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A double post for those of you who’d like to read about my life here in Costa Rica . . .

Yesterday afternoon as I was settling onto my sofa to watch the Germany-Uruguay third place match of the World Cup, it began to rain harder and harder and then it turned to hail.  About this time (10 min into the match) the power cut out and the hail reached marble size.  A few minutes later I received a phone call from my teammate Lori who lives down the street who said her house had flooded!  She asked if I could come help clean up.  I immediately went down with a mop and bucket and began to help her clean up everything.  As she began calling around to others to see what she should do we found out our other teammates Kari and Melissa who live in front of me also had water in their house.  The problem was that in Costa Rica a very popular roofing material is this thin corrugated plexiglass that when baked in the sun after awhile becomes brittle.  With the hail it went right through turning these panels into swiss cheese.  In Costa Rica we don’t get hail usually . . .

As you can imagine this caused widespread damage all over the city.  I think nearly every house in our neighborhood was affected and although my house wasn’t hit (my paneling was just changed before I moved in, so it’s new ), I today noticed a few holes in a section over my garage that a guy pointed out when he came to fix a couple of unrelated things in my house.  He said he’d be back tomorrow to fix it along with a light fixture that’s been out since I moved in.

Not surprisingly a lot of people rushed out to buy new corrugated plastic and quickly the city was sold out.    Today people have been making repairs since we are in the middle of rainy season . . .more rain has already come today so people are working to try and get things fixed so their homes don’t get wet.

Bear with me one more time as I recap what was South Africa 2010.  What a tournament this was.  I look back to 2006 when I first started following soccer with any interest and in the five years I have watched, this has to be without a doubt the most exciting month of matches I have ever seen.  So many upsets, so many storylines and so many new faces.

Congratulations Spain

Coming into the tournament, although Argentina was the team I wanted to see win it, Spain was my #2 pick.  Nothing against Holland, but Spain has produced some of the finest players in the game over the past few decades and collectively with all of the players they have with Real Madrid and Barcelona who have both been top of the league in Spain they really do have a world class team.  I know the wins weren’t pretty, but having a monkey on their back of people constantly reminding them they had never won the cup and after coming off of the Euro 2008 win, they were the pretournament favorites and to live up to the enormous hype and pressure is really a testament to the character this team has.  I think this will really loosen them up for future World Cups and this country could be a very dangerous one in 2014, one that could topple even mighty Brazil.

South Africa Hosting

The South Africans, despite being the first host nation to not qualify for the knockouts did their country very proud.  They played their hearts out in what turned out to be one of the more difficult groups in the tournament and were able to go out winners over France.  The vuvuzelas, the spirit of the Rainbow Nation, jabulani ball and hospitality of this nation shimmered in displaying what has to be a monumental moment in both South African and World Cup history.

Holland should be proud

I know it’s hard after such a well played match to lose in last moments of the final match, but the Dutch should be very proud of how their team performed.  2nd place in what seemed to be a very wide open tournament is certainly no embarassment.  They played well above what they appeared to have on paper and shocked Brazil, a high flying Uruguay squad and for 118 minutes shutout Spain.  In the end though they just couldn’t match Spain.  The one player I think was a big disappointment was Robin Van Persie, who failed to really be a factor in any of the games.  Had he played better, it might have been a different story . . .

8 players for the future:
Luis Suarez, Uruguay – Despite the very controversial hand ball in the Ghana match, he was integral in the success of the Uruguay team as he complemented Diego Forlan very well and without that double threat I don’t think Uruguay would have made it to the semifinals.

Andres Iniesta, Spain – the man who will be forever remembered in Spain as the one who scored the goal to bring the cup to that country had a brilliant tournament.  With all of the big names on the team, he came out of the shadows and scored two very important goals and was second to only David Villa in that department.

Maarten Stekelenburg, Netherlands – In the first World Cup since the retirement of Edwin Van der Sar, Stekelenburg filled the role quite well and made some spectacular saves in the final to rob several Spanish players of goals and matched the already World class keeper Iker Casillas on every level.  He is definitely a keeper for the future.

Michael Bradley, USA – This coaches kid did not disappoint and scored the crucial tying goal in the group match vs. Slovenia to give the US the much needed point.  He showed lots of grit, creativity and I think will be a key player in the US side in the 2014 cup.

Thomas Müller, Germany - We all knew about Schweinsteiger, Klose and Podolski coming in.  And while many thought Mesut Ozil would be the rising star, it turned out to be Thomas Müller who netted four goals, just one shy of the Golden Boot.   He will be another rising star for Germany in the future and will be key in the next cup as Klose in all likelihood will retire from International Soccer, just one goal shy of tying Ronaldo’s record 15 goals.

Alexis Sanchez, Chile – With all the focus on Humberto “El Chupete” Suazo, many overlooked the style of Alexis Sanchez and when Suazo went down before the cup even started, Sanchez had a chance to shine and showed how skillful he is at striker.  He played well in all of the matches for Chile and were it not for a leaky Chilean defense, might have taken the team deeper into the tournament.

Keisuke Honda, Japan – Honda dazzled us all with his brilliant free kicks and made Japan a dangerous team.  Already playing in Europe in the Russian league, I think he may well be on his way to one of the bigger clubs before long . . .

Katlego Mphela, South Africa – one of the bright spots on the South African team who, despite not having many opportunities to shoot the ball, did make good shots when given the chance.  Was a bit unlucky to only net one goal, but he too is a player who could find himself in Europe soon, maybe not in one of the big leagues, but a smaller one like Portugal, Scotland, France or Eastern Europe.  I don’t think we’ve seen the last of this S. African squad . . .

The biggest busts:

Robin Van Persie, Netherlands - As I already mentioned, had Van Persie played better, the Dutch might be the ones going home happy.  As a result, he will have to go another four years wondering what might have been.  We know from his experience at Arsenal that he can find the back of the net, but I wonder if he hasn’t figured out how to make the international adjustment

Lionel Messi, Argentina – for all of the hype, Messi was a bust.  But I think he still was integral in the Argentina side as a creative passer and did setup a lot of the goals that Argentina scored.  I wonder if Argentina would have done better playing him as a midfielder and putting just Tevez and Higuain up front.

Kaka, Brazil – Not sure what happened to Kaka, but he never really made the breakthrough that Brazil needed to complement Luis Fabiano, Elano and Robinho.  I wonder if the pre cup injury had something to do with it.

Fernando Torres, Spain - much like Kaka, Torres never found the breakthrough to shine like he did in the Euro 2008 tournament.  I think a lot of it was due to the injury he was fighting, it was very obvious he was not 100%.

Alberto Gilardino, Italy – Italy as a whole underachieved, but as the man held with the responsibility of netting goals, he was a huge disappointment and didn’t net once.  Were it not for Daniele De Rossi, Italy would be going home without a single goal.

Wayne Rooney, England – We all know Rooney is a scoring machine in the Premier League for Manchester United, but something was off for him with the games for England.  Not sure if he was fighting an injury or just had too much pressure on himself, but clearly he was not in form.

And until 2014, that’s the last of the World Cup action . . .
Three countries that could surprise and end up in the 2014 cup:
Bolivia – I want Bolivia to make it so badly and the team had two of the top 5 strikers in the CONMEBOL region and they netted over 30 times in the qualifying campaign.  Unfortunately the let in tons of goals too, so their defense undid them in most matches.  Should they improve their defense though, Bolivia could well be in the Brazil 2014 World Cup for the first time since ’94.

Scotland – The Scots are always on the cusp of breaking through, and they are in the top 25 in the FIFA rankings.  They have had horrible luck though in the qualifying groups as they have been dealt tough groups twice in a row now.  Hopefully the FIFA gods will smile on them and give them an easier group.

South Africa - Don’t laugh.  I think this World Cup did wonders for the game of soccer in South Africa and especially if some of their players get more experience playing in Europe they could make it to the 2014 cup in Brazil with an earned qualification.  I think the key is if their manager Pereira stays.  If this cup showed anything it is that Africa is wide open and apart from Ghana, Nigeria and possibly Ivory Coast, anyone could grab the other spots.

Well, that’s more than enough banter, enough to ponder for the next few years . . . thanks for bearing with me

Goal Review by Instant Replay

Human error.  It’s the one inevitable thing in any sporting event.  We’ve seen various goals in the FIFA World Cup 2010 (2 for the US, 1 for England) that have been disallowed, that should have been goals.  We’ve seen other goals that went in that shouldn’t have counted (a la Tevez in the Argentina-Mexico match).  I know FIFA is all for equality, and that’s admirable but I strongly feel in the most coveted tournament in the world of any sport (save maybe the Olympics), there should be instant replay.  I don’t want it for every little controversy that pops up, that’s part of the game.  But for goals, it’s easy enough to review whether a goal should have counted or not.  My suggestion is that FIFA steal a page from the NFL and give each manager one goal review challenge each game and put a substitution on the line.  If a manager wins then he keeps his sub and if he loses he loses a sub.  In a tournament with such high stakes, there’s no reason why they can’t get the goals right.  And in extra time, if a goal seems too controversial than an official review is done.  Taking even a quick look at the replay would often be enough to get the call right and it could be done in a minute or less, the time it often takes to make a substitution or carry off an injured player.  Unlike American football, in soccer you don’t have to worry about downs, field position, etc.  It’s either a goal kick or a ball to midfield.  And like the NFL, it could be stated that the replay has to show conclusive evidence to overturn the call on the field of goal/no-goal.

The Suarez goal debacle

This has been an equally hot topic in the past day and presumably for the coming months.  I’ll be the first to say that Ghana deserved to advance.  But Suarez did what any coach would tell his player to do in that situation – take a red card to make a goalkeeper save as a player.  It makes a sure goal into a penalty, which aren’t always sure things, as we learned in that game.  Suarez was using his knowledge of the game and its rules and its penalties to commit that action.  Sure, he knew he would get carded and ejected, but he did it to keep his team in the match – again any player should do this.  Especially in the waning moments of extra time, clearly the one man disadvantage would be meaningless.   Suarez was acting in direct knowledge of the rule and did it because he knew Ghana could not be awarded the goal.  If anyone is to blame, it’s FIFA for not instating a “goaltending” type rule in soccer.  FIFA makes the rules and sets the penalties for breaking them.  In this case this was an instance where giving the penalty kick was worth it to Uruguay.  So please don’t say Suarez cheated . . .he’s not a cheater, he was playing smart and was duly penalized as he expected and will happily serve a 1-2 match ban.  If you’re going to call him a cheater than everyone who commits a foul or takes a card is a cheater.  He acted in the best interest of his team and probably at the time didn’t think it would matter, that Ghana would convert it anyway.    It’s all part of the game strategy, any smart player in that situation would have done the same.  And 9/10 it wouldn’t matter, it just wasn’t Ghana’s day in this instance.   Cheating is giving your team/self an unfair advantage to win a contest/game, but that’s what penalties are supposed to make up for in wiping out that advantage.  In this case, FIFA properly executed the awardance of a penalty kick, Ghana just choked.  But if FIFA is going to be lax about the rules and have the rules/penalties structured in such a way that leaves the door open for this sort of situation, it’s really their fault for not having a goal awarded to Ghana in the first place because then it wouldn’t have mattered that Suarez blocked it with his hand.  But the saving grace I think in this situation is that Uruguay will likely not get past the Netherlands so in the end, I doubt it will matter in determining the champion.  I don’t think Ghana would have won either.   I think the real cheaters in sports are the ones who break the rules and get away with it, in soccer many times its the divers.  .  .

So FIFA, grow up and join the 21st century. . .make some changes to the rules that allow for awarded goals and goal review at least in the World Cup, because the stakes are too high to not get things right and the technology is available in these highest levels of competition.