Congrats to Spain for being champions of the world.
You always have to give credit where it is due.
I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: Spain is arguably the best sporting nation in the world.
Pau Gasol, second best player on the best basketball team in the NBA. (Some say he was the one who won Game 7 for the Lakers, not Kobe.)
Fernando Alonso, arguably the best F1 driver in the world.
Rafael Nadal, the best tennis player in the world. (It pains me to say it, but yeah…he is better than Fed right now.)
Alberto Contador, the best cyclist in the world. (Hopefully he proves himself again in this year’s Tour de France.)
And now, you have Spain the football team, which is without a doubt the best football team in the world.
Euro ’08 and World Cup ’10 winners.
It doesn’t get any better than that.
I think this beats winning the WC first, then the Euro…which was what France did in ’98 and ’00.
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Deserving
Anyway, I felt the Spaniards deserved the victory more than the Dutch.
If you watched the entire 120mins, I’m sure you would agree that the Spaniards were the slightly better side.
I’m a Dutch fan, but I think it would have been a tad unjust had the Dutch won the World Cup.
Robben might rue his one-on-one miss against Casillas for the rest of his life…because that could easily have won his side the World Cup.
But then again, sports is always about the “what ifs”.
It’s a refreshing change to see sportsmen actually caring passionately about winning the game (e.g. in the World Cup), as compared to a lot of professional sports where the athletes aren’t exactly always that passionate about winning.
I won’t say exactly what sports, but let me just say that there are a lot of professional sports where the athletes earn obscene amounts of money, but don’t even have half the passion for winning that players in the World Cup have.
That’s what I love about the World Cup, especially in the knockout stages.
You can tell how much the game really means to the players by their reactions upon losing.
The ones that wanted it so badly and gave it their all will usually not be in the emotional state to even stand on their two feet once the final whistle blows.
They will usually immediately collapse to the ground and shed tears.
This tells you how much it meant to them.
I noticed this usually happens to the players who are NOT superstars earning millions in club football.
I have not seen a superstar footballer done that this World Cup, but apparently Messi took the loss quite badly.
I’m just saying.
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Greatest Thrill
There is probably no greater thrill in life than captaining your side to World Cup victory and being the first guy to lift the trophy.
Only a few men in the history of the world have done it, e.g. Maradona, Deschamps, Dunga, Cannavaro…and now you can add Casillas to the list.
I was really happy for Casillas when I saw his reaction upon the final whistle.
You can tell it meant the whole world to him, and rightly so.
No one can ever take that moment away from his for the rest of his life.
Well done!
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The World Cup Always Delivers
In terms of sheer drama and excitement, the World Cup always delivers.
Ok, maybe not always excitement…but definitely drama.
Why?
Because the Beautiful Game is bigger than any single player or team.
This is not always the case in basketball, or tennis, or golf, or the BPL.
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Whatever Happened To…
Pablo Aimar, Ronaldinho, Raul Gonzalez, Francesco Totti, Alessandro del Piero.
Whatever happened to these guys?
Were they not at the World Cup at all?
Conversely…welcome back to global consciousness, Diego Forlan!
We almost forgot you existed.
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Concluding Thoughts
I’ve never seen Iniesta play until the final two days ago.
He looks a lot like Landon Donovan.
Please tell me if this is not true.
And you know what?
They both look like Martina Hingis.
There, I’ve said it.
