The Last and Biggest Game

After today's third place game between Uruguay and Germany, there is only one match left in the 2010 World Cup.  It's bittersweet.  It's sad that the World Cup is ending and we have to wait three years and eleven months until the next one.  But hopefully the best is yet to come.

The World Cup Final is the most exciting, dramatic and important sporting event on the planet.  That doesn't necessarily mean its the best or most scintillating game of the tournament though.  I think that honor goes to this morning's match.

Germany beat Uruguay 3-2 in today's outstanding third place match.  It was my favorite contest of the tournament so far.  Because it was the third place game, it featured two great teams.  They had something to play for because 3rd is obviously better than 4th, but they weren't scared to lose either, since it didn't matter too much.  Both teams attacked each other from the beginning.  The game was quick and flowing, and we saw a series of great counter attacks.

Germany's rising star Thomas Müller (20 years old) played great, and scored his fifth goal (tied for the World Cup lead) of the tournament.  He's a lock to win the tournament's Best Young Player award.  One wonders what might have happened if he wasn't suspended for the semifinal against Spain.

One the other side, Uruguayan star Diego Forlan stole the show once again.  He scored an amazing volleyed goal from long distance, and like Muller it was his fifth.  He also hit the cross bar in the 93rd minute on a spectacular freekick that would have sent the game into extra tme.  He's been outstanding all tournament, and will be a favorite to win the Golden Ball (the MVP award in the World Cup).

The Quarterfinals

Eight more teams have fallen.  Among them are England (who were hugely outclassed by Germany, though not without controversy), Japan (who lost the tournaments first penalty shootout to Paraguay) and of course, the USA. 

Most would agree the round of sixteen exit by the Americans is pretty disappointing.  They won their group, and everything was set up nicely for them to make a run deep into the knockout round.  But they were the second best team on the field last Saturday in Rustenburg, and were deservedly knocked out by a solid Ghanaian side.

"The Sweet Sixteen"

Well, the first two weeks of the 2010 FIFA World Cup are in the books.  The tournament is about halfway over now, as there are little more than two weeks left.  We've already seen some beautiful goals and dramatic endings, but the best is surely yet to come.  This is where it really begins to get exciting.

Half of the teams have been eliminated.  Among the fallen are some surprises, like Italy and France.  But at the expense of some of the ousted favorites, some exciting underdogs have advanced like Japan, South Korea and Slovakia. 

Now 16 teams remain, and they will battle it out for the trophy and title of World Champions in a single elimination tournament.  There will be no more tie games now- if a match is tied after 90 minutes, two 15 minutes halves of extra-time will follow.  There is no "Golden Goal" rule anymore, so all 30 minutes will be played, no matter what.  If the match is still level after that, it will be decided by the dreaded penalty kicks.  After the last matches finished this afternoon, the round of sixteen bracket was complete:

Viewing Guide to Group C's Finale

After "winning" 1-1 against England, the USA was off to a great start.  Things fell apart quickly last Friday, when the Slovenia game did not begin exactly as planned.  Down 2-0 at halftime, the Americans were in deep trouble.  A loss would've effectively knocked them out of the tournament.  Only five teams in World Cup history had ever come back from two goals down, but the US needed at least a draw to stay alive.  They fought back heroically in the second half however, and actually scored 3 goals, only for one to be controversially disallowed.  The game finished 2-2, which was enough to keep the American's alive.  England continued to struggle, and could only draw against Algeria, totally opening up the group, and creating many different scenarios for tomorrow's games.

Here is the group table with one match left for each team (Click to see full size):

Remember the top two teams will advance.  Both games are tomorrow morning (Wednesday, June 23nd) at 7AM PT.  The Americans play Algeria on ESPN, and England takes on Slovenia on ESPN2.  Picture in picture or split screen is encouraged.  The games are also streaming on ESPN3.com if you want to monitor the England game while watching the USA game on your TV.


So, what exactly has to happen tomorrow for the USA to advance into the group stage?  Let's keep this as simple as possible. 

10 Must Watch Games

We're now well less than 24 hours away from the opening match of the World Cup.  For soccer fans around the world, today is even better than Christmas Eve.  Most probably won't be able to sleep tonight.  Luckily for those of us on the West Coast, we won't have much time to sleep anyway, the opening ceremonies and coverage starts tomorrow at 6:00AM PT.


Here is a complete schedule of the World Cup- listing the eastern start times for all the games, and what channel each match will be on here in the states.

We obviously don't know the knockout round match-ups yet, but even if the group stage this year has  some potentially great games.  Here are the 10 must-watch group stage games for the casual American follower (in chronological order):

** All matches in PACIFIC TIME  (translate accordingly if you're in a different time zone) **

Meet Your USA Team- Part II: The 23

This is the second of a two-part intro to the US Soccer team.  Here's a link to part I that details the recent history of the team, including last summer's Confederations Cup.  Today's part two is an introduction to the 23 players that make up this summer's World Cup team.





During his four years as USA coach, Bob Bradley gave a "cap" (international appearance) to 92 different American players.  But for the world cup itself, he had to narrow the roster down to 23.  It certainly wasn't easy.  


The 23 players selected do not necessarily represent the best twenty-three American players alive.  They are the best players suited to run Bradley's system, and with the right balance of players at each position, because fatigue and injuries are a reality at the World Cup.  Some players also missed out due to injury.  The most notable was Charlie Davies.  Davies is a young striker, who went through a remarkable run with the national team last summer, and looked on the path to superstardom before a horrific car crash nearly took his life last Autumn (click here to read my emotional blog about Davies accident and rehab).  He was not able to recover in time for the World Cup, causing a selection problem for Coach Bradley, and leading to controversy when he was left of the roster.


The World cup only comes around every four years, so while it's an extremely important decision for the coach, it's also an emotional one.  Bradley had to cut players that gave their all to the national team for three years of qualifiers and build up.  But after what was surely a difficult decision, Bradley released his roster in late May.   


Without further ado, meet Bob Bradley's Final 23 for South Africa:

Meet Your USA Team- Part I: Recent History and The Confederations Cup Run

Once seen as little more than a running joke in an international soccer circles, the United States Soccer team has not exactly had a long and glorious history.  With soccer relegated to essentially a niche sport in America, the national team struggled through failure after failure during most of the 20th century (check out this long but fantastic article about the American Soccer's decades of futility) and few at home even noticed.

Things began to change in 1989, when a stunning goal in the last qualifying game by Paul Caligiuri sent the Americans to their first World Cup in nearly a half century.  The Americans were outclassed that year in Italia 1990, but hosted an extremely successful World Cup in 1994, and acquitted themselves well on the field as well.