For a variety of reasons, I ended up watching the World Cup Final on a TV tied to a tree at the soccer fields in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn, where hundreds of players of all ages, almost all from Latin American countries, come to play every weekend in highly organized leagues.

Just a couple of amateur (very, very amateur — I am no photographer) iPhone snaps from my wanderings near home post-Spain’s World Cup triumph. As ought to be expected, New York stood still in the afternoon hours of Sunday and I can still hear the drone of vuvuzelas reverberating around my block. Football may not yet be America’s game, …

In claiming its first World Cup championship with a 1-0 win over a hardworking but ultimately overmatched Dutch team, Spain demonstrated that playing beautiful football isn’t a reward in itself. If you want the trophy, sometimes you’ve got to win a little ugly. And this game was no a piece of art. Spain was more than willing to …

Naomi’s here, Charlize is here, Morgan’s here, even Placido is here - but, finally, the last missing piece of the South Africa tableau was put in place at Soccer City tonight when Nelson Mandela made a 2-minute tour of the pitch.

We’re in the last hours of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, the first in Africa, and as 94,000 fans of Spain and Holland assemble here at Soccer City, it seems appropriate to review what South Africa  has achieved in the last month.