ARRIBA ESPAÑA!!!

So Paul the Octopus was right once again! In dramatic fashion, Spain won the World Cup Final in the 26th minute of extra time with a great goal from Andres Iniesta. The game started with a very slow first half, during which the flow of the match was interrupted by many fouls and some sloppy passing by both sides, which appeared to have a hard time controlling their nerves. The game saw a great 2nd half with both sides missing scoring opportunities, including two breakouts by Dutch forward Robben which Iker Casillas amazingly saved for Spain. Though the game could have easily gone either way, in the end it appears the best team did win. Spain had greater control of the ball and sought the goal more than the Dutch. The game was not with it's share of bad referee calls(one of the Halmarks of this World Cup), including what should have a been a red card early in the game for Nigel de Jong who kicked a Spanish player on the chest and was inexplicably given just a yellow card rather than the red. It was also clear that in the Robben's second breakout for goal he was illegally held by Puyol, who should have been red carded and Netherlands awarded a free kick outside the area. Lastly, both the referee and the linesman amazingly missed a deflection by the Spanish defense off a free kick by the Netherlands which should have been called a corner kick. In a wild twist of fate for Spain, the referee called for a goal kick instead and this play resulted in the Spanish winning goal only a few seconds later.

So were you happy with the World Cup Final and the outcome? Few would disagree that Spain played better and deserved to win, but would the result have been the same if it weren't for the referee's mistakes?

Paul the Octopus!

I so wished I had checked with Paul the Octopus before I filled in my World Cup predictions!
And why can't I stop humming the Beatles' "Octopus' Garden"?!

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/09072010/58/world-cup-2010-octopus-paul-backs-spain-lift-trophy.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgPqmRNjoTE


ENJOY THE FINAL!!

Mexico Post-mortem

OK--this is old news since Mexico was eliminated over a week ago. That has also given me some time to reflect on some of the things that went wrong with the team. Though not a serious candidate to win the World Cup--many of us had hoped Mexico would get past the dreaded round of 16, especially with such a talented new generation of players that won the under-17 World Cup in 2005. And in the final analysis I think the bulk of the responsibility has to go to Mexico's coach Javier "El Vasco" Aguirre. This is particularly upsetting considering he was the third best paid coach in the cup (only behind England's Capello and Italy's Lippi, who curiously fared no better!). Here are some of the decisions many of us fans never understood, more or less in order of importance.

1. Not starting Chicharito Herndandez and instead put Guille Franco who showed absolutely nothing. Chicharito, Mexico's new scoring sensation who was recently picked up by Manchester United and was clocked as the fastest player in this World Cup, scored 2 goals in 169 minutes vs Franco who played 254 minutes with no goals and many missed opportunities. How many goals would Chicharito have scored if Vasco would have played him full-time?

2. Goalkeeper choice -- Vasco went with Conejo Perez even though he is clearly past his prime (37 years old) and looked very slow in many plays (caught in "no man's land" in South Africa's goal, failed to hold on to the ball in Argentina's first offside goal, and several others). This wouldn't be so much of a "crime" if Mexico didn't count with two excellent goalkeepers in Guillermo Ochoa and especially Luis Michel who just had an absolutely brilliant season with Chivas.

3. Not starting Andres Guardado, another of Mexico's promising young stars who plays for La Coruña in the Spanish league. Inexplicably, El Vasco took out Guardado in the 2nd half of the Mexico-Uruguay game after Guardado had been playing very well and nearly scored a goal.

4. Not starting Pablo Barrera, another one of Mexico's young stars who formed part of Mexico's under-17 World Cup champion squad.

5. Used 3 separate team captains (Torrado, Cuauhtemoc Blanco, and Rafa Marquez)in 4 games. Utter lunacy. Clearly the captain should have been Rafa Marquez who was arguably Mexico's best player. Cuauhtemoc Blanco, in particular, is 37 years and was evidently in no shape to start a World-cup match. This opened the question as to whether Aguirre was giving "parting gifts" (as many accused him of doing with Garcia Aspe in 2002).

6. Leaving the young Barcelona promising star Jonathan Dos Santos (Giovanni's brother) off the world cup roster. If it's true he lacks experience (at only 20 years old), this was a great missed opportunity for Jonathan to gain experience for future world cups. Interesting Aguirre was criticized by Barcelona and the Spanish press for this decision (the day after his dismissal Barcelona extended Dos Santos contract for two more years and stated they were intent on protecting their "crown jewels" in what many considered to be a slap in the face to Javier Aguirre). What made matters worse is that he decided to cut him only a few days before the start of the world cup, after touring with the team through Europe for the pre-cup friendlies. This strained the mood of many of the remaining players, particularly his brother Giovanni who insiders say was emotionally distraught after the incident.

7. Some other perhaps minor points -- Vasco had a terrible handling with the press and it is said he and the Mexican squad spent an inordinate amount of time filming TV commercials.

The only good thing we can say about Aguirre is that he did accept full responsibility for Mexico's failures and has resigned. Let's hope Mexico's new coach is able to value Mexico's promising youth and is not afraid of putting them on the big stage. The Copa America is right around the corner : ). Some names going around are Marcelo Bielsa, Chepo de la Torre, and Victor Manuel Vucetich, I myself am partial to the latter two.

La mano de Luis Suarez fue trampa?

La mano del Uruguayo Luis Suarez fue trampa? Se calentaron las cosas entre Jorge Ramos y David Faitelson (y se le salio el "no me jod*s" a Faitelson). Me encantaron las reacciones de Brailovsky que esta sentado entre los dos.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8BWwHEd_as

Brazil and Africa bid farewell to the World Cup

In perhaps the most eventful and dramatic day of this World Cup, Brazil fell to the Netherlands 2-1 in what can best be described as a doozy. What happened to the Verde-Amarela as they saw themselves down in the score for the first time in the tournament? Dunga, who had won everything with Brazil in 3 years except the World cup, saw his reign come to an end in a 15 minute interval in which his side received two goals. Who's responsible for this loss? Dunga or the players? What is clear is that Brazil felt Elano's absence and was not served well by Dunga's replacement of Michel Bastos in the 62 minute by Gilberto. Granted that Michel Bastos hadn't had a great match and was carrying a yellow card, but if Brazil seemed a bit disoriented after the first goal, they seemed completely lost when Gilberto replaced Bastos. Brazil will now how to regroup as they prepare to host the World Cup in 2014, a World Cup which already has a favorite -- Brazil.

Every world cup has it's heart-breaking, gut-wrenching match, and that distinction goes to today's second match between Uruguay and Ghana. Uruguay won in dramatic fashion in penalty shootouts after Ghana's Gyan missed a penalty shot in the 30th minute of extra time (which would have made Ghana the first team from Africa to ever reach the semi-finals). In Uruguay they say that to win "a la Uruguaya" is to win with a little help from God. Did Ghana really deserve this fate? What is clear is that the "Loco" Abreu's Panenka style winning penalty kick will go down in the history books as one of the gutsiest ever. How many times did we see el Loco make kicks like this in Mexico during his years with Cruz Azul and Tecos? If only the Ghanian Goalie would've done a little research...

A dark day for FIFA

Today is a dark day for FIFA. In the first game England's second goal was incredibly not called by the referee after the ball hit the top post, bounced nearly 1m inside the goal and then bounced out. In the Mexico-Argentina game, Argentina's first goal was validated even though the scoring player was clearly in offside position (seemed to be at least 2-3 meters). Though it's hard to deny that Germany and Argentina were the better teams in the respective matches and deserved to win, it also cannot be denied that such calls changed the trajectory of both matches in irreversible ways, especially since both calls came at a time when England, Mexico were playing better and had momentum on their sides. These of course are not the only bad calls of this world cup. So far we've had a legitimate goal annulled to the US in their game against Slovenia (for no apparent reason), a mystery red card given to Kaka in Brazil's game against Ivory Coast, and--in a qualification match--the refs allowed an incredible hand aided assist by France's Henri in their final decisive match against Ireland.

The question is--what will FIFA do to rectify this situation? In the past the argument has always been that any type of review would cause an unnatural pause in the game. This argument seems absurd in light of the fact the game is frequently paused when players argue with the refs after making such calls, or when players feign injuries to delay the game, etc. Moreover, today, unlike 20 or even 10 years ago, we have the technology to avoid such bad calls. I have four ideas I think FIFA should consider:

1. Have an extra "video review" ref that is in direct contact with the central ref and could review any play in 1 minute or less.
2. Give all refs a video "iphone" they can carry on their belts at all times to instantly review any call.
3. Install a chip inside the ball that would detect when the ball is inside the goal or out of bounds, etc. Chips in players shoes could also automatically detect when a players in the offside position, etc.
4. Allow for 1 "coach" challenge per game, to be video-reviewed within a 2 minute time limit.

What do you think? Could any of these be successfully implemented? What is clear is that something has to change for 2014.

Latin American Power

Out of 7 Latin American teams in the world cup 6 made it to the round of 16: Uruguay, Mexico, Argentina, Paraguay, Brazil and Chile. Only Honduras is going home. Latin Amerian teams ended with a 10-6-2 record against their non-Latin rivals and outscored them 23 to 9. Adding the US, we have 7-8 teams in the Americas that made it to the top 16. Will this dominance continue in the final rounds?