World Cup Glow

I don't know about the rest of you, but I feel a bit like the cat sitting in the sun.  Feeling content with the glow.  If a noise interrupts that feeling, well, you just have to look, but you don't have to get up & go check it out.  It all just depends on what you see.

The World Cup was like that for me.  I loved it.  I watched every match, and most of the pre-game & post game shows. 

The final was a bit disappointing.  Not clean.  Not beautiful.  Not really well officiated.  I think Howard Webb, the center referee, will be disappointed with his performance.  We all know the Dutch will be.  Especially Robben.  Oh how he will replay his chances over in his head. 

I don't know what we ought to expect of a final match though, but I'm sure that while we want to see the very best quality, and the players have in their mind of performing at the top of their game, it is the final match of a very tough tournament.  Fatigue is there.  Injuries are felt.  The pressure is on.  Adrenaline counts for a lot at this point.  Expect the very best performance?  Probably not going to happen.

The physical strain of the play is exhausting, and at the rate of more than one per week over four weeks - and this just a few weeks after completing a grueling season in which some of these players have played nearly 50 matches.  Not to mention the emotional drain the two teams will have gone through during the month that is World Cup.

I had wanted to see Netherlands win.  I enjoyed their play, and even when they were not playing well, they played hard (sometimes too hard yes?).  To be a three time looser in the final can't feel good. 

But history was made by Spain today, and it was fantastic to witness.  They played their game, and each player was focused on the team outcome.  Though the Dutch created more great opportunities through much of the game, and had better shots, Spain fought better all the way to the end.  Where the Dutch seemed tired, Spain kept coming.  Spain kept completing their passes. 

In the end, Spain had more shots, more shots on goal, more time of possession, more corners, more free kicks, fewer offsides, fewer fouls, and fewer yellow cards (there were 14 overall - Spain with 5).

Oh yes, and one more goal than the Dutch.

A few of the firsts:

• Spain won their first World Cup title.
• Spain is the first team to win the Cup after loosing their first match.
• Spain is the first European team to win the Cup when played outside of Europe.
• Spain is the first team ever to complete the knockout round with all clean sheets
• Spain won the first World Cup played on the African continent.

Now it's back to the routine of life.  The world's biggest sporting event is over.  But the glow will last, for me at least, for a while to come. 

I had a great time.

Brazil . . . 2014 . . .

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Photo's on ESPN.com - credits as follows:

• Fireworks light up the sky over the Soccer City stadium in Johannesburg. The next World Cup? Brazil.  (AP Photo/Daniel Ochoa de Olza)
• Arjen Robben reacts after failing to score on a great opportunity.  (AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev)
• Iniesta will forever be remembered in Spain for his late-game heroics.  (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
• Spain had won 27 World Cup games, more than any country that had never won it all.  (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
• Lights forming the words "Thank you" in different languages illuminate the Soccer City stadium during the closing ceremony.  (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

First Time World Cup Winner in the Making

Perfect.

That's 6 for 6 predictions by the octopus Paul.  No . . . I'm not referring to me . . . read the previous article in this blog.  The creature correctly picked Spain to defeat Germany in today's match.  I think we need to get some paranormal folks over there to measure the cosmic waves and force field disturbance generated by that underwater beast.  He's connected to another dimension.  But if he's so good, how come he got caught and is living in an aquarium tank in Germany?

Whatever.  I digress.  Sorry.

Since the first World Cup in 1930, there have been 81 countries participate. Only seven (7) have won the Cup. We have not had a guaranteed new team to win the World Cup since 1978 when Argentina and Netherlands played, and Argentina won their first World Cup.  And that's the great thing about this weekend's result. 

Spain entered this World Cup as the favorite to win it.  Brazil was supposed to be the main obstacle, and only England, Germany, and the Netherlands, were to have a solid chance at getting into the finals.  There were questions abound regarding the other "powerhouse" teams - Italy, France, Argentina, Portugal.  That got mostly solved pretty early.  As we entered the semi-final round only Uruguay was the surprise really, and it took their full concentration right up to the end of the match for the Dutch to hold on to victory, and send the men in blue into the consolation round for third place against Germany on Saturday.

Spain has never been to the final match at all.  The Dutch, twice - back to back - 1974/1978.  Runners up against Germany in 74', and Argentina in 78'.  Spain's best finish was a fourth place finish in 1950.

Nerves will be on edge Sunday.  To come to this point, this close to the trophy, this close to the truest title of World Champion in sports . . . don't make a mistake, don't be the goat . . .

I think leadership will make the difference on Sunday.  The head coach of each team will need to ensure his players are ready to be in the moment when they take the pitch.  Focus.  The players don't have to be loose.  They have to be ready.

The game plan, I hope, will be to play the way they have always played to get to this point.  Know what to look for in the opponent when they attack, and know what weakness to exploit in transition and "we" have the ball.

And shoot.

On the field leadership will be key.  The players have pretty equal skill on the ball.  The captains, Giovanni Van Bronckhorst, and Spain's Iker Casillas will need to keep their players confident and focused.  The individual will need to blend into the team, and both teams are capable of magnificent team play.

Germany will need to shake off today's loss and be ready to play their game Saturday if they want to equal their place in the 2006 Cup.  But the final on Sunday - that's the match!  A special match indeed.

Here's to the teams in the final!  Here's to their dreams!  Here's to the Netherlands and Spain!  Here's to the worlds next entry into the elite circle of true World Champions!

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Correction 7/9/2010 -  It was originally reported that we had not had a new winner of the Cup since 1966 when England won.  However France won their first in 1998, and Argentina in 1978, which was the last time we had a guaranteed new winner.

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Photo Credits listed in the order of appearance:

• Carles Puyol and Spain moves on while Bastian SCHWEINSTEIGER thinks about what might have been. - From the Bleacher report (http://bleacherreport.com) Joern Pollex/Getty Images
• Netherlands' Arjen Robben celebrates after scoring his side's third goal, which would prove the winner. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)
• Spain defender Carles Puyol scored the winning goal off a header from 10 yards out. - (Jamie Squire/FIFA/Getty Images)

Paul the Octopus Prediction: Germany vs. Spain - SportsUntapped.com

In the world of sports there are all sorts of ways to predict an outcome.  Analyze the individuals, the teams, the stats, recent events, coaches, or some special set of facts that leads you to a certainty that you KNOW the outcome.

Outside of sports there are a lot of examples of this as well.  The ground hog tells us if we are going to have a longer winter.  The presidential election (Democrat or Republican) predicts an improvement or decline in the economy over the next year.  The economy performance predicts the presidential election.  Consult the stars to determine the future (What phase of the moon, where is Venus? Are we in the Cosmic night or day?).

Well, I have to believe this is one of the oddest predictors I've ever heard of.  Paul the octopus.  Check him out.  He has been picking the winner of the Germany Wold Cup soccer matches, and as of today, he is 5 for 5.

I can't quite figure out how anyone came up with the idea . . . but . . . Paul is given two separate tanks with mussels in them, and each tank has a picture of a country flag - one German and the other tank has their opponent.  Paul chooses a tank to eat from, and the one he picks has won the match.

Today he picked Spain.

What does he know, anyway.  Go Germany!

Check him out!

Paul the Octopus Prediction: Germany vs. Spain - SportsUntapped.com

ESPN Takes the Cup!

I read that that ESPN recognized that the World Cup is the largest sporting event in the world.  Furthermore they recognized that while it is not the largest sport in the US, they would treat the World Cup as if it should be!  I have to hand it to ESPN, they have done an outstanding job bringing the World Cup 2010 to us by every means available! 

And I've used most of them!

You can join ESPN Facebook at (http://www.facebook.com/worldcuponespn) and they send out pre and post match notes that are decent & keep everyone in the loop.

All matches are available on the internet through ESPN3.com so you can watch it at work or wherever you are as long as you have internet access.  I used this at my son's college room for the opening match, and through that first weekend.  He had to move out but had a large LCD projector he used normally for online gaming.  We hooked up my laptop & projected it in high def up on the wall - probably a 50-60" wide screen TV equivalent.  Oh, and the quality was fantastic!  We used the same approach during the final set of matches in the group round when there were two games broadcast at the same time - projected one match off my laptop & watched the "main" game we were interested in on the TV.  We could switch back & forth using mute to catch the live call.  If you have good bandwidth you could do a side by side display of both matches at the same time, or do a picture-in-picture & switch the live call & game by simply clicking on the match you want to focus on right at that moment.

ESPN3 also has ALL the matches available for replay, so if you missed one you can watch it again - even the games that were broadcast on ABC are available there!!  AND, all the shots & goals are highlighted on the replay timeline so you can zoom to those if you like.  Fantastic really.

Got to jump into a car to go somewhere while a game is on?  ESPN has broadcast the games live on the radio.  Look up the match broadcast online at ESPN radio (http://espn.go.com/espnradio).  I used it at my Dad's house (no ESPN!).  Video takes a bit more bandwidth, and the internet at my Dad's is a slow DSL, but I listened to the radio broadcast on ESPN while I showered & got dressed one morning.

For the "Fantasy" game freaks, ESPN has match predictor, knock out round predictor, bracket predictor, AND they have "World Fantasy" where you could have picked players from around the world and played a mini fantasy league.

The World Cup website is quite good, with pre-match and post match info, as well as a multitude of info articles and video available.  Still photo galleries too, which is great.  They often have match photos posted as the game is played and are readily available right after the match - way ahead of fifa.com.

Stats for each team are pretty decent, but this might be the one area where they might improve on, but FIFA has probably the best set of stats available - see: http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/statistics/index.html.

In preparation for the World Cup ESPN started showing matches which was great.  Their HD is way better than on FOX Soccer Channel, so that was great.  And ALL of the friendly matches leading up to the start of the Cup that took place in South Africa were also available on ESPN3.com.

All of the work they've done has helped soccer viewership in the US, and illustrated just how many folks here are interested in the sport.  The MLS still needs a lot of improvement to catch the same level of interest since the play is not typically nearly as high as the top European leagues, but they ought to be able to catch some of the fans passion due to the fire in the bellies of fans around the country.

Soccer continues to grow in the US.  It is currently rated #1 or 2 as the most played youth sport in this country today, behind or just ahead of basketball.  Yes Bobby, it's ahead of baseball even.  All of which means the sport is going to be right up there in attendance every game with baseball in the not too distant future (it is today actually in Seattle, Toronto, New York, Houston, LA Galaxy, and so far Philadelphia). All of these teams have averaged over 16,000 in attendance at their home games (at the time of this posting).  That is at the bottom of the numbers for baseball attendance, but Seattle comparatively would rank 10th on the baseball average attendance list this year (right behind SF), Philadelphia would rank 18th, Toronto ranks ahead of the Blue Jays, and the Galaxy would rank at 25th - that's ahead of Toronto, Pittsburgh, Oakland, Florida, and Cleveland.

Those sportswriters who downplay and bad mouth soccer are simply ignorant of the sport - and I mean that in the strictest definition of the word:

ig·no·rant

 /ˈɪgnərənt/ Show Spelled[ig-ner-uhnt] Show IPA

–adjective

1.  lacking in knowledge or training; unlearned: an ignorant man.

2.  lacking knowledge or information as to a particular subject or fact: ignorant of quantum physics.(or soccer)

3.  uninformed; unaware.

4.  due to or showing lack of knowledge or training: an ignorant statement.

I'll save my thoughts on what it will take for the sport to take off into mainstream in a later blog.

Thank you ESPN!  YOU are the market leader in sports!