The world cup final was today, concluding five weeks of world-class football.  I would say that I have watched about a third of the matches, which is saying something considering about 90% of them have taken place during work hours.  Four years ago I saw maybe 5 matches total, mostly because we didn’t have cable at home.  I live here in a house with four foreigners, and while none of them are European (Turkey doesn’t count), they have shown remarkable interest in the games even though none of their countries were represented.  We ordered satellite TV within the first week of action just so we could see the games.  ESPN classic bailed me out by showing replays of one of the day’s games at 5 PM each workday.  This is how I caught most of the games, the rest being viewed in a horizontal position for hours on end during weekends. 

It was a thoroughly entertaining world cup, with many spectacular goals and team play.  However, there were many times when I was thoroughly disgusted in what I was seeing.

The latter reaction was mostly from witnessing some player’s confusion over their preferred career choice: footballing, or acting?  The first goal in today’s final was a result of a well-executed dive.  A large amount of the referree controversy throughout the tournament was caused by diving and acting.  Refs have a hard enough time calling an accurate game, and theatrical tumbles and spills by each player on the pitch don’t help.  I believe acting is the single biggest detriment to the game today.  It seems like every time there is even minimal contact in a high-stakes game (each in the WC), one or more players end up on the ground, grimacing and clutching their ankles as if someone took a hacksaw to their limbs.  Please.  From Malouda’s (France) wild flailing in the box from a supposed Italian sandwich manuever to Materazzi’s (Italy) recreation of a massive chest wound (both in the final), there was just too much acting.  Yes, Zidane’s egregious head-butt was cause for concern, but not because of the supposed injury it caused.  (On a side note, I enjoyed this article‘s reminder that neither Zidane, nor any football player, are or ever should be deities)

Admittedly, the final was not a fitting end to an otherwise awesome world cup.  Argentina’s second goal against Serbia and Montenegro was the most awe-inspiring I’ve ever seen.  Ridiculous vollies and long distance goals from Maxi Rodriguez (Argentina), Torsten Frings (Germany), Joe Cole (England), and Tomas Rosicky (Czech Republic), to name but a few, were more the norm than the exception.  Germany’s games against Argentina and Italy were awesome: skillful and highly dramatic.

The US team played with little confidence throughout, and had their best showing against the world champion Italians.  Our goal was highly undeserved, as was McBride’s vicious elbow to the face, but we pulled off the draw nonetheless.  Nobody really expected us to go through (even fewer than four years ago), and the best teams from group E did advance.  Ghana was fantastic, anybody who saw them (out)play Brazil would agree that that game’s scoreline was extremely unfair.  Which brings us to the Germans.  Only seven percent of them had faith in their country making it into the final rounds (even with home field advantage, mind you), yet they made it to the semifinals confidently.  Jürgen Klinsmann was hilariously animated, doing his best to squash that old German stereotype.

I guess it goes without saying that if I had stayed in Germany for the summer semester, my GPA would have ended up right around the number of goals Switzerland conceded this tournament…