
"For the next four years, Spain is the champion." (The New York Times)

Thank you very much for this. While your survey is limited I believe it does show the difference. In AmE we tend to feel the need to make a noun quite specifically plural before using the plural verb. I, for instance, have a hard time understanding how Spain (as opposed to "the Spaniards") can be anything but singular. So I guess it's just a cultural thing.

But there may be another reason for our hesitation.. It is true that my country has created one of the strangest grammatical switches in history. We say "The United States is..." (Until our Civil War, apparently, we said "The United States are...") So we had to fight a war to make our country singular. And we certainly aren't going to slip back into making it plural when we're speaking about one of our sports teams!

It may also be that we almost always refer to the team nickname rather than the city. And they are universally plural.

Sorry for the rambling reply.