| 08 July 2010
Like most of you, coming into this summer’s World Cup, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect.Would I watch? Of course I would, if only because it’s my job to have an opinion on it. But would I care? That remained to be seen.
Well, here we are, now almost a full month after the start of play back on June 11, and I’ve got a confession to make: I’m a World Cup junkie.
I Google funny names and countries I’m not familiar with. I have conversations with my buddies that center around stuff like, “Is it just me, or does Andres Iniesta not look right tonight?” I’m even to the point where I can spell names like Bastian Schweinsteiger and Asamoah Gyan without looking them up, or looking down at my keyboard as I type.
What can I say, I love the World Cup.
It’s the only sporting event I know of- and correct me if I’m wrong- that combines the best players in the world in their sport, with seemingly life and death consequences, all to the backdrop of singing and dancing, with half the teams wearing goofy mismatched colors. Essentially, it’s what the World Series would be, if it was really was the World Series, rather than what it actually is, the American Baseball Championship.
Either way, with the Netherlands and Spain getting set for the final on Sunday, I did some reflecting. Here are 10 things I’ll remember from this World Cup.
1. You Know A World Class Player When You See One:
Like any sport, even if you’re just a casual fan, you don’t need a manual or media guide to figure out who the alpha male is. You just need to watch the games.
The first match that I saw this World Cup was Argentina and Nigeria on the second day of the tournament. I just had to see Lionel Messi for myself. Had to see what the hype was about.
Within minutes, you could tell why Messi is considered the best player in the world. He was heading crosses to teammates. He was completing passes that no one else could have. And he just barely missed a few goals of his own. Argentina won that match 1-0, but believe me when I say, they easily could have won it 4-0.
As the tournament went on, and I got more and more immersed, I started to feel the same way about Luis Fabiano, Wesley Sneijder and David Villa (More on him coming). These guys were just special. Whenever they were on the pitch your eyes were transfixed on them, and the other team’s were as well. To steal a term from our own American football, the best players, “Always had to be accounted for.”
Honestly, I like another sports analogy for the really special players though, they’re like great point guards. Messi, Sneijder, Fabiano, they don’t need to score goals to be the most valuable player in a match, just like a great point guard can control a game without scoring a single basket. Messi was the second best player I saw all tournament (Behind only Villa), and he didn’t score one single goal. Yet he stood out every single time I saw him play.
Like any great athlete, Kobe Bryant, Peyton Manning, Drew Brees, LeBron, in soccer, nobody needs to tell you who the best player is.
You just know.
2. Diego Maradona Is A Funny Dude:
Speaking of Messi and Argentina, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention their coach. Because the guy is like Pele, Stan Van Gundy and Daffy Duck all rolled into one. And along with his team, following Maradona was one of the most fun aspects of this World Cup.
During matches, Maradona paced the sidelines with more emotion than a pregnant woman, and he did it with the same look on his face that my dog gets when he’s afraid he might not make it outside in time to use the bathroom. Sheer terror.
After victories Maradona kissed players on the cheek, which probably would have led to a lot more jokes on my part, you know, if he wasn’t one the greatest players of all-time. Off the pitch and in the press room Maradona was a riot, using maybe the best one-liner of the tournament after Brazilian great Pele questioned his coaching tactics. Maradona’s response? “Pele should go back to the museum.” I half expect Lane Kiffin to dust that one off at USC sometime in the next year.
(By the way, maybe the most underrated part of Maradona’s reign as Argentina’s coach were his assistants, who all looked like extras out of a bad prison movie. I half expected them to be carrying around sawed off toothbrushes and shanking opposing players on the way to the locker room at halftime)
But back to Maradona himself.
Because for all the talk about his wacky sideline demeanor, there’s no doubt that he had a positive impact on his team. No side (team) in this tournament had better chemistry or enjoyed playing with each other more than Argentina. The tightness that Maradona showed on the sideline somehow equated to looseness for his team on the field, leading to a free-flowing style and Argentina becoming my favorite team to watch during this World Cup.
Either way, after Argentina lost to Germany over the weekend, Maradona came out and said that he might resign as coach. I for one hope that doesn’t happen.
The 2014 World Cup in Brazil is just four years away. And it wouldn’t be the same without him.
3. Soccer Really Is The “World’s Game”:
I got a true appreciation of that a few weekend’s ago, when some friends and I were visiting a buddy in Washington D.C.
Now I know what you’re thinking, and it makes sense that soccer would be huge in D.C.. Especially considering that D.C. is one of the most diverse cities anywhere, and a place that transplants from all over the country and all over the world come to call home.
Regardless though, we couldn’t go anywhere without someone wanting to talk World Cup with us.
When we went to get pizza our server wanted to talk soccer. When I left my friend’s apartment complex, the guy at the front of the desk wanted to talk soccer. Hell, one night, my buddies and I went out to meet girls, and instead ended up buzzed outside some bar at 3 a.m., talking soccer with a couple guys from Sierra Leone. We even made a group date with our new friends to watch the next day’s matches, but they never showed up. I guess they were “washing their hair,” or something.
My favorite story of the whole trip, and the whole World Cup though, came the last day we were in D.C., when my friends and I hopped a cab after a long day of sight seeing.
To say that our driver was a little bit “off,” would be an understatement. The guy had glassy red eyes, smelled like booze, and was singing along to some of the worst music I’ve ever heard. The best way to describe it would be to say that it was some weird combination of traditional African drumming, a hungry cat purring in the middle of the night, and a baby seal being clubbed in the Pacific. Only worse (To the contrary, my friend called it as “The sound you hear when you put a pair of shoes into a dryer.” Either way, not exactly a ringing
endorsement).
As the ride went on, just to get the guy to stop singing, I asked him what his take on the World Cup was. He immediately went into an impassioned speech about his native Nigeria, and why their side was too young, too poorly coached, and still a few years away from being a contender. All of a sudden our inebriated cab driver turned articulate and intelligent on us, and would have given any ESPN analyst a run for his or her money.
Sure that’s the kind of thing that could probably only happen in D.C. But it’s also the kind of thing that could only happen during the World Cup too.
4. The Terminology of Soccer:
One of the most surprising things I’ve noticed about this tournament, is that not only do I find myself talking more soccer than I ever thought I would, but I’m actually picking up on the terminology of things too.
In soccer, the players don’t play on a field. They play on a pitch.
There aren’t teams, but sides, kind of like when you divvy up a 4th grade gym class for a dodge ball game.
Captains aren’t called captains, but skippers. Don’t ask, I have no idea. I do wonder however, if overseas, the tagline to Captain Morgan commercials is, “Calling all Skippers.”
Most importantly though, players are never hurt, but instead, trying to get fit.
This is my favorite term of all, and one I think I’ll try using to go forward. Like when I’m too hungover to write this column one day, I’ll apologize by saying, “Sorry, I’m still not feeling 100 percent. Trying to get fit from last night.”
5. Learning About New Countries:
So last summer, I was a broadcaster and media relations director for the Alaska Goldpanners of the Alaskan Baseball League. It was a great job, and one of the most fun summers of my life.
Most of the team was from the West Coast- and the Pacific Northwest in specific- and I quickly became their sounding board on all things East Coast. What was New York like? What was Boston like? What were the girls like? To some of the guys on the team, I was literally the only person they’d ever met from east of the Rocky Mountains.
Anyway, watching this World Cup has made me feel the same way those guys on the Goldpanners felt about me. The World Cup is my sounding board on all things to do with these countries. Every match isn’t just about soccer, but a geography lesson and teaching tool as well.
For example, before this tournament, I’d never met a Uruguayan. While I still haven’t yet, at least now, whenever I heard the country mentioned in casual conversation, I can picture Diego Forlan’s face and flowing blonde hair.
Sure I didn’t know much about the Ivory Coast a few weeks back. But now I know that there is bright orange in the country’s flag. And as for Paraguay, well to me it was just some country in South America a few weeks ago. Because of the World Cup, I know that Asuncion is the cheapest city in the world to live in.
I wouldn’t know any of that if it weren’t for the World Cup.
6. Vuvazuelas:
All I’ve got to say about vuvazuelas is this: Sure they may have been kinda, sorta annoying at the beginning of this tournament. But now, just like your cousin with the lisp at Thanksgiving dinner, I can’t imagine watching soccer without them. Am I alone on that?
Anyway, back to another story from D.C., because for some reason, while I was down there, we all became obsessed with vuvazuelas. Don’t ask, I don’t have an answer as to why. My best guess is that when you start drinking at 10 a.m. for the Slovenia-US match, by 4 p.m., just about anything will be interesting.
Regardless, during that trip, there was about a 36 hour period where vuvazuelas were all the talk between my buddies and I. What were their origin? Where could we buy one? Would they be appropriate at our buddy’s upcoming wedding? Honestly, there was one point that I’m convinced we were the world’s foremost experts on the subject.
So what’s my point with all this vuvazuela talk? I’m really not sure.
Just that in 10 years when I’m thinking about this tournament, they’ll definitely be one of the first things that comes to my mind.
Also, this is one of the coolest things I've ever come across on the internet.
7. The World Cup: Where Day Drinking Is Not Only Acceptable, But Encouraged:
Reason No. 678 why the World Cup is awesome.
At any other time during a four year period, you’d be considered an alcoholic for showing up to the bar at 10 a.m. and consuming alcohol like a Jersey Shore cast member. Yet, during the World Cup, not only is it ok, you’re considered “patriotic,” when doing so.
I could really get used to this World Cup thing.
8. The Americans:
I already wrote a whole 2500 world column on my thoughts on the American team and their fans, so I won’t get into too much detail here. Essentially, if you don’t want to read the article, my point was that I’m proud of American fans for supporting their team, just a little disappointed in their attitude after the loss. Basically my belief is that if America is ever going to get really good in soccer, we need to start treating our soccer players like the rest of our athletes. And never, ever, would we accept a loss like Ghana in any other sport.
But with that being said, there was no moment in this tournament quite like the Landon Donovan goal against Algeria. We all have our stories and our memories, and it’s one of those sports moments that you’ll always remember where you were and who you were with when it happened.
As for the goal itself, all I’ll say is this: I’ve watched a whole lot of sporting events in my life, and I never remember a moment quite like that one. The combination of unyielding patriotism, mixed in with the anxiousness of knowing that our tournament was seconds from being over. And then the euphoria of somehow pulling out the victory.
There aren’t many sporting events that when they’re done, you know you’ll remember everything about it in 30 years from now. But that was one of them.
9. Dutch Male Pattern Baldness:
Look, I’ve got nothing but respect for Arjen Robben and Wesley Sneijder. But has anyone else noticed they’ve both got the same
hairline as Larry David?Believe me, you might not have noticed yet, but you'll notice it in Sunday's final. And when they show up to Brazil in 2014 wearing toupees, you’ll think of me.
10. David Villa:
I mean this guy has to be the story of the World Cup, right? The best player, on the pre-tournament favorite, coming through time and time again while the rest of his teammates struggle, with Villa eventually leading his notoriously underachieving country to their first ever World Cup final. I can already see Jake Gyllenhaal dying his hair, coming up with an awful Spanish accent, and playing Villa when ABC Family releases “The España Story,” in 2012.
What’s been most impressive about Villa in this World Cup isn’t just the goals he’s scored, but the magnitude of them. The beautiful long ball against Chile. The finish in the box against Portugal. The rebound of a rebound, off two posts against Paraguay. Five goals. Three game winners. Two in 1-0 wins. Spain is a great team, but they’d be watching the final at home without Villa.
Look, I started off by saying that I’m a casual soccer fan, and I’ll end it by saying the same. I have no business making a prediction on Sunday’s match.
I just know that I’ve watched enough sports in my life to know great players when I see them. The greats come through on the biggest stages. I expect that from Villa Sunday.
My prediction for the final?
Spain 1
Netherlands 0
David Villa with the score.
It’d only be appropriate way to end this tournament, right?
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