Viva Espana!

Spain are the World Champions!

After all the build-up the FIFA 2010 final turned out to be a slugfest that had more of WWE in it and less of the 'beautiful game'. The Dutch in all honesty should take a large part of the blame for this. The intention from the outset was to stifle the Spanish midfield and make the passing game that Spain plays so well difficult. While I have no complaints about the strategy the Dutch opted for, the execution was crude and medieval in nature. None more so, than the blatant kung-fu kick from De Jong. That should have been a straight red card.

Holland were lucky to have all 11 men on the field till the second half of extra time. Van Bommel's tackle on Iniesta would have been a straight red too on most occasions. While the jury is out on the referee role yesterday (an astonishing 14 yellow cards were handed out by Howard Webb), I think the nature of the game played by the Dutch called for some punishment (OK maybe 14 yellow cards was a bit too much). 

Finally the better team won and Iniesta's goal  was a consolation for all football lovers who had, till then witnessed a pretty boring match. The Dutch wasted two golden opportunities and Spain will have to thank Iker Casillas for denying Robben, of what seemed the best chance for the Dutch to score.

The Dutch go home once again having lost the finals and they are to me in football what South Africa is in cricket. Never been able to win when it really mattered. I never understood the Dutch tactics. It wasn't that they were a team without talent. Their midfield duo of Snjeider and Robben were equally good if not better than Xavi and Iniesta and they had a good solid defence and could have played free flowing football too. That may have dramatically increased their chance of scoring and making the finals a really 'beautiful game'.

The 3rd place playoff between Germany and Uruguay clearly demonstrated the class of football that could have been played when teams are not under the pressure of playing a final. Sadly it wasn't to be. However as a Spanish supporter, I am overjoyed with Spain's victory and they have finally buried the tag of the best team not to have won the World Cup! 

The WC has once again demonstrated the virtue of humility and dedication to the game, traits exemplified by Xavi, Iniesta and Casillas. At the beginning of the championship, the talks and headlines were all about the Rooney's, Ronaldo's and Kaka's but in the end it was the humble Spaniards that had the last laugh.

A salute is in order for Paul the Octopus too! Wonder if the German government will use his services to predict which European country will be the next to default. Hopefully Paul doesn't favor Spain again!

I as happy to read that Tomas Mueller got the golden boot award. He is surely a superstar in the making. I'm hoping clubs don't fork out gazillions for his services and make him a multi-millionaire overnight. He is still very young and the last thing he needs is too much money working its magic in a wrong way.

Lady luck continues to elude Alonso and Ferrari. I think their hunt for the drivers and constructors championships is pretty much over. Red Bull and McLaren to me are the ones that will continue to slug it out although a big blow up at RBR seems apparent sometime soon.

Now with the world cup done with, attention turns to cricket and the series at Sri Lanka, but I'm not sure too many people are going to watch this series. India and SL have played each other enough number of times to last the next 50 years. I hope the morons at the BCCI realize this and bring in someone with common sense to schedule future series!

On the work front, happy news after 2 years! I finally got a promotion and was pleasantly surprised with the hike I received. My father is working miracles from heaven! A 3 week trip to Mexico beckons but I am in no mood to travel that far to help on a project that is going to get done by the end of next month. I am fervently praying that the plan gets canceled. Sreesanth is out of the series with another injury and I am beginning to think this is the end of the road for him.

A visit to Tirupathi is on the cards and the family leaves tomorrow and I am hoping that the almighty grants us another good darshan as he always has. A new hair style also beckons as I will be shaving my head! 

After months of deliberation we finally have a new sofa for the house and we made our choice pretty quickly yesterday. Suddenly the drawing room doesn't seem to be spacious anymore. But that has been compensated by the comfort that the sofa offers. Next on the agenda for mom is a new dining table.