World Cup 2010.9 ~ Final 4

This is the tale of 4 teams....and an unlikely story is many ways.



Uruguay's Forward, Luis Suarez

1) URUGUAY ~ As this tournament commenced the underlying story was the power of the South American teams. As the preliminary round robin of games in the 8 groups took place, there was no reason to believe that the hype was mis-informed. In the end Argentina emerged with 3 victories, Brazil, Uruguay & Paraguay had 2 victories and a tie, and Chile has 2 Victories (The same as their group leader Spain). Add to that Mexico, and the elimination round of 16 had 6 Latin American nations. And what nations!? Brazil ranked #1, Argentina #7....second tier power houses Uruguay #16 and Chile #18, and even distantly ranked #31 Paraguay (a defensive goliath with one the top goal keepers in the world -- a strength the ultimately proved their weakness).

And now there is only Uruguay. Uruguay without the presence of their star forward, Luis Suarez. Uruguay who know faces the only winning team with a prayer.

The Netherland's Defender, Gregory van der Wiel

2) The Netherlands. The sleeping dog of this World Cup. The most deserving European squad of all. Twice in the 1970's they played in the finals only to be defeated (in 1974 by Germany and in 1978 by Argentina). In 1998, they came in 4th after being defeated by newly liberated Croatia. Is 2010 their year, finally? I truly hope so.


Germany's star forward, Claudemir Jeronimo Barreto, a.k.a. Cacau.

3) Germany is a team with an internally international squad. They are a traditional powerhouse in the competitions of the World Cup. They have won the title 3 times, been runner-up 4 times, came in 3rd 2 times and fourth once for a grand total of 11 placements in the top 4. That is to say that in 19 years of World Cup competition, there have been 76 slots in the top 4 teams and 11 of them have now gone to Germany. That's more than any other team in the history of this tournament.

Spanish Goal Keeper, Iker Casilla.

4) Spain, while truly the underdog in this tournament, it's a team that just hasn't captured my imagination, let alone loyalty. But IF it were to end up on top, I'd not besmerge it's victory. In this round, both Germany and the Netherlands have consistently played better than Spain; but, if Spain should beat Germany, that would be a well deserved victory of southern Goths over their distant northern cousins (fans, if not players).