as said by yourself - no hokus-pokus etc. - but to my mind a refreshing good image when it comes to transport a mood, atmosphere or whatever you would like to call it.
Really like the wide vision of it - the none-dramatic placement of the main actors, and the clear line of the incoming wave in the upper third as a kind of contrast element. - Very clear, very straight - and again, it comes as a natural part of the scene.
Not knowing if really chosen or not - but the whole composition of this photo is pleasing to my mind - kind of too light on the left - to well saturated on the right - the mirror-images of the people walking by in wet sand - the out of focus area in the foreground - minutes on the sea.
Not spectacular - not the great, outstanding new vision - but a very large photo, allowing, better inviting almost to rest a moment, get to know the area - and feel the rhythm of the situation.
Sounds maybe a bit abstract - but in depended if this is the result you really were hoping to achieve or not - the image has something tempting to it.

Thanks for an interesting comment :) Trying to describe the indescribable, I think we both feel the same atmosphere in the picture. But like you hinted - the overall result was much better than what I had in mind when I just wanted a quick snapshot of the two boys playing football with the beach and the people in the background.
Of course, I took several shots at the beach that afternoon as the light was very unusual for the location, but this is the only one with the boys in the foreground. Usually there are other things than people in focus when people take pictures from this beach at sunset, as the sunset itself is great, but this evening the clouds started to gather and we were in for a rainfall just minutes later.
The one thing in this picture that I can only blame on luck is the wave that is just starting to break to the left, revealing that it is in fact a wave and not a weird line in the water.
But anyway, the original picture came out a bit dull. The foreground was more bluish/grey, so I tuned it a bit in Photoshop. Other than that I cut away some of the foreground and sky to get a better composition, but that's not cheating now is it :)