World Cup Part 1

I never posted anything on my blog throughout the world cup, the reasons although many, simply boil down to the fact that I never really got around to it because I was watching all the games. Now that I have time on my hands, I think that I should recap the event with a trite little summary. The world looked towards Germany this year, as the faithful around the world gathered their thoughts, sights, and minds and put them altogether for this one event. Although here in the US, hardly people noticed, but elsewhere in the world people were gearing up for this wild event with so much anticipation. The world cup has become one of the most anticipated events for the world. The reason in my opinion is because on the playing field, everyone is the same. You really can't distinguish between anyone except their playing ability. Its the ability to demonstrate their agility, skills and tenacity that matters on the field, nothing else. Through the group stages the most impressive teams were the Ghanaians, Ecuadorians, Germans, Portuguese, Australians, Swiss, and the Spanish. Although Ukraine did qualify through the group stage their performance was a direct relationship of their group. A lackluster performance by England, France, Brazil and Netherlands was indicative of how the rest of the tournament would turn out for these respected teams. South Korea, Iran and Japan were for me the biggest disappointments, simply because either of them failed to qualify for the second round match up and there were high hopes for the Japanese team. Unfortunately all these teams were also from the Asian continent, which speaks something about the state of Asian football. When the second round started, it dawned on me that the group stage was simply a stepping stone for most of the teams and as if a giant was awoken France beat Spain in their second round match up with goals from one of my favorite players of the tournament Franck Ribery. France mercilessly punished Spain for their lackluster performance in the second round and stole the victory from underneath the young Spanish team. England continued its dismal performance and only through the bend of Beckham was saved from returning home. Brazil started to look like itself again with a win over Ghana, which the Ghanaians fought very bravely but as it was said in LOTR, "There can be no victory against the power that has risen from the West" (South West of the world to be exact). Argentina played out one of the best matches of the tournament against the tri colores. I have to take a moment here and congratulate Mexico for their performance through the tournament. After a very long time, I have seen the team play out to their best, and to be very honest, they lost to Argentina in the overtime on a goal that was later declared to be the goal of the tournament so the Mexicans should have no fear, for the future looks bright. Italy advanced on a very controversial call to beat the Australians who also have proven that after an absence from the world stage, they can compete with the best of the best. The match between Portugal and Netherlands was something that no football fan should have watched, but Portugal came out victorious and that is all that I have for that match.

The round of sixteen produced some very great battles and teams with credible records proved that experience still counted for something as France overcame a determined Spanish team. As the quarterfinals approached the world sat in anticipation over the fate of the world cup. Stay tuned for the second and final part of the world cup