All good things....

Spain won the 2010 world cup. That was completely deserved. A country that has for the last fifty years (and probably more) produced so many spectacular football players has finally won its first world cup. They also look like they might continue to be unstoppable, though as history has often shown, time does things to winning teams that fans would like to forget. For what its worth though, Spain deserved that World Cup.

In about a month or month and a half, most of the leagues in Europe will be in full swing again and the qualifiers for the next European Cup will be underway. The Swedish national team missed the World Cup and has now added a new coach and started to bring in a younger generation of players. This bodes well for our chances of reaching Poland/Ukraine 2012. We have to face Hungary, Holland, Finland, Moldova, and San Marino. We will probably lose to Holland who have one of the best teams in the world at the moment. Otherwise our chances look solid to go through as the second place team in the group. Oh, and to boost things just a bit in advance Zlatan is back. This is good news for the national team which was missing a key player for the new system which will be 4-2-3-1 like most other international teams. Personally I am looking forward to the qualifiers and the up coming friendlies. Its going to be a good time all around.

As for me I have worked every day this week and it will be nice to have a weekend skating with my Stockholm crew who is on visit for eight days starting on Saturday. Lots of skateboarding to be done!

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Props to Spain

How to begin this? Spain deserved to win that game. Germany fell to far back in hopes that it would be able to stop the play and counter, however in doing so, they let the Spanish run wild with the ball. You never let the spanish run wild with the ball. Until a team learns to do that, they will continue to feel the pain of La Furia Roja. Spain will probably also win the world cup because besides beating Brazil (and lets be honest they weren´t that great) Holland haven´t done all that much to prove they are real contenders. Then again thats the way it goes at world cups sometimes: luck of the draw can lead to match-ups that allow teams to reach the final easier than others.

All the same I have had a fantastic world cup. I have watched every germany game with friends and most of them in public viewing. Its been a blast and to be honest this is the way a world cup should be enjoyed. The vibes on the streets here in Berlin has been fantastic. The German team can now focus on the third place game (which they should win). They should also remember that they have been the most consistent team in the world for almost a decade now. A silver in 2002, a bronze in 2006, and now a chance for another bronze in 2010. Not a thing there to be ashamed of. Next time its going to be a far more experienced team (dare I recall that Spain were quite young in 2006 and came back in 2010 a better side...). Anyway Germany thank you for a wonderful world cup and please finish it with class by beating the snot out of Uruguay and please get that record for Klose he deserves it!

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Die Mannschaft keeps the world cup alive

I remember 2008, I had just returned to Berlin after a holiday and had arrived in time to find a tv set for the european cup final. It was Spain vs Germany. To be honest I didn´t favor germany´s chances: despite getting that far they had done so in a way that was much less impressive than Spain´s own journey. Sure enough the Spaniards controlled the game and there was this feeling all through the game that there was really no chance that there would be an equalizer at any time. There wasn´t any question either of it being a fair outcome: Spain played the pants off the Germans.

Fast-forward to 2010. A world cup in South Africa. A lot of talk about how much Spain was a favorite to win the world cup and despite the all-star roster they have, a lot of unimpressive games. They lost to switzerland to start things off and haven´t been a high scoring team. One of their strikers has been god awful and the team just isn´t clicking in the same way it was in 2008. Now look at Germany, and at this point I still want to point out that I am a skeptic of Germany actually winning. So much can happen in those ninety minutes of play. Germany has impressed. They dismantled England and Argentina, and have been growing as a team as the tournament has progressed. 2002 they made the final only to lose in the last minute. 2006 they took third place. Now its 2010 and they have their best team in a long time. Germany has a good chance to take it all. I am close to believing in that fourth star on their jerseys after this tournament.

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Dog Days

Welcome to the once weekly update of this lovely blog. I spent a portion of this morning, which is going to end seven minutes from now, listening to various songs by Josh Ritter and David Gray. Both of them amazing musicians, oh to see them live. I am still somewhere in the middle of the Tropic of Capricorn by Henry Miller. To best describe it, one would use the words pure madness, but then again I don´t see enough madness around me at the moment to not need some of that craziness. The sun is beating down on the street outside my third story window and life is stirring in ways typical of a Berlin Friday.

I have the day off and am contemplating a swim trip to a lake or watching the two quarterfinal games of the 2010 world cup. Not sure which is actually going to happen at this point. Recently I have been suffering from bouts of procrastination and that has affected the output of this blog as well. My apologies to all the readers, its the dog days of summer.

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