Thoughts on the End of the World Cup

The World Cup has ended and I am disappointed because the best team did not win.

Uruguay and Diego Forlan and his great team deserved the victory. He was awarded The Player of the World Cup Award and, of course, he said that he would not have received it without the entire support of his team. I said it before: the man's a class act.

Viva Uruguay!

As for Spain, my second wish came true in that I hoped that if Italy could not win, then a country that had never won the Cup should win it this time in the continent of "Firsts", Mother Africa.

However, a few truths have to be recognized.

Spain didn't exactly get off to a brilliant start. They were beaten by the Swiss in their first attempt. And, Honduras and Chile were no match for Spain.

They beat Portugal 1-0 and then, Paraguay, who put up quite a fight, by 1-0. The only major team they faced in the entire tournament was Germany and I, frankly, am surprised that they won.

Spain never played Brazil or Argentina or Uruguay. I believe that had they faced any of the latter, they would have been eliminated.

South American soccer is so right-on; European soccer, which is purely defensive, is so boring.

The Uruguay-Germany match was far more exciting than Spain vs. the Netherlands.

Incidentally, who was that Dutch team who took the field on Sunday? A bunch of thugs?

I didn't know that soccer is played by hitting a member of the opposite team in the chest with your foot. Many more red cards should have been given to the Dutch and had the English referee done it from the onset, the game would have been better.

Of course, I watched Univision for the first part of the closing ceremonies and saw Nelson Mandela and his wife in the little golf cart. Mandela's grandson said that the great one was badgered and badgered by FIFA to make an appearance. And he did although he was still in mourning.

Shame on FIFA but when you are as corrupt as FIFA, shame is not in your lexicon.

We watched the game on Channel 7 and had a telephone conference with our friend Paul in Connecticut throughout the whole match. That was fun.

When 4:30 came, however, Channel 7 had to transmit Nascar Angels so I switched back to Univision and saw the players get their medals and the fireworks.

Incidentally, did you catch the manager of the Dutch team after he got his second place medal? He ripped it off his neck and stuffed it into his pocket.

That's the way to act, man! Perhaps, if you hadn't told your team to win by any means, the Netherlands might have won. Most of the time, I thought I was watching a high school wrestling tournament instead of a World Cup game.

My last thoughts on what was accomplished in South Africa:
1.) The unemployment rate is still 25%-30% and so is Spain's.
2.) Millions, if not billions, were spent to build unnecessary stadiums in the shadows of slums.
3.) Regular street merchants with their food and craft stands were placed one kilometer away from all the stadiums. You know who took their places? Coca Cola, McDonalds, etc. Like they need the money! Did you catch all the ads surrounding the playing fields? The changing of colors, the shine and sparkle? That costs a bloody fortune. I wonder how many schools and hospitals and affordable housing could have been made for the poor with those expenditures. Do I really need to see another VISA ad?
4.) The best game of the match was Uruguay vs. Ghana and I hate to tell the Ghana fans but any player would have done what Suarez did by using his hand to offset the goal.
5.) Booing Suarez was stupid and petty.
6.) My friend, the poet, Kenneth Pearson called it for the Netherlands. His dad, also Ken, called it for Spain at 1-0. Congratulations, Dad!
7.) I want to get my hands on that octopus and see if he can predict the lotto numbers for me.

All in all, it was fun and I honor the memory of my father who took me to my first games when I was a teenager and fell in love with the sport and the camaraderie in the stands. We used to go to Randall's Island and is was like being with family.

I never dreamed in my life that I would see every game of a World Cup and so I have to thank my unemployment, ESPN, Univision and Channel 7.

Incidentally, the best commercial of the World Cup belongs to Geico who showed that even a chess match can be exciting if Andres is reporting it and yelling out "GOAL".

May we all be better off in 2014 in Brazil and may this begin today.

Peace and Love and Viva Uruguay and Diego Forlan.