World Cup 2010

[godsshoeshine]

i can see not being entertained by the short passing game. heck, i agree on that point

but i'll take watching spain over watching the dutch (seriously, the dutch) try and pretend they're mourinho's chelsea with rvp instead of drogba. they saw howard webb and realized they could get away with not playing football. terrible

[vansmack]

i can see not being entertained by the short passing game. heck, i agree on that point

but i'll take watching spain over watching the dutch (seriously, the dutch) try and pretend they're mourinho's chelsea with rvp instead of drogba. they saw howard webb and realized they could get away with not playing football. terrible

Spain are essentially Barcelona without Messi, so we're on the same wave lengths...

[godsshoeshine]

thats funny, the final kind of reminded me of a barca/real match i watched a couple of years back where real's entire approach was "foul messi. hard."

except without goals

[sweetcell]

on national television,  casillas was put on the spot and embarrassed by his reporter girlfriend after spain's defeat to switzerland. 

casillas gets her back: Iker Casillas kisses Sara Carbonero on live tv after the game... that red on her cheeks wasn't just the spanish flag.  (version with captions and an annoying background song)

teh awwz.

[Mobius]

Elegant may be a weak word . . .how about dynamic.  The passing style is dynamic and fun to watch when they get into a rhythm . . .but once the team rounded into form it played Paraguay and the Dutch who each played a style focused on preventing Spain from finding any rhythm.  In Netherlands' case at least it was by dubious means.  I thought they were great fun to watch against Germany, even if they only found the net once (if Torres were 100% they would surely have scored more goals during the tournament. . .as is finishing was predictably a weakness).

Watching the game yesterday, I kept thinking about the Pat Riley era Knicks that killed the NBA in the mid-90's.  Nobody looked good against them and every game they played was brutal to watch.  Spain could not get into a rhythm and it was not really because of good defense . . . it was because of consciously dirty play.  Each slow motion replay of Spanish 'dives' also showed a Dutch player at least attempting a foul. It was pass, pass foul.  Any attempt to create was met with a foul.  The ref was in an impossible position since he can't call a foul on every play.  I thought the red card was absolutely justified not based on the severity of the particular foul but based on a body of work accumulated over the course of the game and the circumstances of Iniesta appearing to break towards goal.  I thought the ref did a good job of being consistent - he didn't call a foul on every play by Netherlands while allowing Spain to make the same types of plays on the other end. . .and seemed to find some kind of balance.  The result was an ugly, boring game which Spain adjusted to but certainly is not their preferred style.

[hutch]

The dutch yesterday were a bunch of thugs... glad they got their comeuppance. De Jong should have been red carded and that would have been 11 against 10 early in the match



I thought Spain was not a beautiful team to watch.. not as effective as they should have been but I can watch Xavi and Iniesta all day even if they don't score. the way they run the offense, work together, etc is plenty fun to watch at least for me..

I also have to add that Forlan had an unbelievable tournament.. just really stepped up. Messi needs to call him up and learn how he took those free kicks. Heck he nearly even got a corner in...

[Brian_Wallace]

I haven't been that disappointed in a big sports final since....I'm going to have to go back to the last two Steelers Super Bowls. I felt DIRTY after watching that match.

The third place match (Germany-Uruguay) was a million times better on every level. My dad thought so, too. It was everything the final was not.

Spain-Holland was a three-bagger. A bag for you, a bag for her, and a bag for anyone, God forbid, that's peeking in the window.

Brian

[sweetcell]

like the Super Bowl, the WC final is often the one full game that the non-fan will sit through.  sunday's final didn't do much to increase casual interest in the sport (with the possible exception of those who think that soccer is too dainty, that flying-cleats-to-the-chest was cooler/more brutal than most body-blows delivered in the NFL).

[vansmack]

Now I almost wish they had won....

Storm over 'bunch of gays' in Germany's World Cup team

Agent of injured captain Michael Ballack alleged to have sneered at 'bunch of gays' in national team

....n an essay entitled New German Men, Aleksander Osang recounts an interview he had with Becker prior to the World Cup in which the agent allegedly told him which of the players in the team were gay. He later said that a former national player was ready to reveal the "bunch of gays" in the German team, according to Osang. Asked about the sexuality of one of the newer players, Becker, who is a lawyer by profession, referred to him as being "half gay".

Osang went on to say that Becker put the new adroit, lighter and elegant style of play that has become a trademark of trainer Joachim Löw's players down to their homosexuality, in contrast to the typically more aggressive and offensive German style of past years, but suggested they played too delicately to assure themselves a place in the final.

[walkonby]

[vansmack]

Clearly a foul.

[Mobius]

Agent of injured captain Michael Ballack alleged to have sneered at 'bunch of gays' in national team . . . while dressed like Hitler, but in drag, and being peed on by famous dominatrix 'Ms Helga'. . .probably.

Friggin Germans.