Waiting for Brazil

World cup 2010, the event I and many others had been looking forward to for what seemed like years. Wait, that actually would be correct, 2 years ago Michael Bradley was scoring a 90th minute goal against Mexico in the United States first qualifying game on their road to South Africa. Giving many hope that the United States might be able to make it past the group stages and not be knocked off by little countries such as the Czech republic, and dare I say Ghana. So all the excitement finally arrived, a French team cried, Rooney failed, Rome crumbled, Forlan hurt his back, Amsterdam got high(off success), and Spain rose as world cup champions for the first time ever. The team that’s always talked about one of the best, the team that has the best international winning streak ever, the team that got all the hype before the world cup started came through. Unbelievable that it’s only their first trophy, Spain is only the 8th country to get their hands on the prize. Enough with the history lesson let’s talk about how it happened. June 11th South Africa kicked things off with a laser goal from Tshabalala. That’s just too fun to say. South Africa had high hopes, stuck in a group with Diego Forlan, some Mexicans, and well a bus full of wimps, South Africa was unable to advance. So their fans just did what every other African did, bought a Ghana flag. Africa had a pretty miserable time on the field but a great moment in their history. The cup was all about South America until Europe finally woke up. South American teams were winning left and right, scoring good goals against good teams, playing Beautiful soccer, and Diego Maradona was even dressed in a suit. It had to have been a fluke. After the first knockout games were played South American teams were scarcer than Wayne Rooney goals. Rooney, just coming off a career best season at Manchester United put goose eggs on the scoreboard all four games England got to play. So will this affect his playing time when he gets back to the premier league? Absolutely not, but let’s look at Podolski and Klose of Germany. Two men who don’t start, and barely play for their clubs just put up an amazing show of class and style leading the Germans to 3rd place. With of course a little help from Muller, now the youngest player to receive the Golden Boot for most goals in the cup. So was it a good thing Ballack got hurt? The highly pessimistic captain of Germany who got hurt before the cup started said Germany didn’t stand a chance. Surely not with that attitude, but he did get front row seats to see a 20 year old take his place… maybe for good. Muller was phenomenal in replacing Ballack, and shows a bright future for Germany. Future was all about the past in the minds of Italy, sticking with a roster that won it in 2006. Clearly a poor decision, they just don’t make wheelchairs and walkers that fast, and oxygen tanks that big. Italy fell harder than Drogba on a breakaway with no one even around him. At least Italy went down respectfully, which of course leads us right to France. These assholes get a chance to play in the world cup, the highest of all stages, a dream to many, and they show up and don’t even want to leave the bus. Players dropped off the roster during the cup, coaches quit, and players were unwilling to practice. Probably the most pathetic team a world cup has ever seen. They were even more pathetic than the Ivory Coast (or Cote D’ivore if you want to get fancy) getting Kaka thrown out of a group stage game. Kaka merely walked in the guy maybe bumped his chest and he flopped like a fish, making a fool out of himself, holding his face as if he was pimp slapped by Rick James. The only one who deserves that right about now is the world cup referees. The refs were downright awful in Africa. Missing a few calls is one thing, but missing goals! Bless Frank Lampard for not running up the ref and punching him square in the face when he scored a laser of the bar and in, and it was ruled not over the line. The refs nearly single handedly knocked the United Stated out, but instead they figured they would do it to themselves anyways. The United States had everything they wanted at the beginning of the world cup. They got drawn into an easy group, with high expectations. After Donovan’s miracle goal in stoppage time the United States were crowned first in the group and were set to play Ghana, with a victory they would have played Uruguay or South Korea. This was the easiest path they could have asked for. No Spain, no Brazil, no Holland, no Germany, no menacingly big teams stood in their way to go further than they ever have before. So what did the United States do in a chance to make history, well they did what was almost expected. They blew it. They went down to a new rival, a new team they can’t ever get by, Ghana. So they failed but with the way Forlan played there was no way they could shut down Uruguay. Shutting down Forlan was more unlikely than Puyol ever getting a haircut, it’s just not going to happen. Forlan clearly deserved the MVP, he played well enough to carry his team into the quarterfinals, and mere inches away from 3rd. Brazil didn’t have that guy they needed, a pure superstar to really give them that boost. The world cup rankings are clearly someone just talking out of Elano. (and I don’t mean the Brazilian footballer, learn some spanish) Brazil was never number one, and were never going to win it. They have been number one in the past but that doesn’t mean they always are. They lacked heart and dedication, they blew a halftime lead and that’s not how a good Brazilian team would have played. They played too hotheaded and paid the price and now there at home, and will be for a while until the world cup finally comes to them in 2014. Spain was number one from the start. Wait, but didn’t they lose the opener to Switzerland? So isn’t Switzerland number one, the only team that could beat the real winners. Well they aren’t but they definitely have something to be proud of unlike Torres who goes back to Spain scoring 0 goals in the cup, and worst of all getting hurt in the dying minutes of the Final against Holland. Holland surely could have been winners, not even one but two breakaways from Arjen Robben didn’t help Holland score against the Champions. Holland was a true favorite of most neutral countries watching the world cup, they had great chemistry, great talent, and true ambition to win it all. Oranje faded to black in the 116th minute when Iniesta, the same guy who drowned the blues in dramatic fashion in champion’s league for Barcelona in 09, blasted a ‘venomous’ volley into the net. If you were rooting for the Netherlands you may be left upset but you have to say that Spain was the better team and its deserving that they won, they had the possession, the creativeness, the threatening attacks. Holland was staying alive through counter attacks every fifteen minutes throughout the game. Spain was just better, and that’s why they were victorious. The world cup had many surprises, some good, some dreadful. Many left mad, some will be happy. All saw great goals and football being played at its finest. You may be left wanting to know what if… but no matter what I’m sure you will tune in when many of these teams arrive in Brazil in 2014.