<p>No, the most exciting thing to come out of the WC was an octopus that predicts winners and that’s not saying much. </p>
<p>So, why didn’t the drone of the plastic horns propel the Dutch to victory?</p>
<p>A sad day: [Paul</a> The Octopus RETIRING From Soccer Predictions (PICTURES)](<a href=“HuffPost - Breaking News, U.S. and World News | HuffPost”>Paul The Octopus RETIRING From Soccer Predictions (PICTURES) | HuffPost Sports)</p>
<p>Vuvuzelas aren’t new in soccer. My son has had one for years, and has often brought it to Real Madrid games. I’ve also had my own mini-vuvu for at least 10 tears. It’s red.</p>
<p>^^Right, but it was at this World Cup that vuvuzelas finally overwhelmed the soccer itself and became an international cultural phenomenon. Google on “vuvuzela” and you get a little over 20 million hits, very few of which date to before the beginning of the 2010 World Cup.</p>
<p>Coureur, what happened to you? Did you get cut from a soccer team? Or worse…one of your kids get cut?</p>
<p>You really hate the sport.</p>
<p>You don’t have to watch it. Many people don’t. ;)</p>
<p>Oh I miss soccer games. By the way, the final was not boring for us. We wanted Spain to win so we were following every single movement.</p>
<p>[ESPN’s</a> World Cup coverage gets kudos](<a href=“http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/07/12/DDAM1EC64L.DTL]ESPN’s”>http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/07/12/DDAM1EC64L.DTL)</p>
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<p>I don’t hate soccer (but the vuvzelas sure were annoying). And I admire the immense athleticism of the top players. I just disagree with all the hype that, thanks to the many thrills provided by the World Cup, pro soccer will now sweep its way to big-time popularity in the US. </p>
<p>It didn’t happen 8 years ago when the US advanced one round farther than it did this time, and it ain’t going to happen now either - for all the reasons we already discussed. Mostly lack of offense - which was abundantly confirmed not only by the final game itself (119 minutes of frustration before the first and only goal was scored) but also by the record of the winning team. Spain, supposedly now the Best Team on the Planet, scored a grand total of 8 goals in the entire tournament. They won all their games in elimination round by an identical score of 1 - 0. Like I said, no offense. </p>
<p>Rabid fans who love soccer usually hate deciding the game by a shoot-out. But even they will ruefully admit that this rule is neccessary, otherwise the games might “go on forever.”</p>
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<p>Not universally true, but a lot of tennis fans do dislike the rule. It’s kind of silly that someone could theoretically win a major tournament without breaking their opponents serve, but without the rule Isner-Mahut may have lasted the whole fortnight.</p>
<p>But as for soccer, the bigger problem is that a lot of people have no understanding of the sport and no real desire to learn. And why should they? Soccer in the US has minimal tradition and minimal history. And the domestic league is nowhere near the best in the world. If a minor league football league set up a franchise in LA, it wouldn’t draw many fans, no matter how great the sport is. The Clippers have never been particularly popular, even if basketball is. And the Angels weren’t a huge sell, until they actually had a good team. </p>
<p>The problem with the MLS isn’t that it’s soccer - it’s that it’s just the MLS.</p>
<p>soccer is played at a low level in the US. That’s why it isn’t big time. MLS is only like 15 years old!</p>
<p>How old is the NFL? MLB? NBA?</p>
<p>[World</a> Cup Final: Most-watched soccer game ever! – The Live Feed | THR](<a href=“http://livefeed.hollywoodreporter.com/2010/07/mostwatched-world-cup-game-ever.html]World”>http://livefeed.hollywoodreporter.com/2010/07/mostwatched-world-cup-game-ever.html)</p>
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<p>Wow…awesome…</p>
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<p>Yeah, and before that there was the old NASL, founded back in the mid-60s and enjoyed tons of publicity in the US when they signed the actual Pele to come play for the New York team. Never caught on. </p>
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<p>I don’t disagree that MLS is mediocre soccer. What I disagree with is the oft-stated notion that Americans would surely embrace soccer if only:
a) they would just give watching it a try, or
b) it were televised on a major network, or
c) they could see the best players in action.</p>
<p>All three of these conditions gets fulfilled every World Cup causing true believers to rejoice that finally <em>now</em> Americans will smarten up and join the rest of the world in obsessing over soccer. And every four years US interest remains relatively high until the US is eliminated, and it drops back to niche sport status once the tournament is over. A year from now it will be back to “Landon who?”</p>
<p>I try to point out why this is the case. But believers protest that can’t be the problem. It must be the Americans who needs fixing and not their beloved game. And the next four year cycle starts over again…</p>
<p>24 million viewers…the game is slowly building…</p>
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<p>When the World Cup comes around, the best players are on TV, and people watch. Then the World Cup ends, and the best players are no longer visible, and people stop watching. If anything that seems to support the idea that those conditions would help soccer become popular. The problem is that the MLS isn’t close to having the best players, and the media isn’t educated enough to know that adding aging (and previously over-hyped) stars like David Beckham won’t change that. But I don’t think soccer enthusiasts thought that transfer would make the difference the media said it might.</p>
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<p>I agree that it’s silly to say Americans need fixing, but the idea that there’s something wrong with the sport itself is just as silly. The game works as it is.</p>
<p>[Record</a> viewers watch Celtics-Lakers NBA Finals series](<a href=“http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/sports/2010-06/19/c_13358088.htm]Record”>http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/sports/2010-06/19/c_13358088.htm)</p>
<p>"I agree that it’s silly to say Americans need fixing, but the idea that there’s something wrong with the sport itself is just as silly. The game works as it is. "</p>
<p>All games need to evolve. Wimbledon is not the Wimbledon of your grandfather’s era. The ball is much slower producing more rallies and thus more excitement. Thus the old serve and volley as the preferred approach is no more. </p>
<p>Futbol is the futbol of your grandfather’s era with FIFA much more interested in promoting themselves than enhancing the game. So, rather than modifying the off-side trap rule, futbol fans get to pull their hair out watching blown calls and beautiful opportunities become dust while FIFA promotes their trademark. If they only put more effort into the game as they do making sure that all subs have FIFA with huge letters on their chests, FIFA flashed onto the screen after every replay they decide to give us and … remember it is the "FIFA 2010 World Cup tm" shown on every ESPN screen though all the games.</p>
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<p>Maybe the Cubs will win a WS when the Leafs win a Stanley Cup. I am not holding my breath, however.:)</p>
<p>One of the reasons I enjoy sports is because of the unpredictable nature the outcome, ice dancing not withstanding. This seems to be a year for upsets, and the hawks winning the cup is certainly one of the big ones.</p>
<p>The biggest ones, in my opinion, occurred on the other side of the world. The Chinese women loss their team titles in both table tennis and badminton, something that nobody thought possible.</p>
<p>I thought it would be fun to rank countries according to overall World Cup Performance. This is CC afterall, and ranking is what we do best! ;)</p>
<p>Before going into the actual rankings, I will explain my formula. It is pretty straight forward actually.</p>
<p>1 point for qualifying for the World Cup but not advancing past the second round
3 points for losing in the Quarterfinals
5 points for finishing in fourth place
6 points for finishing in third place
8 points for the runner-up
10 points for the Champions</p>
<h1>1 Germany (101 points)</h1>
<p>17 World Cup appearances
42 wins, 9 draws, 14 losses
1 early exit
3 Quarterfinal exits
1 Fourth place finish
4 Third place finishes
4 Runner-up finishes
3 Championships</p>
<h1>2 Brasil (100 points)</h1>
<p>19 World Cup appearances (100%!!!)
67 wins, 15 draws, 15 losses
5 early exits
4 Quarterfinals exits
1 Fourth place finish
2 Third place finishes
2 Runner-up finishes
5 Championhips</p>
<h1>3 Italy (78 points)</h1>
<p>17 World Cup appearances
44 wins, 21 draws, 15 losses
8 early exits
1 Quarterfinals exit
1 Fourth place finish
1 Third place finish
2 Runner-up finishes
4 Championhips</p>
<h1>4 Argentina (55 points)</h1>
<p>15 World Cup appearances
37 wins, 13 draws, 20 losses
7 early exits
4 Quarterfinals exits
0 Fourth place finishes
0 Third place finishes
2 Runner-up finishes
2 Championhips</p>
<h1>5 France (45 points)</h1>
<p>13 World Cup appearances
25 wins, 11 draws, 18 losses
7 early exits
1 Quarterfinals exit
1 Fourth place finish
2 Third place finishes
1 Runner-up finish
1 Championhip</p>
<h1>6 Uruguay (43 points)</h1>
<p>11 World Cup appearances
19 wins, 11 draws, 16 losses
5 early exits
1 Quarterfinals exit
3 Fourth place finish
0 Third place finishes
0 Runner-up finishes
2 Championhips</p>
<h1>7 England (38 points)</h1>
<p>13 World Cup appearances
26 wins, 19 draws, 14 losses
5 early exits
6 Quarterfinals exits
1 Fourth place finish
0 Third place finishes
0 Runner-up finishes
1 Championhips</p>
<h1>8 Netherlands (36 points)</h1>
<p>9 World Cup appearances
22 wins, 10 draws, 11 losses
4 early exits
1 Quarterfinals exit
1 Fourth place finish
0 Third place finishes
3 Runner-up finishes
0 Championhips</p>
<h1>9 Spain (34 points)</h1>
<p>13 World Cup appearances
28 wins, 12 draws, 16 losses
7 early exits
4 Quarterfinals exits
1 Fourth place finish
0 Third place finishes
0 Runner-up finishes
1 Championhip</p>
<p>I’m praying the Texas Rangers win the World Series.</p>
<p>Here’s a thought: Should WC scoring change a bit to be more like my kids’ soccer tournaments? I’m talking how you get an extra point for a shutout and an extra pont per goal up to three goals. Might encourage more offense.</p>