World Cup

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.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gk8YAxeTZsI&feature=related]

Just an addendum to Tony’s excellent tableau of the kind of historic and political forces “at play” when Spain and Holland meet in the 2010 World Cup final tomorrow: On Saturday, on the eve of arguably the most important match in Spanish history, over one million …

A confession: I’ve never had any time for the third/fourth play-off game. The players don’t want to be a part of it, unless they’re in the running for the Golden Boot, and management surely either wants to be back home, receiving plaudits for getting their side to the last four or sunning themselves on a beach, licking their wounds after …

Bravo to Germany for it’s “little final” win 3-2. But with all due respect (with the exception for the fishy stinkitude of a yet again awful Bastian Schweinsteiger), Uruguay gets the sporting “moral” tie on this one.

Instant nostalgia. There’s nothing quite like it. And so, we thought it was high time that we look back on the 2010 World Cup before it’s even come to an end! Below, some of our bloggers reflect on their favorite moments. Please be sure to add your comments below.