Final Thoughts...2010

If six months ago someone told me the Netherlands will finish as one of the final four in the upcoming World Cup, I'll be very pleased. Even just 32 days ago when the tournament started, and if someone told me the Netherlands would finished losing in the final again, I think I would be still happy to see that. It has been 32 years since the Oranje was in the final, and we don't have the strongest lineup this year, so going as far as possible seemed to be the goal. Now that it happened, we did lose again in the final, and it became a pretty darn hard pill to swallow! And there is absolutely no consolation! Better luck next time? Like I haven't heard that a million times already! And if it will take them another 32 years to be in the final again, well, the reality is, I might not live long enough to see that happen!

* * *

And it seemed that Paul the Octopus became such a talk of the tournament. I know a lot of people didn't want to see Spain win in the final simply because of Paul. They think it doesn't make sense in the rule of probability! Well, things happen no matter how small the odds are. And people tend to think its a random pick, but I certainly don't think it was totally random. We don't know much about octopus, so we think he pick it in random. But there might be some pattern behind it that we don't know yet. Now, this is my attempt to explain it. Paul picked all 5 German winner, then Spain over German and the Dutch. Now, could that be Paul is more sensitive to the color yellow? German's flag has one third of yellow in there, so when compare to Australia, Argentina, England, Paul was more attracted to the German flag. And when Spain played Germany, Spain's flag has much more yellow. Then Spain and Netherlands, it's even more obvious, there is not a single dot of yellow on the Dutch flag. Now, this is just a quick observation, not a science study. My point is, there must be something behind this. I just don't think it was a total random pick. Anyway, I think people spent way too much time on that. Perhaps an indication that the actual tournament was not that interesting? Good bye Paul!

* * *
I was really excited to see Nelson Mandela in the closing ceremony. Let's face it, this was his tournament. The sole reason South Africa got the host job in the first place. And he turned this country around in such a short period of time. I don't care who actually won the cup, but this is Mandela's triumph. When I heard his great grand daughter was killed in a car accident at the opening concert, I felt I was kicked in the gut! I mean, how many blows can one person take? It seemed as if someone just don't like Mandela and was doing everything to break this man. Give it up! Mandela is 92 years old already, he deserve some peace. May the force be always with Mandela and South Africa.

England, Oh England!

I was going to write this after England's second game. I put it off long enough and England exited the tournament already. It wasn't a bad thing, in my opinion however, with a disallowed goal, people again will lose the focus. I don't know if it was fate or a curse, England always find a way for an excuse.

England is always considered a favorite despite her performance. Sure, they won the World Cup before, that was 1966, mind you; and what exactly they have done more recently? People always say Netherlands is the best team that never win the World Cup. Well, look at the last 40 years. Netherlands reached the final twice (74 and 78) and they won the Euro 88, so what did England accomplish during the same period of time? They never make to the final again after the 1966 win, and has the worst record among previous winners!

They always claim that "football" is their game, and they probably have the most fragile ego among the great football nations. I think they are still living in the past, and they are still nursing the wound from 1970. When they lost that quarter-final game to West Germany, a game they should have won, they also lost their confidence. They had a 2-0 lead in that game, but the German came back in the second half to tie it and won the game in over time. The key thing in that game was their number one keeper Gordon Banks was sick and was replaced by the back up Peter Bonetti. Most people think if Banks was healthy, they should have repeated as champion. And that dark cloud just hang over the nation for the next 44 years!

They totally missed out the 70's because the '66 squad retired and other European nations became football powerhouse such as Poland and Netherlands. England didn't return to the World Cup Finals until 1982. They came in with question marks, such as two of their best players Kevin Keegan and Trevor Brooking were injured. They stayed in the squad but didn't know when they would be fit to play. They actually started the tournament pretty good, won all three games and made to the second round. Back in 1982, they just expanded the finals to include 24 teams, so the second round was still a round-robin format with three teams in each group. England had the better schedule that saw them play Spain in the final game, knowing full well all they need is a 2-0 win and they would be in the semi-final. However, under these kind of pressure, they failed to produce. They even put Keegan and Brooking on late in the game but it proved too little and too late. The game ended in a 0-0 tie and they exited the tournament. It wasn't a bad tournament to England, especially when you consider this was their first return to the stage after 12 years. However, they seemed to find an excuse - they never lost a game and they were out (West Germany lost their first game to Algeria, and they moved on). Such self pity!

Four years later in 1986, they had the even bigger excuse - the Hand of God! They didn't lost to other teams, just to the Hand of God! Then in 1990, they again lost out to West Germany, this time by penalty kicks. They missed out in 1994, and when they returned in 1998, they failed again on penalty kicks, to Argentina this time. To add insult to injury, they can also blame David Beckham for being sent off early in the second half and put his team in a difficult position. They got their revenge four years later and ousted Argentina in the first round, but lost the quarter-final to another South American team Brazil, the eventual winner that year. And in the last tournament in 2006, they also lost in penalty kicks, to Portugal in the quarter-finals again.

So after all these miserable experience, what have they learned? Nothing, but more miserable ways to bow out of the world stage. You can almost see their fear and nervousness right from the first game. After that horrendous mistake by Robert Green, you can see all the uncertainty and lack of leadership in the team They never really have a number one goalie, so they struggled to decide if they should keep Green or get somebody else a chance. If Green was the number one and made this mistake, they should think it was an one time only mistake and go right back to Green. When you showed uncertainty in front of the media, it shaken the confidence of the team, and that was evidence as the tournament went on. When they tied with Algeria in the second game, I wished they would not make the second round and that could only do them good. When you failed in the worst possible way, when you are totally down and out, you'll need to completely look at the matter in all possible perspectives and make changes from the ground up. However, they sneaked into the second round and yet another excuse - a disallowed goal by the referee! If this controversy somehow overshadow the problems this team has, then it must be a curse or a spell that was put on them and the misery will continue.

The future of Fabio Capello, the coach is still up in the air. And whose brilliant idea of extending his contract before the World Cup? What kind of business decision was that? I think keeping Capello is not a good business sense. He had his chance and base on the result, you just have to give the job to someone else. And I think after trying a couple of foreign coaches, it really proved they don't made much difference. And right now, to re-install England pride is job one, so what do Sweden and Italian coach know about England pride? Or course, changes shouldn't end at this level. There were not enough real talent since 1970, so the youth development program must be looked at and make changes accordingly. You always hear about big clubs signing foreign 15 years old boys for the future (remember the Chinese boy signing for Man Utd?), what does that do to the local talents? Are they actually saying there are no local 15 years old talent that's worth signing? If so, there is your major problem!

I agree that England should have done a lot better, but they have to come out of the past and understand the reality. Other European countries made a lot of progress in the last 40 years, teams like Spain, Portugal, France and even Serbia are all moving forward. If England doesn't catch up with them, they will surly be left behind. Now it is no better time to look at the future and make the changes.

Oh yeah! Blame the Ball!

I saw these two incidents and it made me wonder: is it really the ball?

1. Uruguay vs South Africa. Uruguay had the ball in their back half, just 10 yards from the midfield. There were no other team players in sight in their half. The left back had the ball and tried to organize an attack. Instead of going forward, he decided to flick the ball to the other wing. However, he hit the ball so hard and aimed right between two team mates. Nobody got to the ball and the ball bounced out of the line. South Africa got a thrown in, in the Uruguay's half! How was that happen? How could that happen in this level?

2. Greece vs Nigeria. Nigeria on the attack, this player hit the ball real hard towards the Greek end from 30 yards out. (I use the word "hit" because I wasn't sure if he wanted to shoot or pass. It was too weak to be a shot, yet too hard if it was a pass). Anyway, the ball was way off target and pretty obvious it will be a goal kick. However, the Greek goalie tried his best to save it going over the line, and he actually touched the ball before it went out of line. So instead of a sure goal kick for Greece, it became a corner kick for Nigeria! How was that happen? How could that happen in this level?

If this is tennis, they will call that an "unforced error". I never seen anything like that, especially at this level. So what happened? Then I remember a lot of comments about the new ball. With a newly designed game ball every tournament, and the ever changing new technology, it seems we always embrace new technology except the new ball! You never hear players complaint about the shoes are getting too light that they can't feel a thing. Or the shirts are too airy that they feel naked. But the ball, oh that's devil. The ball will affect players' performance. They can't control it, they can't shot it the way they wanted; they can't even pass the ball straight!

If tournaments after tournaments, players just complain about the ball, then should we just stop finding the perfect ball? Just use a round shaped object. Or just use a rubber ball. You know all these older players used to play with when they were kids. And they always say how they managed to learn all these skills with all these different kind of round-shaped objects? Pele never complain that he couldn't play a game of soccer with a old sock filled with old newspaper.

Oh well, enough jokes. The truth is people in this generation tend to find excuses. If I made a mistake, it's not my fault, it's the ball! And this might be shocking to some, but better equipments don't make you a better player! Yes, it's true. So quit your whining already!

2010 First Round

So every team played their first game, and they saved the biggest upset to the last. Spain, the current Euro champ and a favorite to win this World Cup stumbled in the first block. Soccer experts quick to point out: no team ever win the cup when they lost the first game. So all bets are off for Spain? Isn't there's a saying said "All records are make to be broken?" There's gonna be a first time for everything, so hang on Spain. It's only one game, and it's only the first game. Switzerland was a bit lucky, but people seem to forget quickly, the Swiss was actually a group winner only 4 years ago!

And after the first games, I can't help but feel disappointed. There weren't too many excitements, and it's almost evidence that we just lack world class players. And this must be the worst start for any World Cups, because they seemed to be incapable of scoring goals. There are only 23 goals after every team played once, that's 16 games! So we don't even have an average of 2 goals per game! Four years ago, there were 39 goals at the same stage. That's a drop of more than one third! And this is supposed to be the best of the best?

I don't know, but I am convinced the first round is just exhibition, and I am not going to waste a lot of my time on players that can't even make a decent pass that's longer than 10 yards? I don't know if it's just me, but three games a day is really too much, especially when the quality is not that good. You can have all your fancy big screen and even 3D technology, but it's not gonna help these players play better.

And just a thought. After so many years, we still use yards, inches on soccer field. When I heard the commentator said, "a couple more inches and it could go in." I can't help but thinking what if he said, " a couple more centimeters and it could go in." Would that make more senses? It's much closer! Don't you think? But than, I guess, we will never get used to say "the 11 meter" penalty kick!

Have fun!

FIFA World Cup in Toronto

The FIFA World Cup came to Toronto last Wednesday (April 28th). And as suspected, it didn't get as much attention. Well, it was near the end of the tour and it will soon go to Africa and will stay there until it is rewarded to the the next World Cup champion in June.

My ticket was for 6 PM and I planned to be there half hour ahead, but damn subway was delayed again (what's new?) for exactly 30 minutes! So I was late actually, but it wasn't matter, I just got in line and wait for the next group. It seemed, they let people in a group of 30 or something, so is to keep people moving along. We got into the first room where there were all sorts of entertainments like a live dancing and drumming, SONY had the PS3 hooked up to a few big screen TVs, and s shooting gallery (soccer balls, of course); and then they have a mini field and goal set up completed with a small corner flag. the purpose is to shoot the ball into the net then you go crazy celebrating! The best part was that they taped the whole thing and you'll get to see it on TV. Among my group, I can see a few Italians, wearing some different Serie A team jersey, and of course the Azzurri blue. There were Argentina jersey, there are Brazil jersey and even a lone Dutchman, and a group of young men carrying an Algerian flag around. And as usual, you won't see Canadian flag nor jersey in such occasion. Well, at least for this World Cup 2010, it featured the theme song by a Canadian artist K'naan. You'll hear the title song "Wavin' Flag" a lot more in the next six weeks!



Then we were led to another room for a short 3-D movie, made by Coca-cola about memories from the past World Cups and a glimpse of what might happen in the future. I supposed those parts are just to showcase some 3-D thingy, so people wowed at every balls flying towards them. After a fun ride, we are onto the real purpose of the day, get as close to the trophy as possible. We lined up and each will take turn to go stand next to the trophy. We weren't allowed to take any pictures ourselves. Instead, they took the pictures. I saw two cameras, and a quick snap and you are asked to leave. they printed out the pictures right the way, and there's also a code on the photo so you can get a digital copy of the photo if you go to the FIFA web site.

Now after all these, the official mascot only appeared then. I had to go back to get a quick picture of him. How silly.



All in all, it was still a little fun. And I supposed that might be as close to the trophy as I can be in my lifetime!