Did the best team win the 2010 WC..??

Congrats Spain.. Not sure they were the best team in the WC.. just think the teams played in the end worked in their favor. What do you think?

I think all those fouls made soccer look like a NBA game!

Of all the teams they were the best IMO, were they dominating - no but the way they can move the ball is just nice. The Dutch tried to play the same way as against Brazil, with a lot of hard tackles and Robben had the chance that will hunt him for years to come.

All the fouls and rolling around on the ground like they were hurt and then popping up and continuing play certainly hurts the reputation of the sport in the US... very disappointing. I was constantly telling bb "don't ever act like that." He got sick of me saying it so I stopped, but that really was ridiculous.
Too bad for the Dutch... we were cheering for them and they certainly created some opportunities with their aggressive play but could not capitalize. I agree with you German - Robben will be haunted by his missed chances. Two great teams made it to the finals, but congrats to Spain for pulling it off!

yes the BEST TEAM won! everybody had the same chance as they did to prove themselves and ESPANA did it best! congrats to them!

Any single elimination tournament is what it is. The best team doesn't always make it. I could argue Germany or Ghana as the best team. Ghana had a strong showing in 2006 and Essien's stupid yellow card on a PK hurt them against Brazil and then 2010 was a heartbreaker with the handball on a sure goal.

I do like Spain's possession and for us "Long Ball Haters", it's nice to see possession pay off. Except for the dives, I do like the way Spain plays. In the diver's defense, if you know a team likes to play physical, then the diving is sometimes a tactical bet. A free kick in a dangerous area or a send off, and that could be the game breaker.

I don't care if soccer doesn't look as macho to the untrained eye. I like the intelligence, creativity, and pace of soccer. I like basketball for the same reason.

Even though Robben is disappointed, what an effort! He hustled and fought on every opportunity.

mrclean wrote:Any single elimination tournament is what it is. The best team doesn't always make it. I could argue Germany or Ghana as the best team. Ghana had a strong showing in 2006 and Essien's stupid yellow card on a PK hurt them against Brazil and then 2010 was a heartbreaker with the handball on a sure goal.

I do like Spain's possession and for us "Long Ball Haters", it's nice to see possession pay off. Except for the dives, I do like the way Spain plays. In the diver's defense, if you know a team likes to play physical, then the diving is sometimes a tactical bet. A free kick in a dangerous area or a send off, and that could be the game breaker.

I don't care if soccer doesn't look as macho to the untrained eye. I like the intelligence, creativity, and pace of soccer. I like basketball for the same reason.

Even though Robben is disappointed, what an effort! He hustled and fought on every opportunity.

I realize "diving" has become a prominent part of the game for some parts of the world, and can be quite effective if you have sympathetic refs like today. However, I do not like it at all and think it reduces the game tremendously. It so so unsportsmanlike to roll around on the ground faking an injury and then hop up and continue playing like everything is fine. Spain did a ton today (Dutch did a little), but it happened the entire tournament with a lot of teams. These players need to learn how to man up and quit acting like that.

I don't want to put a downer on the whole WC experience, because we have enjoyed it tremendously. It just troubles me that now that we have all this great coverage from ESPN / ABC, our non-soccer fellow-countrymen might not see this sport for what it is with all the flopping. I see it as the greatest sport on the planet, but the flopping / fake injuries really need to stop. Any ideas on how to make that happen, or am I overreacting?

forbin wrote:

mrclean wrote:Any single elimination tournament is what it is. The best team doesn't always make it. I could argue Germany or Ghana as the best team. Ghana had a strong showing in 2006 and Essien's stupid yellow card on a PK hurt them against Brazil and then 2010 was a heartbreaker with the handball on a sure goal.

I do like Spain's possession and for us "Long Ball Haters", it's nice to see possession pay off. Except for the dives, I do like the way Spain plays. In the diver's defense, if you know a team likes to play physical, then the diving is sometimes a tactical bet. A free kick in a dangerous area or a send off, and that could be the game breaker.

I don't care if soccer doesn't look as macho to the untrained eye. I like the intelligence, creativity, and pace of soccer. I like basketball for the same reason.

Even though Robben is disappointed, what an effort! He hustled and fought on every opportunity.

I realize "diving" has become a prominent part of the game for some parts of the world, and can be quite effective if you have sympathetic refs like today. However, I do not like it at all and think it reduces the game tremendously. It so so unsportsmanlike to roll around on the ground faking an injury and then hop up and continue playing like everything is fine. Spain did a ton today (Dutch did a little), but it happened the entire tournament with a lot of teams. These players need to learn how to man up and quit acting like that.

I don't want to put a downer on the whole WC experience, because we have enjoyed it tremendously. It just troubles me that now that we have all this great coverage from ESPN / ABC, our non-soccer fellow-countrymen might not see this sport for what it is with all the flopping. I see it as the greatest sport on the planet, but the flopping / fake injuries really need to stop. Any ideas on how to make that happen, or am I overreacting?

I hate the flopping, but you are overreacting.

I agree with you, forbin. That was way too much flopping! And way too many fouls over all. If our boys fouled that much they'd be sitting on the bench for giving the other teams so many unearned chances. I thought it was a little embarrassing for soccer.

mrclean wrote:Any single elimination tournament is what it is. The best team doesn't always make it. I could argue Germany or Ghana as the best team. Ghana had a strong showing in 2006 and Essien's stupid yellow card on a PK hurt them against Brazil and then 2010 was a heartbreaker with the handball on a sure goal.

I do like Spain's possession and for us "Long Ball Haters", it's nice to see possession pay off. Except for the dives, I do like the way Spain plays. In the diver's defense, if you know a team likes to play physical, then the diving is sometimes a tactical bet. A free kick in a dangerous area or a send off, and that could be the game breaker.

I don't care if soccer doesn't look as macho to the untrained eye. I like the intelligence, creativity, and pace of soccer. I like basketball for the same reason.

Even though Robben is disappointed, what an effort! He hustled and fought on every opportunity.

You crack me up. You cannot compare previous WC teams. Turnover is high through age and injury.
In a tournament like this, there is luck involved. The best team did win because they are holding up the trophy.

Another interesting comparison between 2006 and 2010 is the type of harsh tackles that the Netherlands seem to inflict on key players. In 2006, Boulahrouz went into Cristiano's thigh studs up to effectively remove him from the game. The kick to the chest by the Netherland's Nigel De Jong could have easily removed Alonso from the game. It seems from the two World Cup appearences that the Netherlands seems to be somewhat tactical with their use of hard tackles.

mrclean wrote:Another interesting comparison between 2006 and 2010 is the type of harsh tackles that the Netherlands seem to inflict on key players. In 2006, Boulahrouz went into Cristiano's thigh studs up to effectively remove him from the game. The kick to the chest by the Netherland's Nigel De Jong could have easily removed Alonso from the game. It seems from the two World Cup appearences that the Netherlands seems to be somewhat tactical with their use of hard tackles.

Yeah, they wanted to win. It's a pretty high stakes game.

FlatBack4 wrote:

mrclean wrote:Another interesting comparison between 2006 and 2010 is the type of harsh tackles that the Netherlands seem to inflict on key players. In 2006, Boulahrouz went into Cristiano's thigh studs up to effectively remove him from the game. The kick to the chest by the Netherland's Nigel De Jong could have easily removed Alonso from the game. It seems from the two World Cup appearences that the Netherlands seems to be somewhat tactical with their use of hard tackles.

Yeah, they wanted to win. It's a pretty high stakes game.

kind of a mma/soccer feel kind of game?

omega striker wrote:

FlatBack4 wrote:

mrclean wrote:Another interesting comparison between 2006 and 2010 is the type of harsh tackles that the Netherlands seem to inflict on key players. In 2006, Boulahrouz went into Cristiano's thigh studs up to effectively remove him from the game. The kick to the chest by the Netherland's Nigel De Jong could have easily removed Alonso from the game. It seems from the two World Cup appearences that the Netherlands seems to be somewhat tactical with their use of hard tackles.

Yeah, they wanted to win. It's a pretty high stakes game.

kind of a mma/soccer feel kind of game?

The only thing I could figure is that The Netherlands were over-coached for the game. Spain was ranked #2 in the world, and The Netherlands was right behind them at #4. Before the game, I was giving the edge to The Netherlands because they were really hitting on all eight cylinders. But, as soon as the game started, it was obvious to me that The Netherlands was playing a different game. They were doing what everybody else had tried and failed to do. Germany completely imploded by not playing "their own" game. The game could have very easily gone to PKs, but the clumbsy play caught up to them with the excessive yellow cards.

Too bad for The Netherlands, and congrats to Spain.

THE NEEDLE wrote:

forbin wrote:

mrclean wrote:Any single elimination tournament is what it is. The best team doesn't always make it. I could argue Germany or Ghana as the best team. Ghana had a strong showing in 2006 and Essien's stupid yellow card on a PK hurt them against Brazil and then 2010 was a heartbreaker with the handball on a sure goal.

I do like Spain's possession and for us "Long Ball Haters", it's nice to see possession pay off. Except for the dives, I do like the way Spain plays. In the diver's defense, if you know a team likes to play physical, then the diving is sometimes a tactical bet. A free kick in a dangerous area or a send off, and that could be the game breaker.

I don't care if soccer doesn't look as macho to the untrained eye. I like the intelligence, creativity, and pace of soccer. I like basketball for the same reason.

Even though Robben is disappointed, what an effort! He hustled and fought on every opportunity.

I realize "diving" has become a prominent part of the game for some parts of the world, and can be quite effective if you have sympathetic refs like today. However, I do not like it at all and think it reduces the game tremendously. It so so unsportsmanlike to roll around on the ground faking an injury and then hop up and continue playing like everything is fine. Spain did a ton today (Dutch did a little), but it happened the entire tournament with a lot of teams. These players need to learn how to man up and quit acting like that.

I don't want to put a downer on the whole WC experience, because we have enjoyed it tremendously. It just troubles me that now that we have all this great coverage from ESPN / ABC, our non-soccer fellow-countrymen might not see this sport for what it is with all the flopping. I see it as the greatest sport on the planet, but the flopping / fake injuries really need to stop. Any ideas on how to make that happen, or am I overreacting?

I hate the flopping, but you are overreacting.

Agree, 100% about the overreacting - keep in mind, not matter what else you think about some (borderline) calls, the Dutch SHOULD have been playing 1 man short after the reckless high-kick, foot-to-chest plant by DeJong.... That should have been the (2nd) easiest red-card in the entire WC tourney, hands-down!

There we flashes of Dutchness (actually Robbenesque), but it's tough when the other team has the
ball for much of the game.

Spain won for good reason, and the dutch will rue the day they resorted
to hack-a-Spaniard.

treefrog13 wrote:

THE NEEDLE wrote:

forbin wrote:

mrclean wrote:Any single elimination tournament is what it is. The best team doesn't always make it. I could argue Germany or Ghana as the best team. Ghana had a strong showing in 2006 and Essien's stupid yellow card on a PK hurt them against Brazil and then 2010 was a heartbreaker with the handball on a sure goal.

I do like Spain's possession and for us "Long Ball Haters", it's nice to see possession pay off. Except for the dives, I do like the way Spain plays. In the diver's defense, if you know a team likes to play physical, then the diving is sometimes a tactical bet. A free kick in a dangerous area or a send off, and that could be the game breaker.

I don't care if soccer doesn't look as macho to the untrained eye. I like the intelligence, creativity, and pace of soccer. I like basketball for the same reason.

Even though Robben is disappointed, what an effort! He hustled and fought on every opportunity.

I realize "diving" has become a prominent part of the game for some parts of the world, and can be quite effective if you have sympathetic refs like today. However, I do not like it at all and think it reduces the game tremendously. It so so unsportsmanlike to roll around on the ground faking an injury and then hop up and continue playing like everything is fine. Spain did a ton today (Dutch did a little), but it happened the entire tournament with a lot of teams. These players need to learn how to man up and quit acting like that.

I don't want to put a downer on the whole WC experience, because we have enjoyed it tremendously. It just troubles me that now that we have all this great coverage from ESPN / ABC, our non-soccer fellow-countrymen might not see this sport for what it is with all the flopping. I see it as the greatest sport on the planet, but the flopping / fake injuries really need to stop. Any ideas on how to make that happen, or am I overreacting?

I hate the flopping, but you are overreacting.

Agree, 100% about the overreacting - keep in mind, not matter what else you think about some (borderline) calls, the Dutch SHOULD have been playing 1 man short after the reckless high-kick, foot-to-chest plant by DeJong.... That should have been the (2nd) easiest red-card in the entire WC tourney, hands-down!

I don't mind the borderline calls, and I think Spain deserved to win, so it has nothing to do with that. What continues to bother me is the unsportsman like conduct of players who fall down, roll around like they have sustained a significant injury, and then hop up and keep playing like nothing happened. I have raised bb to be tough minded and a tough player, and he has not disappointed me, but the more we watch that the more I get concerned he might start immitating it. It drives me crazy and I have no defense to my non-soccer buddies who laugh at that and call soccer players names I won't repeat here. I really think it will have an affect on the popularity of the sport in the US.

The best team in the finals won. Also the most boring team. A final so boring it made the dullest Super Bowl exciting. Just what we needed for an American audience curious about all the excitement. I was admittedly a little tired that day, but I almost fell asleep at about 75 minutes. Plus lots of flopping.

Freeatlast wrote:The best team in the finals won. Also the most boring team. A final so boring it made the dullest Super Bowl exciting. Just what we needed for an American audience curious about all the excitement. I was admittedly a little tired that day, but I almost fell asleep at about 75 minutes. Plus lots of flopping.

Re. Flopping - It seemed to me that there was less flopping in bracket play. The flopping really didn't going until the knockout round. Thoughts?

I hate flopping just as much as the next guy but it's time to give that pony a rest. Seems kinda like a wide reciever going down to draw the pass interferance call or the flailing arms of a jump shooter trying to draw the call. The pump fake to get the defender in the air and then jumping in to him to create contact. Everyone acts like they have never seem athletes pander to the refs for calls to go their way. The problem is if you do not go down the ref will often not call the foul. If they want to stop the flopping, call the fouls as they occur and not based on the severity of the dive. Also inact retroactive fines for dives that are discovered during replays.
Also, if you think spain is boring it's because you don't understand soccer at all. Been watching waaaay to much CL soccer. The way they broke down a very good german team and completely used possesion to take them out of the game was a piece of art. It left Holland (a great offensive team) completely affraid to play with them. Now if their players could learn to attack individually 1v1 off the dribble they would be as good as Brazil

By far the best knockout match as far as hard play was Germany v Argentina. Both teams played hard and strong with zero flopping. There were times when I recall players getting legitimately hacked and fouled and they were popping back up as soon as they hit the ground in order to keep possession of the ball and pull off a shot. I distinctly remember thinking how great it was that neither team was going for the cheap free kick.

Spain is simply an amazing team, and I think a large portion of their strength comes from constant playing with each other. By my count there are 5 from Real Madrid, 7 from Barcelona, 4 from Valencia, and another 3 or 4 from other LaLiga teams. There were only 3 non Spanish League players and they were all EPL ( Reina, Torres and Farbregas). It is a tough job pulling together a National team into a cohesive unit, but the job is 3/4 done if you have that many starters that play together all the time.

Bottom line every team in the Cup knew Spain was the team to beat, and they were a bit intimidated by that. I also think the eyes of the world's coaches were on the Inter v Barcelona Champions League match-up, and how the genius Mourinho was gonna deal with them. He showed everyone how the Spanish style of play could be beaten.. Some learned from it, apparently most did not.... and they regressed into a "lets just beat them up and hope for the quick counter". Flopping then becomes a big part of your strategy in order to generate cheap free kick opportunities....

best team won no doubt.....

go99 wrote:I hate flopping just as much as the next guy but it's time to give that pony a rest. Seems kinda like a wide reciever going down to draw the pass interferance call or the flailing arms of a jump shooter trying to draw the call. The pump fake to get the defender in the air and then jumping in to him to create contact. Everyone acts like they have never seem athletes pander to the refs for calls to go their way. The problem is if you do not go down the ref will often not call the foul. If they want to stop the flopping, call the fouls as they occur and not based on the severity of the dive. Also inact retroactive fines for dives that are discovered during replays.
Also, if you think spain is boring it's because you don't understand soccer at all. Been watching waaaay to much CL soccer. The way they broke down a very good german team and completely used possesion to take them out of the game was a piece of art. It left Holland (a great offensive team) completely affraid to play with them. Now if their players could learn to attack individually 1v1 off the dribble they would be as good as Brazil

The difference between what we see from other athletes to draw fouls and what professional soccer players do is the dramatic continuation beyond the actual play. Rolling around on the ground, holding their foot or leg as if they are injured and then jumping up and playing a couple of minutes later like nothing happened is just pathetic, and I'm not backing off of that. It drives me CRAZY every time I see it. There is nothing like it in any major professional sport. Go, your ideas for scaling this behavior back are spot on.

What they are trying to do is sell a card. To get a foul to go to a yellow and a yellow to a red. I hate it also. Just thought of another one. Players that go down with "injuries" should be made to sit on the side for a predetermined amount of time (just to make sure they are okay ) unless they are subbed out. When rolling around on the ground makes your team play a man down for 3 min or so you would find fewer players willing to do it.

Now you are talking... a mandatory 2 minute "sit-out" on an injury would cut that crap waaaay down.

go99 wrote:What they are trying to do is sell a card. To get a foul to go to a yellow and a yellow to a red. I hate it also. Just thought of another one. Players that go down with "injuries" should be made to sit on the side for a predetermined amount of time (just to make sure they are okay ) unless they are subbed out. When rolling around on the ground makes your team play a man down for 3 min or so you would find fewer players willing to do it.

go99 wrote:What they are trying to do is sell a card. To get a foul to go to a yellow and a yellow to a red. I hate it also. Just thought of another one. Players that go down with "injuries" should be made to sit on the side for a predetermined amount of time (just to make sure they are okay ) unless they are subbed out. When rolling around on the ground makes your team play a man down for 3 min or so you would find fewer players willing to do it.

Love it, call Blatter now!!!