AP Community: July 2010

The 2010 World Cup has been a great one of making history...

from first goals on foreign soil, to first wins, to first World Cups...

Soon, the "haters" and "nay-sayers" to the World's most popular sport will have to find something new to complain about...

But, what is it they are complaining about?

The Vast majority of games have aired during my working hours, so I had complaints about that, yet the same can be said in many other places... in Japan the matches aired in the late evenings and extreme early mornings, and viewer ratings for Japan's entrance to the round of 16 was around 50%. In North America matches aired from early morning to early afternoon, and when Team USA entered the round of 16 viewer ratings were around 4%.

4%... well, some of the matches were during "normal" business hours, so the low ratings make sense... but since its during "normal" business hours, its not like the matches are taking up Prime Time Time Slots... Oh well...

Some people even went as far as saying people should watch a "man's game" like the NFL...

Big Manly Men wearing layers and layers of protective gear... yup, no worries about getting kicked full force in the groin, head or elsewhere... The NFL only caters to 1 country and isn't even on during World Cup season... try something else...

Baseball or even Cricket can make a better comparison. The World Baseball Classic (2013) at least caters to 24 countries vs World Cup's 32, the Cricket World Cup is the third largest World Tournament that at least airs to 200 countries...

Some people even say "You can keep your soccer/football! The US DOMINATES at everything else!"...

Ok, now we know where the negative comments have been coming from...

Let's see... Baseball dominated by Japan (only team to win World Baseball Classic), Cricket has been Australia's game since '99, Hockey? Can you say "O' Canada"?

Since I can't think of any other World Sports, how about the Olympics? ... Yup, that's Canada, again...

If Canadian players didn't leave to play for other countries, Canada might even have a decent Soccer team... which would make 76% of Canadians very happy, which is evident considering Soccer is the most played sport in Canada (thought it was Hockey, didn't you?), and on the same day as the third place match was "Soccer Nation Day" in Canada...

Well, I've gone on and on with the stuff that no one would read, so I'll just stop...

Semi-Finals

Uruguay may have had the World Cup history behind them (holds more cups than England) and even the "Hand of GoD" (Luis Suarez' handball that saved against Ghana), but Netherlands had a 24 game unbeaten record to maintain...

Netherlands won 3 - 2 Uruguay, unfortunately for Uruguay, the "Hand of GoD", Luis Suarez, was suspended so Uruguay was without their "secret goalie", BUT with goals by Uruguay's Forlan and Netherlands' Sneijder, the competition for the "Golden Boot" has been heating up. Uruguay fought hard till the last minute... the 93rd minute to be exact, but wasn't enough for the spot in the finals...

Germany and Spain... With Germany's decisive win over Argentina, and Spain's 1 point win over Paraguay, it was hard to believe that history would repeat itself... shades of the 2008 Euro Cup, Germany lost to Spain... I guess the "Mikey Curse" wasn't powerful enough to counter the psychic powers of Paul the Octopus.

Third Place Match

Uruguay vs Germany

From predicting Germany's loss to Spain, Paul, the psychic Octopus, has been getting many "sushi threats". The Germans want to eat him, and the Spaniards want to save him... Well in an effort to redeemed himself, Paul, spent 15minutes going back and forth between the two teams and finally picked Germany for the win.

I had the pleasure of watching the game with our resident star-shaped Strawberry, both of us cheering for Paul's predicted winner...

Many of Germany's players didn't care for the third place match and others suffered "flu-like symptoms"... even Klose who was close (ha ha?) to leaders of the Golden Boot sat out and gave room for Thomas Mueller's return from suspension. (that kept him out of play against Spain).

Nice back and forth game, no red cards, 12 corners for Germany, 6 for Uruguay, just about even possession... as always... a Beautiful Game.

The Main Event!

Netherlands vs Spain

Spain has the chance to do something only half a country has done previously before... Win the World Cup as the European Champions (West Germany Euro '72 and World '74), but Netherlands is still trying to maintain their winning streak. Both teams have players in the running for the "Golden Boot", David Villa for Spain and Wesley Sneijder for Netherlands, and those same player are even in the running for the "Golden Ball" award...

Both teams going for their first cup win, I'm not sure who to cheer for!

David Beckham wants to see Spain win, Paul predicts Spain as well... I almost feel like cheering for Netherlands just because they are the underdog...

Who are you cheering for? Who will win? What to watch for?

We'll soon find out on July 11th!

*As always, don't forget to click the links for highlights, the goals, and even some nifty moves!

The World Cup that has captured the attention of the world is soon coming to an end with just 4 teams left in the running, 3 European and 1 South American.

Africa lost its lone representative Ghana, in a hard fought match against Uruguay in the second Penalty Shoot-out of the tournament.

One of the most surprising results was Brazil's loss to the Netherlands... Like it or not, "diving" is a part of the game... not a pretty part... but at least the pretty Netherlands fans make up for the Ugly team play...

I don't foresee Netherlands needing to "dive" against Uruguay... hopefully they keep it clean.

With all the trash talk between Argentina's and Germany's coaches, and Maradona mistake of thinking one of Germany's players was a ball-boy, one would expect more fireworks for that match... but, with Messi still scoreless, Germany's youth won out in a convincing way.

Paraguay's boring "Play not to lose" defensive style, kept Spain to a 0-0 draw for the majority of the game, even after disallowed goals, penalty kicks and even a re-do on Spain's penalty kick... the game looked as though it was going to extra time... not if David Villa has anything to say about it.

Spain and Germany's match looks to be another rematch from 2008 Euro Cup final...

If you think Spain is going to go for the cup, the only team that won the Euro and then World Cup is West Germany, Euro '72 then World '74,

on the reverse angle would be France with World '98 then Euro '00.