World Cup final thoughts

Italy is the World Cup champion again! Good job Italy for hanging in there...definitely wasn't pretty and you definitely didn't have control but you did what you do best - defended.
There's a bunch of topics I want to address, so here comes the long entry...

1. The Hosts: Germany was a great host. They had great fans and great spirit. The only glitch I can remember off the top of my head was allowing a Croatian fan to walk onto the pitch during the Brazil-Croatia game.
2. The host team: Germany put on a good display. They have a mixture of youth and veterans. They have a promising future because of the following people: Philipp Lahm, David Odonkor, Lukas Podolski, and Bastian Schweinsteiger. All these guys are in their early 20's and will probably play 2 more cups or so.
3. The World Cup final match: Italy had control for maybe the first half hour but then their passes started being picked off, etc. Controversial penalty is somewhat balanced out by the one that should have been called later. Close off-sides call that could have given Italy a 2-1 lead. Zidane's head-butt. Controversy, tension, diving...basically many of these knock-out matches were filled with this. The refereeing was actually good (in my opinion) because he didn't let this match get out of control even though it could. Zidane had to be sent off. It was 1000+ times harder than Luis Figo's headbutt, which should have given Figo a yellow card. Zidane did have that awesome penalty kick though. That may have been the only instance of good finishing and luck for France.
   
4. Diving: There definitely was a huge increase in diving starting with the knockout rounds. People complained about Portugal the most (I did too), but other teams were just as bad. Of course Portugal wins at being the worst divers and thus can't get away with it, but Totti and Henry definitely pulled off some awful dives. So what would the WC final teams be if the prominent diving teams were out? For me it would most likely be: Australia vs. Ecuador or Ghana (can't remember if Ecuador did any diving, I think Ghana had maybe 2 instances). For sure all the major contenders did some diving: France, Italy, Germany, Portugal, Argentina, Brazil, England, Netherlands, Spain. Even Ukraine did some during their "cinderella" run. Therefore I don't think diving really screwed any team over except for Australia. I don't think it really changed the final.
5. Refs: They were awful mostly through the group stages. They weren't that good during the round of 16. They were the best today and in the semi-finals. Another reason why I think the final was the real final.
6. Star-studded teams: They just don't seem to click for some reason. England and Brazil seemed to suffer the same problems. Miscommunication, lack of intensity, lack of creativity, etc. The U.S. had the same problem, but they weren't star-studded. Funny.
7. Lack of goals: I think we just didn't have the finishers on the field. Granted, the defense of many teams was good, but really these guys needed to put more shots on goal. Pauleta, Podolski, and Lampard are 2 guys that had tons of opportunities that they wasted, though Lampard wins at being the worst finisher. Also the crosses could have been better. This one probably can be blamed on tight defenses. And look, the 2 teams with the best organized defenses get to the final. Cannavaro of Italy and Thuram of France have been outstanding. Klose was perhaps the best finisher, or maybe Ronaldo.
8. The overhyped/overranked teams: They ended up being Brazil, England, Czech Republic, and the U.S. (off the top of my head). The few bright spots on each team...
1. Brazil: Kaka, Robinho, Ze Roberto
2. England: Aaron Lennon, Rio Ferdinand
3. Czech Republic: Petr Cech, Pavel Nedved
4. U.S.: Clint Dempsey, Oguchi Onyewu (despite a few mistakes, a solid performance)
9. Strange parallels: Spain and Argentina both had sizzling starts, both were touted as having tons of depth, and both were eliminated early. Brazil and England both managed to scrape through and both lost in the quarters.
10. England: Just because for some reason ESPN and other American networks like to obsess over England (and be very biased towards them), I will name the few players with the few plays they made that kept England in the tournament for so long. With this system, David Beckham was the best performer on the English team. Now that's really wrong and it just shows just how bad the English team was.
    
1. John Terry: the line clearance in the T & T match that kept the game scoreless until the 80th or so minute. Wonder what England would do if they had gone a goal down.
2. Ashley Cole: the pressure he put on the Ecuadorian that forced his shot high after John Terry's bad header. Same as above: would England have won the game if they had gone a goal down?
3. David Beckham: he created goals in the Paraguay, T & T, and Ecuador matches. The Sweden game didn't matter as much (though they did avoid Germany), so Joe Cole and Steven Gerrard's goals aren't so important. Sorry.
11. Karma: It didn't seem to work out right. Germany beats out Poland last second only to have the Italians do the same in the semis. Italy gets a penalty from a dive against Australia only to have France get one against them in the final. Portugal has a tough tussle with the Netherlands, resulting in red-cards for 2 players, only to get some help from the referee against England (not including Rooney's incident) to help them advance. The South Koreans get lucky with the "save behind the line" in the French match only to have what looked at the moment to be an offsides goal to be awarded to the Swiss. So the final message is that you need to have luck, to actually be good, and to keep fighting to win the WC.
12. Impressive players...
1. Old guys: Cannavaro, Zidane, Vieira, Luis Figo for being solid for their teams (minus Zidane's head-butt)
2. Young guys: Fabregas, Torres, Sergio Ramos, Lahm, Odonkor, Lennon, Messi, Tevez, Ronaldo, Robinho for bringing energy, creativity, and passion to the game (as well as some nice skills)
3. Others: Maniche, Joao Ricardo for being better than expected
   
13. Unimpressive players...
1. Ronaldinho: could have been more dangerous
2. Adriano, Ronaldo, Roberto Carlos, Beckham: not mobile enough
3. Crouch, Lampard, Pauleta: could not find net (enough) [and I'm missing some other people]

Well soon I'll be suffering from soccer withdrawal. Don't know what I'm going to do about it...