So this is it.. then?
WTF at FIFA’s All Star 11.. well really only Müller’s absence (I don’t know about 3 right backs either. But that’s less of a WTF Besides, I’m happy that Lahm was chosen. :)). I mean come on. He’s the Golden Boot winner! 5 goals 3 assists in 6 games. Just based on statistics you can’t leave him out. (Or based on his actual performance either) I don’t know though why only 11 were chosen anyway. Last time it was a whole squad and previously subs have been included. Well… they were voted for by FIFA.com club members… with apparently a bias for Spain. XP
Anyway the World Cup is over, but it’s still a bit in my thoughts. :D I don’t think I’ve ever been THIS much into it before. I was really into in 1998. In 2002 I watched what I could and in 2006 it took me a while to care (even though the WC was in GERMANY. That was a time I would have liked to go there as well. Like my cousin. :) But I was working. (I later bought the DVD with all Germany’s games though. :) ))
This was also the first time all the matches(unless they were played simultaneously) were aired over here and I watched. A LOT. Not every single match, but def. a whole lot of football. :)
Anyway.. to sum it up. What I liked, didn’t like and so on… Of course mainly concentrated on Germany. :) And I prob. forgot something anyway… :)
Positive
-GERMANY. Yes, I love Germany regardless, but this team displayed some amazing, attacking football, team spirit and a great and positive attitude with a group of young players who worked together as a team. (and demolished favourites with superstar players.) Scored the most goals in the entire tournament, despite not having a single “weak opponent”.
-USA. Fight till the end! :)
-Chile’s offensive tactic
-Argentina’s offensive tactic
-Spain’s skill. They’re the most skilful team. No doubt about it.
-North Korea’s pride. By results… the worst team of the tournament. But they have such spirit and national pride. Jong Tae-Se crying during the national anthem….
-Japan. Great spirit, some great free kicks. Keisuke Honda. :D
-Ghana the hope of Africa. :) (originally not considered one of the best among the African countries, or one of those with a chance to make it to the 2nd round)
-New Zealand being the only team to not suffer a SINGLE defeat. The half amateurs from the rugby nation of New Zealand. :) Also: despite being the underdogs in every game, showing a great deal of character. :)
-Switzerland being the only team to beat the eventual World Cup winners
-Slovakia, world cup newbie beating the reigning champion Italy and making it to the knockout stages.
-The top 3 from Europe and a new World Cup winner
-Paraguay. Putting up a great (clean) fight against Spain and almost succeeding in knocking them out.
-Uruguay. The surprise of the tournament, I suppose. No matter who they were up against put up a great fight. Also: The Uruguayan fans, who were rightfully so proud of their team
-Diego Forlán. A BIG reason for his team’s success. But despite that credits everyone on his team. Seems like such a wonderful individual. :)
-Diego Forlán getting the gold ball, despite being a player from a the team that ended up 4th
-Philipp Lahm as Germany’s captain. Okay, since he’s my favourite player, just him being a captain is positive. However, facts speak for themselves and while he doesn’t seem like such a presence on the pitch, the way Germany has presented themselves as such a unity, can be largely credited to his democratic and communicative leading style.
-Thomas Müller. Although I’ve been rooting for him since he was still an amateur, I have been positively surprised at his showing at the WC. Have been reading comments from people from other countries, and he seems to have left a very positive impression, not just because of his playing but also because of his spirit and attitude. Heck, even the English fans like him. :)
-Germany’s breakthrough players. Müller, Özil, Khedira.. and Schweinsteiger had an awesome tournament.
-Germany’s unlikely goal scorers, Friedrich, Khedira, Jansen.. 8 goal scorers altogether and with counting the assists, that would be 12 players directly involved in Germany’s scoring(through assists or scoring)... including the goalkeeper. Scoring goals = team effort
-Germany fielding 22 players (all their squad but 1, who was injured anyway), more than any other team. The point being: you’re all part of the team, you all deserve to be on the field. :)
- the bronze match. Why do people discuss if this even needs to be played? This match was awesome! (Of course Germany’s makeshift team evened it out a little. :) )
-Cameroon vs. Denmark. Awesome intensity!!!
-Ghana vs. Uruguay… starting from extra time. :)
-Germany crushing the arrogant Argentines, starting off by Müller who had been rudely dismissed out of a press conference by Maradona a few months before. :) Karma is SUCH a bitch (which leads to…)
-Müller, a nobody to most people, being the tournament’s top goal scorer while superstars including the world’s best footballer (and Maradona’s pet) didn’t score a single goal.
-Müller winning the Best Young Player Award
-Bayern players scoring the most goals. 12 :) (and being the most represented club in the semis. :) )
-some pretty awesome goals and pretty awesome saves in general. :) Special mention: Van Bronckhorst’s goal against Uruguay and Honda’s against Denmark.
-The Netherlands beating Brazil
-Switzerland beating Spain
-Maradona’s enthusiasm, and love for the game and his players
-Emotions, emotions, happiness, hugging. :) It’s wonderful to witness.
-National pride. OMG. Jong Tae-Se. I was so touched by that.
-In general: Great fans. :)
Negative
-The overall boring first round
-Spain. I dislike their style(I find them boring), their diving, their attitude after the game against Switzerland(only graceful when you win, eh?), the way they played at the end of the game against Chile, their ridiculous luck, the fact that their acting/diving caused THREE players of the opposing teams to be sent off, that they don’t seem to give their all, unless it matters…
-Argentina and Lionel Messi. And others. Schweinsteiger was right about them. Maybe he shouldn’t have said what he did, but he was right. (I feel sorry for the Argentines, because they were so devastated after they lost to “such an inferior team”.. but honestly. They were asking for it.) I used to like Lionel Messi. But after intentionally dribbling the ball along his arms to Müller, whose arm it hits, and then requesting a card for a handball right after? That LITTLE HYPOCRITE!
-Germany’s game against Spain. The game was boring, Germany fizzled out. Their spirit was gone. It was sad to watch.
-Germany’s respect towards Spain and lack of confidence. Yeah.. arrogance can be unattractive, but there’s no reason, to be SO nice.
-France. Germany’s antithesis. A big disgrace. I feel sorry for the French fans.
-English fans, the media and the team’s disrespect. To the fans and media: England has good players. They can be a strong team. But the World Cup is tough and you need more than just good players, especially against tough teams. Don’t diss the players when they don’t live up to your high expectations. To England’s team: What do you think Algeria’s is going to think if you say that you can beat them with only half your strength? Come ON. (to be fair, both the players and most of the fans were pretty graceful after the defeat, despite the disallowed goal and admitted that Germany was better, so kudos to them. :) I still dislike the media though)
-The Netherlands’ kung fu fighting in the final
-All the hate piling on the Dutch while ignoring the fact that Spain were FAR from being saints. (Both played dirty, as did quite a few other teams (but perhaps not reaching the level of the other 2...
-the refereeing
-the fair play prize going to Spain just because they had the least cards (which is not that big an achievement when you have lenient referees on you side) There’s more to “fair play” than cards. And making it to the knock out stages. North Korea was prob. the most fair team...
-The cards in the Germany vs. Serbia match. It was overall quite a clean match, but by the number of cards, one would think that it was almost as violent as the final.. and it was FAR from it.
-Diving in general, trying to influence the referees… there was too much of that, by too many teams
-Germany’s bad luck. 1. goalkeeper commits suicide, 2. goalkeeper gets injured. . the only superstar is injured(turns out to be lucky for Germany though), more players get injured… before the tournament. During the tournament: players being injured, out with yellows(fair or not fair), or sick. And Germany having to face tough opponents and not getting an easy group at all. It’s a miracle that they did as well as they did.
-Players being injured and having to miss the World Cup in general. :(
-Klose being so close to getting that record.. but being out for TWO games. :(
-Kroos not getting to play more. Even the little he played showed great skill. He deserved more.
-Brazil vs. Portugal. People thought it would be great. It wasn’t.
-Spain passing the ball around to each other in their own half against Chile’s 10 men, who couldn’t do a thing against that tactic. (My Dad: “That’s the worst football I’ve ever seen”)
-the 2 finalists in general
-Brazil falling apart against the Netherlands
-All the poor, poor disappointed players. :( (It doesn’t matter if I like them or not. I always feel sorry for those who are disappointed)
-Poor Italy :(
-Poor rest of Group D. It was a tough and an even group
-When players don’t sing the national anthem (Goes for the Germans especially). Yes, they’re multicultural, but for me, playing in the World Cup is about representing one’s own country, and I like to see that pride.
-Anyone who ditches their own national team for another (I don’t mean supporting other teams as well but instead) or otherwise doesn’t show support
-In general: Some fans.
-MÜLLER NOT BEING IN THE ALL STAR TEAM. A TRAVESTY.
Controversial
-The final.. in general. :) I wasn’t really invested, so I found it amusing. Because it was so ridiculous (I also found it amusing how there was so much anticipation and then so much disappointment. :) I def. Expected it to be crappy, so for me(only watching it because I wanted Müller to get the Golden Boot) it was actually a little interesting.)
-The Bloemfontein goal. (Retribution for Wembley 1966.) Honestly when it comes to goals, IMO their should be video technology. Sometimes human error is too much
-Villa’s slap.
-The vuvuzelas. Personally. I love them. :)
-Jabulani. It’s a ball. It’s round. Blaming the ball is just ridiculous.
-The psychic Octopus Paul. The fuss that was made about him was ridiculous. And the amount of fame he got was amusing. The Spaniards wanted to buy him. :) People based their bets on him. That was one powerful animal (also the fact that it caused a wave of “psychic animals”. XDD Most were wrong)
-fans, people, media. The WC creates so much BUZZ. It can be good, it can be bad, but what is sure: The WC is incredibly influential and one of the biggest deals world wide.
-Luis Suárez = best goalkeeper? He did what he had to at that moment (most of it was undoubtly instinct) and got punished for it. If the penalty kick had gone in or Ghana had won, nobody would care about the handball.
-Jimmy Jump trying to “steal” the World Cup :D
-Players, journalist and people getting robbed
What I think this World Cup will be remembered for:
-Robert Green (at least by the English)
-The Bloemfontein goal (at least by the English)
-England’s’ worst loss in World Cup history (at least by the English.. especially since it was to Germany)
-Bad refereeing
-Kung fu
-Diving
-Paul the Octopus
-France’s infighting
-Vuvuzelas
-Jabulani
-Hand of God vol. 2 (especially in Uruguay and Ghana)
-Superstars failing to impress
Hmm… Overall I guess this World Cup was pretty okay. There was some good football, bad football, drama, controversial stuff, surprises… a new world champion (and an expected one too)
Germany did great everything considered and newbie!Müller won 2 awards. :) So, I’m pretty satisfied. :)
And I should take a break from all this football stuff at least until the new season begins.
Maybe I should watch some anime. :)
(Ugh.. yeah then there is that “study plan” I have to draft, or I won’t be allowed to study next semester… Ah crap. Oh… and I have a test as well. Ah crap. Where to start? chances are that I’ll just be procrastinating again Oh gosh.. I’ve been just trying to distract myself, so that I don’t feel like a failure again.. but not even the distractions can hide the reality )
Anyway the World Cup is over, but it’s still a bit in my thoughts. :D I don’t think I’ve ever been THIS much into it before. I was really into in 1998. In 2002 I watched what I could and in 2006 it took me a while to care (even though the WC was in GERMANY. That was a time I would have liked to go there as well. Like my cousin. :) But I was working. (I later bought the DVD with all Germany’s games though. :) ))
This was also the first time all the matches(unless they were played simultaneously) were aired over here and I watched. A LOT. Not every single match, but def. a whole lot of football. :)
Anyway.. to sum it up. What I liked, didn’t like and so on… Of course mainly concentrated on Germany. :) And I prob. forgot something anyway… :)
Positive
-GERMANY. Yes, I love Germany regardless, but this team displayed some amazing, attacking football, team spirit and a great and positive attitude with a group of young players who worked together as a team. (and demolished favourites with superstar players.) Scored the most goals in the entire tournament, despite not having a single “weak opponent”.
-USA. Fight till the end! :)
-Chile’s offensive tactic
-Argentina’s offensive tactic
-Spain’s skill. They’re the most skilful team. No doubt about it.
-North Korea’s pride. By results… the worst team of the tournament. But they have such spirit and national pride. Jong Tae-Se crying during the national anthem….
-Japan. Great spirit, some great free kicks. Keisuke Honda. :D
-Ghana the hope of Africa. :) (originally not considered one of the best among the African countries, or one of those with a chance to make it to the 2nd round)
-New Zealand being the only team to not suffer a SINGLE defeat. The half amateurs from the rugby nation of New Zealand. :) Also: despite being the underdogs in every game, showing a great deal of character. :)
-Switzerland being the only team to beat the eventual World Cup winners
-Slovakia, world cup newbie beating the reigning champion Italy and making it to the knockout stages.
-The top 3 from Europe and a new World Cup winner
-Paraguay. Putting up a great (clean) fight against Spain and almost succeeding in knocking them out.
-Uruguay. The surprise of the tournament, I suppose. No matter who they were up against put up a great fight. Also: The Uruguayan fans, who were rightfully so proud of their team
-Diego Forlán. A BIG reason for his team’s success. But despite that credits everyone on his team. Seems like such a wonderful individual. :)
-Diego Forlán getting the gold ball, despite being a player from a the team that ended up 4th
-Philipp Lahm as Germany’s captain. Okay, since he’s my favourite player, just him being a captain is positive. However, facts speak for themselves and while he doesn’t seem like such a presence on the pitch, the way Germany has presented themselves as such a unity, can be largely credited to his democratic and communicative leading style.
-Thomas Müller. Although I’ve been rooting for him since he was still an amateur, I have been positively surprised at his showing at the WC. Have been reading comments from people from other countries, and he seems to have left a very positive impression, not just because of his playing but also because of his spirit and attitude. Heck, even the English fans like him. :)
-Germany’s breakthrough players. Müller, Özil, Khedira.. and Schweinsteiger had an awesome tournament.
-Germany’s unlikely goal scorers, Friedrich, Khedira, Jansen.. 8 goal scorers altogether and with counting the assists, that would be 12 players directly involved in Germany’s scoring(through assists or scoring)... including the goalkeeper. Scoring goals = team effort
-Germany fielding 22 players (all their squad but 1, who was injured anyway), more than any other team. The point being: you’re all part of the team, you all deserve to be on the field. :)
- the bronze match. Why do people discuss if this even needs to be played? This match was awesome! (Of course Germany’s makeshift team evened it out a little. :) )
-Cameroon vs. Denmark. Awesome intensity!!!
-Ghana vs. Uruguay… starting from extra time. :)
-Germany crushing the arrogant Argentines, starting off by Müller who had been rudely dismissed out of a press conference by Maradona a few months before. :) Karma is SUCH a bitch (which leads to…)
-Müller, a nobody to most people, being the tournament’s top goal scorer while superstars including the world’s best footballer (and Maradona’s pet) didn’t score a single goal.
-Müller winning the Best Young Player Award
-Bayern players scoring the most goals. 12 :) (and being the most represented club in the semis. :) )
-some pretty awesome goals and pretty awesome saves in general. :) Special mention: Van Bronckhorst’s goal against Uruguay and Honda’s against Denmark.
-The Netherlands beating Brazil
-Switzerland beating Spain
-Maradona’s enthusiasm, and love for the game and his players
-Emotions, emotions, happiness, hugging. :) It’s wonderful to witness.
-National pride. OMG. Jong Tae-Se. I was so touched by that.
-In general: Great fans. :)
Negative
-The overall boring first round
-Spain. I dislike their style(I find them boring), their diving, their attitude after the game against Switzerland(only graceful when you win, eh?), the way they played at the end of the game against Chile, their ridiculous luck, the fact that their acting/diving caused THREE players of the opposing teams to be sent off, that they don’t seem to give their all, unless it matters…
-Argentina and Lionel Messi. And others. Schweinsteiger was right about them. Maybe he shouldn’t have said what he did, but he was right. (I feel sorry for the Argentines, because they were so devastated after they lost to “such an inferior team”.. but honestly. They were asking for it.) I used to like Lionel Messi. But after intentionally dribbling the ball along his arms to Müller, whose arm it hits, and then requesting a card for a handball right after? That LITTLE HYPOCRITE!
-Germany’s game against Spain. The game was boring, Germany fizzled out. Their spirit was gone. It was sad to watch.
-Germany’s respect towards Spain and lack of confidence. Yeah.. arrogance can be unattractive, but there’s no reason, to be SO nice.
-France. Germany’s antithesis. A big disgrace. I feel sorry for the French fans.
-English fans, the media and the team’s disrespect. To the fans and media: England has good players. They can be a strong team. But the World Cup is tough and you need more than just good players, especially against tough teams. Don’t diss the players when they don’t live up to your high expectations. To England’s team: What do you think Algeria’s is going to think if you say that you can beat them with only half your strength? Come ON. (to be fair, both the players and most of the fans were pretty graceful after the defeat, despite the disallowed goal and admitted that Germany was better, so kudos to them. :) I still dislike the media though)
-The Netherlands’ kung fu fighting in the final
-All the hate piling on the Dutch while ignoring the fact that Spain were FAR from being saints. (Both played dirty, as did quite a few other teams (but perhaps not reaching the level of the other 2...
-the refereeing
-the fair play prize going to Spain just because they had the least cards (which is not that big an achievement when you have lenient referees on you side) There’s more to “fair play” than cards. And making it to the knock out stages. North Korea was prob. the most fair team...
-The cards in the Germany vs. Serbia match. It was overall quite a clean match, but by the number of cards, one would think that it was almost as violent as the final.. and it was FAR from it.
-Diving in general, trying to influence the referees… there was too much of that, by too many teams
-Germany’s bad luck. 1. goalkeeper commits suicide, 2. goalkeeper gets injured. . the only superstar is injured(turns out to be lucky for Germany though), more players get injured… before the tournament. During the tournament: players being injured, out with yellows(fair or not fair), or sick. And Germany having to face tough opponents and not getting an easy group at all. It’s a miracle that they did as well as they did.
-Players being injured and having to miss the World Cup in general. :(
-Klose being so close to getting that record.. but being out for TWO games. :(
-Kroos not getting to play more. Even the little he played showed great skill. He deserved more.
-Brazil vs. Portugal. People thought it would be great. It wasn’t.
-Spain passing the ball around to each other in their own half against Chile’s 10 men, who couldn’t do a thing against that tactic. (My Dad: “That’s the worst football I’ve ever seen”)
-the 2 finalists in general
-Brazil falling apart against the Netherlands
-All the poor, poor disappointed players. :( (It doesn’t matter if I like them or not. I always feel sorry for those who are disappointed)
-Poor Italy :(
-Poor rest of Group D. It was a tough and an even group
-When players don’t sing the national anthem (Goes for the Germans especially). Yes, they’re multicultural, but for me, playing in the World Cup is about representing one’s own country, and I like to see that pride.
-Anyone who ditches their own national team for another (I don’t mean supporting other teams as well but instead) or otherwise doesn’t show support
-In general: Some fans.
-MÜLLER NOT BEING IN THE ALL STAR TEAM. A TRAVESTY.
Controversial
-The final.. in general. :) I wasn’t really invested, so I found it amusing. Because it was so ridiculous (I also found it amusing how there was so much anticipation and then so much disappointment. :) I def. Expected it to be crappy, so for me(only watching it because I wanted Müller to get the Golden Boot) it was actually a little interesting.)
-The Bloemfontein goal. (Retribution for Wembley 1966.) Honestly when it comes to goals, IMO their should be video technology. Sometimes human error is too much
-Villa’s slap.
-The vuvuzelas. Personally. I love them. :)
-Jabulani. It’s a ball. It’s round. Blaming the ball is just ridiculous.
-The psychic Octopus Paul. The fuss that was made about him was ridiculous. And the amount of fame he got was amusing. The Spaniards wanted to buy him. :) People based their bets on him. That was one powerful animal (also the fact that it caused a wave of “psychic animals”. XDD Most were wrong)
-fans, people, media. The WC creates so much BUZZ. It can be good, it can be bad, but what is sure: The WC is incredibly influential and one of the biggest deals world wide.
-Luis Suárez = best goalkeeper? He did what he had to at that moment (most of it was undoubtly instinct) and got punished for it. If the penalty kick had gone in or Ghana had won, nobody would care about the handball.
-Jimmy Jump trying to “steal” the World Cup :D
-Players, journalist and people getting robbed
What I think this World Cup will be remembered for:
-Robert Green (at least by the English)
-The Bloemfontein goal (at least by the English)
-England’s’ worst loss in World Cup history (at least by the English.. especially since it was to Germany)
-Bad refereeing
-Kung fu
-Diving
-Paul the Octopus
-France’s infighting
-Vuvuzelas
-Jabulani
-Hand of God vol. 2 (especially in Uruguay and Ghana)
-Superstars failing to impress
Hmm… Overall I guess this World Cup was pretty okay. There was some good football, bad football, drama, controversial stuff, surprises… a new world champion (and an expected one too)
Germany did great everything considered and newbie!Müller won 2 awards. :) So, I’m pretty satisfied. :)
And I should take a break from all this football stuff at least until the new season begins.
Maybe I should watch some anime. :)
(Ugh.. yeah then there is that “study plan” I have to draft, or I won’t be allowed to study next semester… Ah crap. Oh… and I have a test as well. Ah crap. Where to start? chances are that I’ll just be procrastinating again Oh gosh.. I’ve been just trying to distract myself, so that I don’t feel like a failure again.. but not even the distractions can hide the reality )