World Cup Final

I have documented in this blog my affection for the Dutch team -- even though they hadn't been playing the total football they've championed since the 1970s. So when the final started, I was planted on my couch wearing an orange Netherlands jersey I bought on a trip to Amsterdam 10 years ago.

By end of the initial 90 minutes, I was so disgusted with the thuggish tactics of the Dutch players that I peeled off my orange shirt and put on a blue one instead. But then, when Iniesta dove to get Heitinga sent off in overtime, I removed my blue shirt and put on a USA jersey. It was a very disappointing final match, although Spain did play better soccer (or at least tried to when they weren't being hacked down Holland) and deserved to win.

As for the Dutch, the entire tournament was like a Greek tragedy for them. For decades, they had been praised by fans, journalists and pundits for playing lovely, attacking football. Yet they were denied again and again the ultimate prize: being crowned World Cup champions. So at some point during the last several years, they repudiated all that had made total football great and instead played like the Detroit Pistons of the late 1980s. I half expected to see Bill Lambier sitting on the bench exhorting the players to foul and dive and whine even more.

The new, thuggish strategy worked -- Holland got to a World Cup final for the first time in more than 30 years. But in a cruel irony, they found themselves playing a team that had embraced many of the principles of total football -- the Spanish. And ultimately, the Dutch were beaten by a team that actually tried to play soccer and were punished by the Soccer Gods for abandoning all that is wonderful about the beautiful game.

The third place game turned out to be a much better match than the final. Uruguay and my favorite player of the tournament, Diego Forlan, fell 3-2 to the Germans. FIFA did agree with my assessment of Forlan and gave him the Golden Ball award as the best player in the tournament. He's 31 and unlikely to play in the 2014 World Cup, but I'm glad he got to shine in South Africa as he almost single handedly (well, not single handedly; his teammate Suarez had a single hand that was also pretty important) got tiny Uruguay to within one game of the final.

Speaking of Suarez, I had no problems with his handball to stop the ball in the game against Ghana. Any player would have done the same thing and would have expected to be sent off -- which Suarez was. It was like a player in basketball committing a hard foul on a fast break to prevent the other team from scoring an easy layup.

What I find much more troubling that sort of blatant cheating is the more subtle act of diving. I hate it and think it leaves a much blacker mark on the game than what Suarez did. I said in the last World Cup and I'll say again: there should be post-match reviews of diving by players. If they are judged to have gone down with no contact, they should be given a yellow card after the game. 

My suggestion will probably not be implemented (Sepp Blatter is not returning my e-mails). But I do think that by the next World Cup, there will be goal-line technology to judge whether a ball crossed the line or not. There may also be extra officials, either on the field itself or on the sidelines, to help the refs get more of the calls right.

There was a lot to like about the 2010 World Cup. The late-game heroics by the US team. The emergence of Michael Bradely as a top midfielder. Tshabalala's strike against Mexico in the opening game. Carlos Teves' cannon (also against Mexico). Giovanni von Bronkhorsts' unstoppable shot against Uruguay. The plucky New Zealand team (who were the only team never to lose a game at this World Cup -- it's true). Some great individual players, like David Villa (Spain), Bastian Schweinsteiger (Germany), Kiesuke Honda (Japan), Carlos Puyol (Spain) and Wesley Sneijder (Holland).

But what the tournament showed me is that soccer is really still a team sport. Nearly all the "best" players in the world who were featured in the Nike "Write the Future" commercial had poor showings at the World Cup. The squads that played as a team tended to do more and go further than those who may have been too reliant on their big-name players. Of course, you've got to have great players on your team to go far, and the final 4 all had some fantastic players -- but most were not mentioned before the tournament in the same breath as Rooney, Ronaldo, Messi or Ribery.

The next World Cup is 4 years away -- that seems like a long time. Mary will be 12 years old and John will be 8 (note that both of them were born in World Cup years -- coincidence? I don't think so). But there will be plenty of soccer to fill up my free time between now and then, and much of it may be played by John.

He took to soccer like a fish to water, not only watching many of the games with me, but playing soccer in the house. We have a long hallway between his room and Mary's. John has spent hours kicking and dribbling a soccer ball from one end of the hall to another, shouting "gooooaaaall" when he puts the ball between my legs and into his sister's room. I'll be signing him up to play on a soccer team this fall. And I'm sure I will enjoy watching his games more than I enjoyed any of the World Cup games I've seen during the last month. It won't even be close.

World Cup: Final Match

I got half the final match-up right: the Netherlands got out of their side of the bracket (upsetting Brazil and beating Uruguay) but Argentina fell to Germany. Spain then got past Germany setting up the final match of 2 countries with rich soccer histories but no World Cup trophies.

There is an interesting history leading up to how these 2 teams play today. In the 1970s, the Dutch (led by forward Johan Cruyff) played what is known as "total football." It was a revolutionary style of soccer where the each player could play any position on the field. So a defender could surge forward and join the attack, while a forward could drop back and defend. The Dutch national team played this attractive, aggressive form of soccer as well as anyone but fell twice in World Cup Finals (in 1974 to W. Germany and in 1978 to Argentina). Their flowing style of play, coupled with losses in finals, made the Dutch teams of the 1970s the favorite team of romantic, intellectual soccer fans worldwide.

Cruyff later went on to play at the Spanish club Barcelona, where the club adopted the same free-flowing, attacking style of play. Cruyff later became coach of Barcelona. And since his playing and coaching days, Barcelona has been dedicated to playing a similar type of total football.

Many of the players on Spain's WC team currently play at Barcelona (Víctor Valdés, Carles Puyol, Gerard Piqué, Sergio Busquets, Pedro, Andrés Iniesta, Xavi and David Villa). Leo Missi of Argentina also plays for Barcelona.

So in the WC Final, the Spanish team will likely be playing a form of Dutch-style total football. Ironically, the Dutch team will be playing a more conservative style of play. In fact, some commentators argue that this Dutch team has defiled the tradition of total football and should not be counted on to carry on the tradition of past teams. Slate explains:

"This year's team, for all Wesley Sneijder's individual panache, has been even more stolid, relying excessively on Arjen Robben's ability to cut inside from the right. The Dutch have depended on Dirk Kuyt's lumbering work-rate, Mark van Bommel's spectacularly dirty midfield play, and a lot of sheer luck to survive, while their manager, Bert van Marwijk, has taken every opportunity to distance his squad from the legacy of total football. We're here to win, he says, nothing else."

As a long-time fan of the Netherlands, I have been rooting for them throughout the tournament. But watching them play is not as fun as I had hoped. The Slate piece got it right: they play a fairly conservative style, that allows its flair players (Sneijder and Robben) to conjure a moment of brilliance to win their games. And credit to them -- this has worked. Holland have not lost a game during the WC.

And I still think they will win on Sunday (2:30 pm EST, ABC). Their dual midfield enforcers (de Jong and van Bommel) will do enough to stymie Span's creative and elegant midfielders and Holland will nick a goal to win their first World Cup trophy. I'll be happy for the Dutch people, but I'd be happier if they had been able to do it playing total football.

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My new favorite player is Diego Forlan. He was considered a bit of a bust at Manchester United years ago, but he's gone on to a successful career in the Spanish league and he put Uruguay on his shoulders and carried them to the semi-finals. He scored some wonderful goals and always played with vigor, style and energy. Plus he looks like Bjorn Borg's soccer-playing cousin. Meg even asked if I had a man-crush on Forlan. I had to plead guilty.

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Finally, here's a great video from Nike that thanks the US team for playing like Americans:




Enjoy Sunday's final!

World Cup 101

So, you're thinking to yourself: "I want to watch the World Cup this summer. But I don't know much about the tournament, the teams, or even when it's on. Where do I start?"

Start here.

The Format
32 teams compete in the World Cup (WC) every 4 years. In the 2 years or so leading up to the WC, more than 200 teams from all over the world compete against each other just to qualify. Here's a link to all the teams.If you want a funny run down of the American sports equivalent of each WC team, read this.

Once the qualification process is complete, the 7 "best" teams plus the host country (this time South Africa) are put into 8 different groups. Then the remaining 24 teams are drawn (kind of at random) into the 8 groups, leading to a total of 4 teams in each group.

Group Stage
England is one of the seeded teams and were placed in Group C. The US was drawn into this group, as were Algeria and Slovenia. I'll get into this into more detail in a later post, but the US is considered the second best team in this group and is expected to advance.

Every team in a group plays every other team in that group; so each team plays 3 games. The 2 teams with the most points in each group advance to the next round, the knock-out phase. Points are awarded like this: 3 points for a win, 1 point for a tie, and 0 points for a loss. Obviously if you win all 3 games in the group phase you are guaranteed to advance. But few teams win all their group games. A good rule of thumb is that if you win 1 game and tie at least 1 other, there's a good chance to advance. But if 2 teams end up with the same number of points, then the team with the better goal differential advances.(Goal differential is the difference between the total goals scored and the total goals conceded.)

So the US opens play against England in June 12, then plays Slovenia on June 18 and finishes against Algeria on June 23.

Knock-Out Stage
Once the knock-out stage starts, the WC looks more like the NCAA basketball tournament, only there are 16 soccer teams (not 64). If a game is tied after 90 minutes, the teams play 2 15-minute overtime periods (it is not sudden death, however -- the teams play the whole time). If the game is still tied, then it is settled by penalty kicks.

This continues just like any other bracketed tournament until 2 teams are left, and they meet in the final game on July 11.

Favorites
Who are the favorites to win the WC? Brazil and Spain are the top 2 teams in the world, but I would also keep an eye on the Netherlands and Argentina. This is also, however, the first WC to be played in Africa and there may be some shock upsets. This occurred in Korea/Japan in 2002 (the first tournament played in Asia), when S. Korea and Turkey (not world powers) advanced to the semi-finals and the US advanced quarter-finals.

Schedule
Here's a schedule of all the matches, which will all be shown on ESPN, ESPN2 or ABC. Many will also be streamed online on the ESPN web site. You should, of course, watch all of the US games -- especially the match against England on June 12. But here are some other games I recommend from the first week:

- The opening game on June 11: Mexico v. South Africa. How will the host nation start the tournament?
- Argentina v. Nigeria on June 12. Argentina's Lionel Messi is the best player in the world.
- Ivory Coast v. Portugal on June 15: 2 of the other best players in the world (Didier Drogba from Ivory Coast and Christiano Ronaldo) square off.

US v. Czech Republic
That's all for now. The US plays an exhibition match tomorrow night against the Czech Republic at 8 pm ET on ESPN. This is the last chance for some players to make their case for inclusion on the final US team. I'll write more about that later.