España, campeones del mundo!

I watched today's World Cup final at Civic Center plaza with a few thousand friends from both sides of the Netherlands-Spain conflict. I watched the Germany-Spain semifinal at CC Plaza during my lunch hour on Wednesday, and enjoyed the camraderie and companionship of watching a match with a bunch of fellow fans without having to drink beer (something you can't do during the workday!).

Today's crowd was about five times larger than Wednesday's, and there were two large screens set up with Spain supporters on one side and Holland supporters on the other side. They were selling $6 sangrias for the Spanish fans and 6$ Heinekens for the Dutch fans (so much for not drinking beer, but it wasn't a workday!).

I was wearing an orange Barça jersey (Spanish team in Dutch colors) to appear "neutral", and could wander to either side of the plaza as the game went on, plus I actually didn't have a real horse in the game. I just wanted it to be a good game, which it really wasn't, so it was nice to stay busy with people watching and drinking without having to focus too much on the scoreless play.

There are lots of folks in the USA and around the world who only watch soccer every four years during the World Cup final, and I feel sorry for these folks, because final games almost never live up to their billing. They're like Super Bowl games in that other kind of football.

Today's game was 0-0 through regulation time, with Spain controlling possession but neither team making much of a threat, and lots of choppy play. I was pretty sure it would end up going to penalty kicks after a couple of extra periods, which is the I think is the wrong way to determine a world championship of anything. I think it should be play until someone scores, just like they do in hockey, even though that doesn't work as well with 11 players running 100 yards with no substitutions.

Luckily, this one didn't go to kicks because Barça's Andres Iniesta scored a goal in the 117th minute to put Spain on the board, and they held on for the next three minutes to win 1-0 going away. All four of their knockout victories were by the same score (1-0), and I think goalkeeper Iker Casillas was the man of the Cup for only allowing two goals in the entire tournament, but their back line was rock solid as well. After Spain scored (usually late in every game), there was no way they were going to lose.

Congratulations to Spain for a well deserved first ever World Cup title and South Africa for a great Cup. And that German octopus for picking almost every game correctly. I'm feeling sad that it's all over, but I could go a long time without hearing another vuvuzela. Those things were all over the place at Civic Center plaza today!

Close our eyes to the octopus ride

My World Cup picks weren't that great (I picked Brazil vs. Argentina in the final, and Spain and the Netherlands to be eliminated in the quarterfinals), and now I'm torn because the parakeet picked Holland while the octopus picked Spain.



I'm siding with Paul the octopus because Syd Barrett never wrote a song about a parakeet. Viva España!

Semifinal #2 (Viva España!)

After 62 games, the matchup for the third place game in the 2010 World Cup this Saturday is now set, and it's Uruguay vs. Germany. This means that the final is Netherlands vs. Spain, an interesting clash between the two best countries who've never won a World Cup.

Either Spain or Holland will win their first World Cup on Sunday, which will cause joy and pandemonium in one of these countries. I'm not sure who to cheer for, because they're both teams that I respect and admire. I'll be happy for whoever wins on Sunday, but mostly sad that the World Cup is over.

Semifinal #1 (Dutch delight!)

My month of Tommy Keene will start next week after the World Cup is over. His career compilation comes out on 7/13, and he's only made eight albums in 30 years, so it shouldn't take more than a couple of weeks to go over Tommy's entire career. On to the Cup!



The Netherlands are the first finalist in the 2010 World Cup after beating Uruguay 3-2. Their opponent will be determined tomorrow when Germany plays Spain, but either way it will be an all-European final. I was expecting an all-South American final -- a similar result with a different continent.

As a Barca fan, I never liked Arjen Robben or Wesley Sneijder at Real Madrid, but they play well together and are fun to watch. Right now I'm pulling for a Spain-Holland final that will give some team their first World Cup ever.

Bottom 28

Now that the World Cup Semifinals are set, here are the FIFA tournament rankings for the 28 teams that didn't make it.

5. Argentina
6. Brazil
7. Ghana
8. Paraguay
9. Japan
10. Chile
11. Portugal
12. USA
13. England
14. Mexico
15. South Korea
16. Slovakia
17. Ivory Coast
18. Slovenia
19. Switzerland
20. South Africa
21. Australia
22. New Zealand
23. Serbia
24. Denmark
25. Greece
26. Italy
27. Nigeria
28. France
29. Honduras
30. Algeria
31. Cameroon
32. North Korea

This just ranks the tournament performances without taking any pre-tournament rankings into account, but if you rank the teams by most impressive to most disappointing, the bottom three would be England, Italy, and France. Semifinals kick off tomorrow for the other four!

WC Days 20-21 (on to the Final 4!)

After 20 days and 62 games, here are the matchups for the World Cup semifinals.

Germany vs. Spain
Netherlands vs. Uruguay

Brazil and Argentina, my two picks for the finals, were eliminated yesterday and today, which changed the outlook from a possible all-South American final to a probable all-European one. The only South American team remaining is Uruguay, the one that no one probably picked to go this far.

The semifinal between Spain and Germany is a rematch of the 2008 Euro Final, and I'm hoping for Spain to pull it out again. An all European final between Spain and Holland would be a good one to watch. The semis are this week (Tue and Wed) and the finals are next Sunday.

Back Again (Try..)

Happy July! These last two football-free days have been tough for me, but the World Cup will be back tomorrow with two quarterfinals -- Netherlands v. Brazil and Uruguay v. Ghana, followed by two more on Saturday -- Argentina v. Germany and Paraguay v. Spain.

Anyway, with the Cup winding down (just seven matches to go!), I need to find another blogging theme for the rest of July. In honor of Tommy Keene's new double disc career retrospective Tommy Keene You Hear Me (love that title!), I'm revising my artist of the month theme, with Mr. Keene as my artist for July.

Which will be one month of me finding different ways to say
"Tommy Keene rules!" These are places that are gone, now we can go on and on..



Note the late Jay Bennett (pre-Wilco) on guitar.