SBNation.com - World Cup 2010 StoryStream™ Headlines

Brazil releases 2014 World Cup match schedule

2012-09-28T04:28:56-04:00

Matches at the 2014 World Cup will take place in the afternoons and early evenings

FIFA announced the kick-off times for the 2014 World Cup and many of the matches will take place in the afternoon and early evenings. The tournament will be hosted by Brazil and get underway on June 12, with the final taking place on July 13.

Almost all of the matches will start between 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. local time, which is between noon and 6 p.m. ET. The World Cup will cause some havoc in Europe, where some matches will not end until after midnight.

The tournament's opening match will be played at the Arena de São Paulo and kick-off at 5 p.m. local time, 4 p.m. ET. The final will be at the historic Maracana in Rio de Janeiro and begin at 4 p.m. local time, 3 p.m. ET.

FIFA also scheduled the final draw for the tournament. It will be hosted at the Costa do Sauipe in Bahia on December 6, 2013.

The entire schedule can be found on FIFA's handy dandy schedule. Prepare to ask for work off, or stay up all night. The World Cup is just 21 months away.

Thieves Guide To Evaluating The 2010 World Cup: Stealing Its Useful Parts For Our Own Enjoyment

2010-07-12T15:44:47-04:00

As a thief, we seek to take what you do, steal the good parts, and make what we do better without giving you credit. Today, we steal the good, healthy organs from The World Cup body, and take them home to the United States for our own use.

GET SOME INTELLIGENT ANNOUNCING. ESPN's small city of announcers and commentators has a diverse spread of intellectual neighborhoods.

Baseball and the NFL are the slums, dark streets where at night you can watch the rats run in the gutters and hear Merrill Hoge yelling at a television set in a dingy, lonely flophouse room.The NBA is the middle class neighborhood where everyone wonders how they can improve their home prices by getting that loud Mr. Smith to leave their block, the NHL is a quiet suburb with negative population growth on the outskirts of town, and horse racing is just Kenny Mayne's lone house out on the ranch with a guest suite for Hank Goldberg when he comes to stay.

(At night they sit in lawnchairs sipping vermouths and admiring the pastel colors of the desert sunset wordlessly. True friends don't need conversation sometimes.)

College football is the pleasant upper middle class neighborhood. Sometimes old man Holtz gets crazy and starts tending his garden without his pants, but that's just the price of good schools and living near great neighbors like Rece Davis.

In this metaphor, ESPN's soccer announcing went purple ribbon standard and is now the the intellectual Ginza or Fifth Avenue on the commentary map. And like with any other piece of prime real estate, they did it the old fashioned way: they bought it. Martin Tyler and Efan Okuku on matches were peerless, but Ian Darke was just as good as Tyler and more compatible with the excitable American aesthetic. (His "GO GO USA" call following Landon Donovan's goal against Algeria earned him citizen status. His passport is now a dual British/American, and he is entitled to all rights and responsibilities described therein.) If you're looking where to put him categorically, just think Gus Johnson excitedly spilling a cup of tea while making cutting remarks about players diving, and you're in the right spot.

Harkes has his moments of banality, sure, but on the whole the entire lineup--Fowler, Ley, Gullit, McManahan, and Lalas (yes, Lalas)--were superb, witty, smart, and by far the class of ESPN's combined announcing universe for the entirety of the World Cup in a manner that even non-soccer fans could appreciate. That light but deft touch on the analysis and presentation typified everything ESPN hasn't been in other sports, and might want to consider trying on more of across the board.

Ian Darke used the word "cynical" to describe effort during a game. Cynical, y'all. That's some next level ferocity there, and a call to arms for all other sporting universes to follow the instructions of UGK's immortal Bun B:

Read a book you illiterate son of a bitch/and step up your vocab.

Solid advice from a million dollar mack is something one should never, ever ignore, ESPN.

NOISEMAKERS ARE YOUR FRIEND. This is not Stockholm Syndrome: I will sincerely miss the vuvuzela, and not just for the mild dementia that kicked in after four hours straight of hearing it fart over the broadcast. Not all sporting venues should be alike or uniform, and thus the charm of South Africa's favorite sanity prevention horn. You realized you were watching the game somewhere distinct and local, and not just in another sterile noplace set somewhere in the vague sporting universe.

Soccer will sound sadly silent without it whether you want to admit it or not, but the larger issue of homogenization of the game experience at all levels is one of taste. If you can take one lesson from soccer fandom, it's in fan culture dictating the feel of the game, not some dip-nard in the front office deciding they need to "enhance the fan experience." Fenerbahce fans aren't handed road flares and told to jump up and down in the stands. They just do.

They also violate every fire code ever written, but that's not the point. The point is that the fans dictate the experience, and should be allowed to do the same in American sporting venues. Mississippi State fans should keep their cowbells, and vuvuzelas should be allowed wherever they pop up, since fans will either a.) love them, or b.) grab them and shove them a foot into the nostrils of their owner. Either way it's democracy in action, and is something increasingly rare in dictatorial stadium settings throughout sport.

A MANDATORY NOTE ABOUT SOCCER AND ITS PERIODIC LIAISONS WITH AMERICA. Ratings were up 50 percent, and that's a nice stat for those who care about the empirical stats side of things. Anecdotal evidence has a power all its own, though, and mine is this: my mother watched at least one game each round, and did so unbidden by me and of her own volition.

Demographically this is huge news for advertisers since Ma Hall is the canary in the coalmine indicating a cave-in of money waiting to fall in on a brand's head. The list of goods purchased by her is a who's who of American megabrands bought ahead of the curve:

1981: First lady to rock Richard Simmons' fitness gear on the street.

1982: Last bottle perm. Her departure off the perm wagon heralded the death of the hairstyle as we know it.

1989: Bought first Ford Explorer on the block.

1992: Smoothie King evangelist, and hit the Immune Blast before Immune Blast was cool, man.

1993: Was totally into Sheryl Crow before any other mom I knew.

2006: Had the Nintendo Wii on pre-order.

Clearly she's an early adopter deserving of acute attention, but it speaks to a larger point. Typically when discussing soccer in the US there's two arguments made, and both are equally stupid.

One says that soccer is on the verge of an imminent takeover of the United States based on the ratings performance of one quadrennial tournament broadcast through the inescapable main pipeline of ESPN. The other says you're un-American and possibly a terrorist for even watching soccer, and should be deported for even suggesting soccer could ever be popular in the United States because no matter how far you go into the future it will NEVER. HAPPEN. Charleton Heston will be wandering the earth talking to apes with British accents, and soccer will still not be popular.

The rational response is this: the United States is not ready to make soccer part of the harem, but is more than happy to work the World Cup into the rotation as a mistress it sees every now and then with great verve. It's a start, at least, and one ESPN is driving full-bore with their purchase of EPL rights and ever-expanding focus on the sport. You'll be seeing more of her in the future, and should take that mature approach as you move forward in your relationship.

COMMERCIAL FREE. It's anathema to NFL and college football ad buyers, but nothing trumps the experience of watching a sporting event commercial-free. Advertising isn't static, and never has been. At one point announcers actually read ads over the air, often in a fashion quite amusing when seen from the present.

Yes, that was a smooth play by Mantle. Another smooth play you can make is picking up a pack of Flintchestermore cigarettes, the smooth flavor that helps athletes stay cool on the field by expanding lung capacity, enhancing reflexes, and giving baseball athletes the vitamins and stamina they need. Why, I'm smoking two right now just to ensure this broadcast of Yankees baseball is brought to you with the highest possible degree of clarity and accuracy. Flintchestermore! The taste that goes in your chest!

No one misses on-air ads, and no one would miss the incessant breakup of game action (especially in football) in favor of uninterrupted sport with banner ads and on-field advertising. Sure, FOX would find some way to make it inhumanly repellent, but that's what FOX does to everything. Then they put Joe Buck in to cover it. Then, the tears and lamentations begin and do not cease forever.

Shifting Focus To World Cup 2014: Eight Teams To Watch For In Brazil

2010-07-12T14:22:47-04:00

It's four years until the next World Cup, but the hype will begin shortly. When it does, these teams will be the focus, having already situated themselves to be threats in Brazil.

South Africa 2010's conclusion is less than 24 hours old and people are already looking toward Brazil 2014, the World Cup's first trip to South America since Argentina 1978 - a staggering thought. Not that FIFA has tried to avoid taking event back to the continent (Colombia, 1986), but facts are facts, Sepp: How can the continent that's given us Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay - Pele, Maradona and Francescoli - not host the event for 36 years?

Thankfully, that figure gets capped come 2014, and while we're bound to have 3.9 years of mind-shrinking stories about how the finals could still be moved to England or the United States (I'm sure they're still writing these stories about South Africa), in 2014, the tournament will return to Brazil for the first time since 1950.

That tournament was the second of Uruguay's world titles, noteworthy for 2014 because La Celeste - along with fellow 1950 finalists Brazil and Spain - are amongst the countries who, four years out, are currently situated to make an impact in the next World Cup. We also saw glimpses from young German and Ghanaian teams of potential powers for 2014, while a handful of countries who experienced moderate success in 2010 will reinforce with more young talent, mix that with the experience garnered in South Africa, and be true threats in four years.

As the focus starts to shift across the Atlantic, from Johannesburg and Cape Town to Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, we shift our focus to those nations who have a head-start in their quest for the 2014 World Cup:

Brazil - Beyond being the hosts and having to deal with four years of people reminding them that they did not win the other World Cup they staged, it's no surprise that Brazil has a number of young talents coming through their ranks, as evidenced by their finals appearance at the 2009 U-20 World Cup. The 2010 team, featuring nobody under 23 years old, will offer relatively little help to the quest for Brazil's sixth World Cup, so Brazil may be more vulnerable than currently anticipated, despite the potential emergence of young talents like Sandro, Paulo Henrique Ganso, Neymar and Alan Kardec.

Spain - Now possessing the world's deepest pool of elite talent, the world champions have a number of players established in the current team who will be linchpins of 2014's defense. The list of players who will still be 30 or younger come Brazil is frustratingly unfair to the rest of the world: Sergio Busquets, Cesc Fàbregas, Andres Iniesta, Javi Martínez, Juan Mata, Jesus Návas, Pedro, Gerard Piqué, Sergio Ramos, David Silva, and Fernando Torres.

Germany - While Miroslav Klose will not be back (currently 32 years old), he and Arne Friedrich were the only players over 26 that regularly started for the Germans in South Africa. Replacing the tournament's second all-time leading scorer will be difficult, but with the improvement to expect from players like Mesut Özil (21), Thomas Müller (20), Sami Khedira (23) and Manuel Neuer (24), Germany may be able to compensate should they not find somebody who can fill Klose's Adidas.

Ghana - Like Germany, the core of their South Africa team was all very young. Only left back Hans Sarpei (33) and goalkeeper Richard Kingson (31) may not return, with Kwadwo Asamoah (22), Anthony Annan (23), Andre Ayew (20), Kevin-Prince Boateng (23), Asamoah Gyan (24), Samuel Inkoom (20), Jonathan Mensah (19), Prince Tagoe (23), and Isaac Vorsah (21) all in their prime soccer years for Brazil. Dominic Adiyiah, the player of the tournament at last year's U-20 World Cup, could be a Thomas Müller-like improvement when integrated, and the pièce de résistance: Michael Essien - one of the world's best players, who missed this tournament with a knee injury - is only 27 and should be back for Brazil.

Uruguay - Diego Forlán (31) is probably gone, as is midfield general Diego Pérez (30), but every other key player will be back (if not improved) and emboldened by players from youth teams that have impressed at both U-20 and U-17 levels. Luis Suárez and Edinson Cavani will each be 27 for Brazil, as will Fernando Muslera and promising defender Martín Cáceres. Nicolás Lodeiro (21) promises to be the playmaker this year's team desperately needed, and Palermo star Abel Hernández should emerge to further augment the strike force. The defense of Maxi Pereira, Diego Godín, Diego Lugano and Jorge Fucile should all have one more Cup in them, putting the Uruguayans in place to defend 1950.

South Korea - Some iconic players may have moved on by Brazil. Lee Young-Pyo is 33, as is Kim Nam-Il, and captain Park Ji-Sung, who could keep himself Giggs-esque in condition and be a factor in Brazil, is 29. But with a develop system that produced a team that made the U-20 quarterfinals complementing a senior side that already includes 21-year-olds Ki Song-Yong and Lee-Chung-Yong amongst its best players, Korea looks set carve its way into the ranks of world soccer powers.

Mexico - Though 31, it's not a certainty captain Rafael Marquez has played his last World Cup (considering his position, center half). Midfield linchpin Gerardo Torrado, the same age, is likely done. Even if they move on, Mexico still has a wealth of young talent that could improve upon the team's Round of 16 appearance. The attacking trio of Giovani dos Santos (21), Carlos Vela (21) and Javier Hernández (22) could be the best in the world in four years. Goalkeepers Guillermo Ochoa and Jonathan Orozco are only 24. Pablo Barrera and Efraín Juárez are only 22, while Andrés Guardado, though already capped 56 times, is only 23. The defense has a number of players between 28 and 30 who could become question marks, but the improvements El Tri will see at other places around the pitch will offset those uncertainties.

Netherlands - Maybe the Dutch don't have the players coming through the ranks to replace some of the talent that will age, but just think of what four more years playing this new Oranje style will do for the Netherlands. True, Mark van Bommel is an experienced heel and has likely reached the peak of his powers, but can you image the power Nigel de Jong will have in his kicks after four more years of practice? Robin van Persie clearly needs to refine his technique - his intentional fouls were too obviously so - while the hard work of Dirk Kuyt could be truly dangerous when devoted to more nefarious tasks. The sky's the limit for this Dutch team who, with Sunday's hint at what's possible, could be real threats come Brazil. Literal threats.

World Cup 2010 Final, Spain Vs. Netherlands Preview: Spain's Attack, And A Curious Dismissal Of German Success

2010-07-11T06:43:08-04:00

Spain is coming off a 1-0 win over Germany in the semifinals where they failed to score an open-play goal. Lucky for them, their opponents in Sunday's World Cup final, the Netherlands, is looking at Wednesday's result as a German failure, intent on employing a more aggressive approach.

In the days leading up to Sunday’s Spain-Netherlands final, Dutch captain Giovanni van Bronckhorst has said his Netherlands team will not make the same mistakes made by the Germans. To the extent Germany made mistakes in their Wednesday semifinal against Spain, they were few, as the Germans had multiple chances to take a lead in that match. The Dutch left back seems to be alluding to coach Joachim Löw’s willingness to sit-back and wait for counterattacking opportunities, an approach that allowed Spain to enter a comfort zone La Roja never found against Paraguay in the quarterfinals, where the Paraguayans exerted pressure high throughout the middle of the pitch against Spain, forcing the ball off of Xavi Hernandez’s feet soon after the Spanish central midfielder gained possession. In saying the Dutch will not play like Germany, van Bronckhorst may be hinting the Netherlands will have more Gerardo Martino than Löw.

While that more aggressive approach would also have the virtue of being more decisive again than lie-in-wait plan, there are a number of reasons why the Dutch can not be as cavalier as Paraguay in exerting that pressure. The first is shape, with the Dutch 4-2-3-1 not allowing for the Oranje to play the numbers in the middle that would be required to replicate Paraguay’s approach without compromising their ability to move forward by using the flanks. If the Dutch can't move forward, they're going little to avoid the issues they had with Germany's plan. Secondly, the Dutch don’t have a back line with the likes of Claudio Morel, Antolín Alcarez and Paulo da Silva that will allow defensive midfielders Nigel de Jong and Mark van Bommel to pressure higher-up in the formation. While Paraguay could rely on those defenders when left unprotected, Bert van Marwijk is not able to have such confidence in van Bronckhorst and center back John Heitenga. And finally, since the Paraguay quarterfinal, Spain has made the vital (long-awaited) lineup change that will provide them the width needed to better deal with similar pressure to that which they saw against Paraguay.

That lineup change - bringing Barcelona attacker Pedro in for the struggling striker Fernando Torres - gives Spain the formational flexibility needed to adjust to the pressure the Netherlands is threatening to bring in Sunday’s match, allowing them to better use the wide areas or have an extra body through the middle should try wish to build-up centrally. Against Paraguay, with Torres operating as a lone striker and David Villa deployed in a forward position wide-left, Spain only had Andres Iniesta available to go wide and build down the flanks, though Iniesta was still often playing centrally in support of Hernandez. This left Spain susceptible to the kind of crowding and pressure Paraguay used, forcing the ball onto the feet of less effective, deep-sitting midfielders Xabi Alonso and Sergio Busquets. With Pedro in the lineup, Spain has David Villa back in the middle, allowing Iniesta to go wide to one flank and Pedro to the other. Whereas the formation featuring Torres was relatively inflexible because it locked Villa into a advanced, left-sided role, bringing Pedro in helps avoid the Paraguay pitfalls by giving Spain more avenues through which they can get around points of pressure

The most effective route for Spain, should the Dutch try to pressure the Spanish through the middle, would be to use Iniesta down the left, and bring Pedro over to support in the area between Hernandez’s central midfield position and the Dutch back line. This approach has the virtue of possibly forcing Arjen Robben to play a more active (and deeper) defensive role, inhibiting the Netherlands’ main means of attack while forcing a shift of play toward the left flank that can create advantages on the right. Switching the attack through Hernandez to the right after it’s been build up the left could find David Villa with more space (presumably then matched-up on Joris Mathijsen), Sergio Ramos open for chances running onto shots at the edge of the penalty area, or (should the Spanish force Robben to play deeper) one of the central midfielders moving into that area to create numerical advantages as the play is shifted away from the left.

Spain would have a number of options should they play to their potential against a Dutch team trying to replicate Paraguay’s relative success, which makes this idea that Germany made a strategic mistake in the semis Spain so confusing. Perhaps because Germany failed to create as many opportunities against Spain as they did against Argentina and England, it's been said the Germans made a more conscious effort to sit-back against Spain (not acknowledging the possible effect Spain's play had on Germany's behavior). Of primary concern, it may not be the best idea to use German play against Argentina and England as barometers to judge a performance against Spain, but secondly, few seem to note that Germany went ninety minutes against Spain without allowing an open-play goal, and although the twenty-plus minutes preceding Carles Puyol’s match-winning header saw Spain create a number of chances from 17-to-24 yards out, it’s worth noting that almost any strategy against Spain is going to have limited effect due to the raw soccer talent at Spain’s disposal. That Germany’s limited effect led to no open-play goals and relatively few strong scoring chances should be examined for its successes as well as its failures.The perceived negative approach may have been a function of Spain's possession game combined with Germany's counterattacking style rather than a conscious shift on the part of Löw.

For a Dutch side that plays a formation identical to the Germans, has similar strength in deep midfield and a similar need to shield a central defense pairing that carries questions, Germany’s approach would seem more model than mistake. What went wrong between halftime and Puyol’s goal should be van Marwijk’s implicit question as he looks at the Germany (not Paraguay) match to inform him on how the Dutch should set-up against Spain.

Regardless of how the Dutch deploy their team on Saturday, throughout this tournament Spain has shown an ability to adjust to their opponents’ tactics and eventually (aside from the first match) win, emerging victorious in a relatively controlled fashion. We could talk about the tweaks Joachim Löw and/or Bert van Marwijk could make to Germany’s plan, but we should spend just as much time considering how Spain would adjust to those changes since the Spaniards always seem to do so. For the Spaniards, it's a subtle and less-confounding chess match in which they always have better pieces. With the talent of their core players, the variety of options at coach Vincente del Bosque’s disposal, and three years of results documenting their success, Spain’s resumé suggests the Dutch will need more than a plan to pull-off a mild upset on Sunday.

Fortunately for them, the Dutch have a right winger sporting the game’s most dangerous foot and central midfielder with a new, beguiling knack of winning every competition he’s entered into. Soccer is less about big picture concepts - who has the better approach or players - and more about which team plays manages their match's 90 minutes best. Like Spain, the Netherlands have the talent to do that on Sunday.

World Cup 2010, Spain Vs. Netherlands Preview: How The Oranje Attack La Roja

2010-07-11T05:21:22-04:00

The Netherlands opportunistic play has let to twelve goals through six World Cup 2010 matches, but against a Spanish team that's giving their opponents a minimal number of chances per match, how the Dutch have scored their goals becomes a concern ahead of Sunday's tournament final.

On the brink of the latest, most important match in the history of their soccer, the Netherlands are facing an inevitability that would have been unfathomable one month ago: The Dutch will be out Total Football’ed tomorrow. The style of game that made their nation an iconic presence on the international landscape has been abandoned by this year’s team, and in an irony of literary proportions, the only way Bert van Marwijk and his Oranje can justify that decision is to beat the team that’s inherited their discarded legacy. The Spanish national team, having adopted the Totaalvoetbal that first appeared on their landscape in Barcelona forty years ago, are the purveyors of a new Dutch style are primed to use it Sunday to claim the world title the Dutch have never won.

As it concerns the Dutch attack, the biggest implication of this stylistic shift is possession. In all likelihood, the Netherlands will lose the possession battle, forcing them to be more efficient with the time they get on the ball. For a team that was already having trouble generating chances, going from being ceded most of the possession to catching-up-to the game will make them more reliant on opportunism and counterattacking. It will also make the Dutch more dependent on the one part of their attack that works regardless of possession: Arjen Robben.

Robben has already scored one goal from nothing (against Slovakia) and created another (against Cameroon), both off his left foot, cutting-in from his right wing position. On Sunday, Spanish left back Joan Capdevila will carry the bulk of the responsibility for containing Robben, but with most of the winger’s damage being done inside the width of the penalty area, left-center back Carles Puyol and defensive midfielder Sergio Busquets will also play crucial roles. Particularly given Spain’s use of a second, deep-sitting midfielder against the Netherlands’ single forward formation, both Puyol and Busquets will be able to help without unduly opening the Spanish defense.

Whether Spain provides that help, it will be Wesley Sneijder’s task to create for himself, Robin van Persie and Dirk Kuyt as an alternative to Robben. Unfortunately for the Dutch, this is an alternative that has yet to work during this tournament. While Sneijder has helped set-up one of Robben’s goals, he has yet to aid toward the building of a goal for van Persie or Kuyt. Sneijder’s five goals scored has overshadowed the fact that the Netherlands’ conventional means of building goals seems to have failed, but against a Spain team that affords their opponents very few opportunities, Sneijder may not be able to rely on a goalkeeper misreads and swallowed whistles.

It’s a concern that extends beyond Wesley Sneijder to the whole Netherlands team. The Dutch have been supreme opportunists in this tournament, to the point where they’ve been able to get to the final averaging two goals per game without having to worry about why their default means of attacking - building through the central playmaker in their 4-2-3-1 - has yet to show it can consistently generate chances. A Spain team that gives you little time on the ball to work through your problems is not the opponent against whom you can afford to have such problems, not only because you rarely see the ball but when you do, you have the likes of Puyol, Gerard Pique and Iker Casillas to beat.

This is not to say the Dutch can not or will not score. They clearly can, and often in this game, opportunism is enough. However, if Spain plays the way they have during their preceding six matches of World Cup 2010, the Dutch are going to need to provide an attacking element they've yet to show during this tournament.

World Cup 2010 Final, Netherlands Preview: Risking What History's Earned - World's Second Favorite Team

2010-07-10T08:41:37-04:00

Few countries have famous soccer styles, but Total Football belongs to the Dutch, a legacy one hundred years in the making. The team for World Cup 2010, however, has turned away from many of Total Football's principles, a gambit which will only work with victory on Sunday.

Totaalvoetbal is what they call it, but it’s literal English translation, Total Football, that has become synonymous with the Dutch - the Oranje, Clockwork Orange, Brilliant Orange. There are almost as many monikers as there are supporters of the world’s second favorite team, named so for fans loving the Dutch next after their own national team. That love is commonly linked to their style of play, but it was born out of the team’s sudden rise to power in the 1970s, when a nation of 13 million that had not qualified for a major tournament in 32 years went to the World Cup final.

The story of Holland’s soccer starts, like many European nations, with Jimmy Hogan, an English football player who began a long and pioneering coaching career in North and Central Europe with a brief stint running the Dutch national team (in 1910). Perhaps cementing his legendary status in the Netherlands, one of the first things Hogan did was beat Germany. The style with which Hogan got that result would change the course of international soccer history.

Rather than bring the physicality of his homeland’s game to the continent, Hogan brought the combination (passing) game innovated in Scotland. At that time, the role of passing in the game was still being debated amongst the English puritanical. The debate would lead Hogan to be a relative outcast from the English game for most of his career, a status that would benefit many nations, including the Netherlands. By 1934 the first full generation of Dutch soccer players developed under Hogan’s principles had come into the national team and qualified the Oranje for their first World Cup.

The Dutch also qualified for the 1938 finals, neither tournament being difficult for European sides to get into. South American teams were, for the most part, not making the trips to Italy 1934 and France 1938, with the world’s best team (Uruguay) protesting each tournament. With British teams waging their own annual championship (that they considered superior to the World Cup) and few spots given to Asia and the Americas, Europe’s qualifying was divided so thin that the Netherlands only had to finish above-bottom in a in three team group to qualify. In 1934, the group consisted of Belgium and Ireland. In 1938, Luxembourg replaced Ireland. In both years, the Netherlands were one-and-done at the World Cup.

It wasn’t until West Germany in 1974 that the Netherlands resurfaced on the world scene. By then, Johan Cruyff, Johnny Rep, Johan Neeskens and coach Rinus Michels had brought Dutch club Ajax’s soccer system into the national team, introducing the world to Total Football - the aesthetically pleasing tactical system built upon positional flexibility and the use of space, one that required great stamina, tactical acumen, and technical skill.

Totaalvoetbal helped produce 14 goals while allowing only three in their seven 1974 World Cup matches. Unfortunately for the Dutch, two of the goals allowed were to West Germany in the final, leading to a painful 2-1 loss for a nation that was still dealing with the legacy of World War II.

By Argentina 1978, the magic - along with Cruyff and Michels - was gone, through the results were similar. With the help of four Rob Resenbrink penalty kicks in six matches, the Netherlands made their second successive final, taking the host nation to extra time before losing 3-1. While their achievement of back-to-back finals appearances marked only the third time in the competition’s history that had been accomplished, their 10 goals allowed may have been a sign that the Dutch would continue to fade.

The Netherlands would qualify for only one of the next four major tournaments (Euro 1980). Without a Johan Cruyff or Johnny Rep-level talent to use to target opposition weakness, Total Football was not enough. Once Rep and Neeskens left the team in 1981, the Dutch embarked on the second international dry spell in their country’s history, one that ended only when a new generation of elite talent came through their program.

In 1988, the Netherlands would reascend to elite status amongst the soccer world, with three Milan players serving as the team's new face. That year, five goals in as many matches from Marco van Basten led the Netherlands to their first major championship: Euro 1998. He had joined the reigning FIFA World Player of the Year, Ruud Gullit, and Frank Rijkaard (along with Ronald Koeman) to form the core a team that would qualify for five consecutive tournaments, a string which extended to eight after the trio had left international football (by 1994) to be reinforced by the likes of Dennis Bergkamp, Patrick Kluivert, Marc Overmars, Clarence Seedorf, Edgard Davids and Frank and Ronald de Boer.

Though those teams were never able to replicate the success of 1988 - winning a major title (on German soil) - the group represented the second, major, emboldening populations shift in the country’s history. Buttressing the success of the 1970s was a post-war baby boom that saw the country’s population grow by 60 percent in a roughly 30 year span. The boom of the late nineties saw decades of new-found assimilationist policies make the Dutch a team of color. Gullit, Rijkaard, Kluivert, Seedorf and Davids could all trace Surinamese roots, with Kluivert also having a direct connection to Curacao.

As is the cycle in Dutch soccer history, the good periods do not gracefully flow from one to the next; rather, there is a dramatic, disappointing pronouncement that an era has ended. There was the dry spell that started after the war, then the post-Cruyff era, and for the second great generation of Dutch talent, it came when the team failed to qualify for Korea-Japan 2002. That year, the Netherlands finished third in a group behind Portugal and Ireland, using what now looks like a transitional roster, having scattered remnants of the late ninties' titans mixed with the first players from the next great Dutch team.

That team was first put on diplay in Euro 2008. While Spain would go on to win the tournament and use Austria-Switzerland as their ascendancy announcement, it was the Dutch that were the story of the tournament’s group phase. With Marco van Basten having ascended to the coaching position, Total Football was back in the spotlight, with the likes of Wesley Sneijder, Robin van Persie, Arjen Robben, and Giovanni van Bronckhorst amongst the team’s stars. The team was dominant in navigating a group of death with Italy, France and Romania, posting a 9:1 goal ratio before an upset, extra time elimination in the quarterfinals to Russia.

The disappointment of the loss was tempered by the return to beautiful soccer. In the preceding World Cup (Germany 2006), the Netherlands had only scored three times in four matches, being eliminated by Portugal in the Round of 16. Two years later, they scored ten times in the same number of games, and while their finish eventually disappointed expectations built during group play, Marco van Basten had restored excitement in the team, and while he would move on to a (short-lived) position at Ajax, the Oranje legend had held usher in the third great period in Dutch soccer history.

How great that period will be is now in the hands of Bert van Marwijk. With few exceptions, the players the Dutch boss will start on Sunday are the same that van Basten selected for Euro 2008. The style, however, is drastically different. Gone is the Totaalvoetbal of 1974, 1988, or even the version of 2008 that gave us the first hint of Dutch acquiescence to a modern 4-5-1. The trade-off, as the story is being weaved, is increased stability, which is responsible for this tournament’s improved results.

Treading on a legacy should not be undertaken lightly, and the Dutch legacy of Totaalvoetbal is one of the strongest and most positive in the world’s game. Van Marwijk has taken a decided shift from it, a sacrifice that a soccer culture still hurting from 1974 will willingly make if it brings a World Cup. Even if the Dutch lose on Sunday, the present attitude in the Netherlands will acknowledge the good job van Marwijk has done. However, history will judge differently, as the justification for turning away from the legacies of Hogan, Michels, Cruyff, van Basten, and Gullit fades away if the Dutch fail to win while adopting an approach that runs counter to how they became the world’s second favorite team.

World Cup 2010 Final: The Sporting Gentleman's Guide To Spain Vs. Netherlands

2010-07-09T14:34:04-04:00

Who should you, the sporting gentleman, root for in the World Cup Final, a game where unless you are Dutch or Spanish one is forced to adopt a foreign country's squad in order to stake out some partisan ground? Whose brew should you hoist high in the wood-paneled oases of respite you call home, aka your neighborhood taverns? Whose style of play favors your natural sporting sympathies? WHOSE MAIDENS ARE THE MOST COMELY AND PLEASING TO THE EYE?

These questions will be lapped at dangerous speeds in our six-cyliner racing jalopy motorcar below by category in order to facilitate gentlemanly efficiency in making one's pick. Put away that snuff, man, and hop into the rumbleseat with celerity!

MEATS:

HOLLAND: Pickled Herring. Not conducive to the attraction of buxom ladies in hoop dresses due to the odoriferous exhalations created by its consumption, but proteinaceous and therefore advantageous for the builders of bodies and those fond of mansome athletic exertions.

SPAIN: Jamon. Ham so sweet and succulent you would vouchsafe its purchase from the thighs of sainted porcine angels.

VERBIAGE ASSOCIATED WITH EACH TEAM:

VAN BOMMEL'D: Derived from the name of Dutch National Team member Mark Van Bommel, and indicates the savage assault of a player on the field without the notice of the referee.

PUYOLESCA: A delicious pasta dish tossed in garlic, olive oil, and worn on the head while playing defender.

ALCOHOL:

HOLLAND: Beer. Stout, flavorful ales strong enough to fortify souls driven mad by the whirring of windmills and the howling North Sea winds.

SPAIN: Rioja. A lively red wine served with late Spanish dinners. And sometimes with lunch, and occasionally in between to strengthen the constitution. From time to time, it is consumed with breakfast. And while driving. Sometimes consumed by Iberia Air pilots to reduce stress. Recommended for teething babies. Sometimes given to dogs in a pinch if the water's out and they look thirsty. Official sports wine of the Spanish National Soccer Team.

SPORTING STYLE:

SPAIN. Measured, methodical, and patient, with an emphasis placed on the continued calculated possession of the ball, but festooned with unnecessary theatrics in the manner of beflopping oneself upon the greenery of the hallowed pitch.

HOLLAND: Measured, methodical, and patient, with an emphasis placed on the continued calculated possession of the ball, but festooned with unnecessary theatrics in the manner of beflopping oneself upon the greenery of the hallowed pitch as performed by those with beknighted, hairless pates in the manner of Caesar himself.

CHOSEN PALETTE:

SPAIN: Playing in red garments reminiscent of the royal crest of Spain, and stealthily resistant to stains from sport-wine Rioja.

HOLLAND: Playing in orange, the color of the House of Orange, and additionally luminescent enough to be espied during wintry games when players may be buried by weighty snowdrifts in a most inconvenient manner.

ILLICIT PREFERENCES OF EACH NATION-STATE LISTED IN DISCREET MANNER:

SPAIN: The nightly covert a-smuggling of Africans across the money-strewn rock of Gibraltar and its surrounding waters into the Union European for performance of services too cheap for white-gloved Europeans to perform whilst cashing generous cheques from the Crown.

HOLLAND: The nightly prowling of the district illumined by crimson lights for the attentions of maidens most purchasable after much consumption of the intoxicating leaf of the cannabis plant and its perpetual culinary coat-tail, the well-baked fry of the French.

TRADITIONS BORN OF THE COMMUNAL WILL TO CHANT IN UNISON DURING EVENTS MOST SPORTING:

SPAIN: Comments most derogatory made in the manner addressing ones ethnicity, religion, or mother and her position vis-a-vis said chanter, group of chanters, horses, or the very evil Devil Mephistopheles himself.

HOLLAND: Limited to those comments pertaining to mothers, their perceived lack of virtue, and services rendered under unsavory and potentially illegal cash agreements.

STATUS OF THE RELATIVE SUB-CANINE AS DEEMED BY PAST HISTORICAL PERFORMANCE:

SPAIN: Sub-canine of sub-canines herein, as they have the lines of the Finals pitch ne'er crossed in competition.

HOLLAND: A sub-canine only by sentiment's watery delusions, as they have donned the Finalist's Laurels in the years of our Lord 1974 and '78.

HAVE THEY WITH THEM ARTILLERY ENOUGH FOR A PROPER BATTLE?

SPAIN: Aside from the Quixote of Spanish soccer himself Senor David de Villa, no, but with Iker Casillas manning the castle gates need you more than one bullet to split a single orange?

HOLLAND: Yes, a veritably armory crowned with a dastardly, fearsome cannon dubbed "The Van Bronckhorst."

MODE OF CELEBRATION RELATIVE TO THE NORMAL BEHAVIOR OF THE CITIZENS OF EACH COUNTRY

SPAIN: The ignition of road flares will accompany rhythmic dancing, alcohol consumption, and furtive amorous liaisons with total strangers after much atonal singing and chanting, a mode of living not altogether different from many Saturday evenings of note in the metropoli of the Iberian peninsula.

HOLLAND: Conjugal pile-ups in public coupled with the Heineken brewery bursting a dike holding back a reservoir of beer, thus flooding the cobbled streets of olde Amsterdam. No one shall speak of this in years to follow barring the allotment of support funds owed for children fostered this evening, and work shall recommence dourly at 10 a.m. the following day lest the beer-sea obstruct the commuter's step the following morning.

Make your decision, sporting gentlemen, and join us for the World Cup on Sunday.

World Cup 2010 Final, Spain Preview: Red Armada Tries To Sink History's Disappointments

2010-07-09T11:51:32-04:00

Spain is one of the nations grouped with the soccer world's traditional powers, but the Spanish history in World Cup play make that status generous. On Sunday, La Roja have their chance to take a rightful place amongst the elite nations in soccer's history.

The Spanish national team has become the standard by which international soccer is measured, but while people have come to consider Spain a traditional power - readily grouping them in with Brazil, Italy, Germany and Argentina in the upper echelon of soccer nations - this association is relatively new.

Recently, Spain won their second major championship (Euro 2008), set the record for longest international winning streak (15 matches) and tied the mark for an unbeaten run (35), and gained the top spot in the FIFA world rankings for the first time in their nation’s history. It’s a newly-forged legacy which, since December 2006, has been augmented by losing only twice, accumulating the most impressive stretch of results in the history of the international game, but at a point of history where the most popular game in the world is constantly gaining a horde of new, devoted followers, their recent success obfuscates a mixed and disappointing past - a past this version of La Furia Roja, come Sunday, has a chance to bury.

Spain was not a regular qualifier for World Cups until Argentina 1978, 48 years after the first competition was held in Uruguay. Prior to that, Spain had only qualified for four finals out of ten (trying eight times), their greatest success coming in Brazil 1950 when they won their group and qualified for the four team, round robin final on the backs of Estanislao Basora and Telmo Zarra, possibly the best forward tandem in the country’s history. Zarra was a goal-per-match scorer throughout his short national team career, and Barcelona’s Basora, though not as historically prolific as his 1950 partner, out-performed Zarra in the finals, scoring five goals to the Basque striker’s four.

Spain would finish last in the final group, garnering a fourth place position that served as Roja’s standard until this year. After drawing eventual champions Uruguay in their opening match of the second stage, Spain was blown out by hosts Brazil (6-1) and lost to Sweden (3-1). Finishing behind a Brazil team that scored 22 goals in six matches and a Uruguay team that won its second title, a Spain team that contained only two players over 30 years old could have expected their return from a Franco-induced absence to be the beginning of a successful international run. Unfortunately for Spain, 1950 was to be their high-point for 60 years.

From the 1950 tournament until 1978, the Spanish failed to qualify for four World Cups. Until South Africa, the team failed to get past the tournament’s round of eight. To put that in perspective: During that time, Brazil has won all five of their World Cups, while Germany has made the final four 11 times. Argentina has won both their World Cups while Italy added their third and fourth world titles. It is out of respect for the Spanish players and league that the national team has always been met with expectations, but the history of Spanish soccer has been about failing to meet them.

Spain did win the European Championships in 1964 - or, rather, the 1964 European Nations Cup, a drastically different tournament than the current incarnation of the continental championship - but their first meaningful taste of success started, paradoxically, with the failure of 2006. That year, Spain blew through the group stage of the Germany World Cup, posting a 8:1 goal ratio before the script turned to disappointment. In the Round of 16, a France team that barely scraped through group play awoke, eliminating the heavily-favored Spaniards, 3-1. France would go on lose the final to Italy in a match that showed the Spanish that, in a competition without a great team, the tournament was theirs for the taking.

Rather than adhering to their historical pattern and looking at that upset as reason to rebuild, the Spanish federation retained coach Luis Aragones, who then retained a cadre of players that formed the core of the 2008 European Champions and 2010 World Cup finalists. Xavi Hernández became the heartbeat of the team, a central midfielder around whom Andrés Iniesta, Cesc Fàbregas and Xabi Alonso would work, implementing a passing, possession style that would become La Roja’s trademark. That midfield would embolden forwards Fernando Torres and, most importantly, David Villa - now on the verge of becoming the team’s leading scorer, coming off of back-to-back record-setting goal scoring seasons (12 international goals, each year). Carles Puyol remained the backbone, with starlet Sergio Ramos on the right, stalwart Iker Casillas between the posts. Still, amidst this litany of talent brought forward from the 2006 heartbreak, the most important player to Spain’s 2008 success may have been the man Aragones left behind.

From 2002 to September 2006, Real Madrid (and Spain) legend Raúl González had captained the national team. At the end of that tenure, he was the leading goal scorer and second most capped player in national team history. Simultaneously, he had become symbolic of the Real Madrid-Barcelona, Castillan-Catalan divide that was often cited as an excuse for Spanish failures. As Spain habitually failed to meet expectations, often losing France-esque matches after periods of dominant play, thoughts would turn to whether divisions within the team undermined necessary cohesion. Madrid-born Raúl, captain for both club and country, was inevitably drawn into this debate.

After a post-World Cup loss to Northern Ireland, Aragones decided to controversially move-on from his captain. Despite a loud uproar of support before the Euro 2008 squad was named, Raúl was excluded from the team, with Spain’s subsequent success confirming the legend’s involuntary international retirement. Goalkeeper Iker Casillas, another Real Madrid legend, now captains the team, shepperding Spain through a 35-match unbeaten run that started a few months after Raúl was left-out of the team. Whether the difference was attributable to Raúl, Spain had previously been known as a collection of individual talents, whereas now they’re merely known as talented.

The first test of the Casillas-led Spain was that 2008 European Championships, where Spain won their first major championship in 48 years, a tournament where their captain was Castillan, their best player (Hernández) was Catalan, and their leading scorer (Villa) was Asturian. Six matches in Austria-Switzerland, six wins, and the burial of the ghosts of every talented team since 1964 that failed to live-up to expectations.

With that, Aragones moved back into the club world, replaced by former Real Madrid coach Vincente del Bosque, though the results have scarcely wavered. While Spain has stumbled against the likes of the United States (ending their winless and undefeated streaks) and Switzerland (to open South Africa 2010), La Roja was perfect through World Cup qualifying. And though the style del Bosque has employed through this tournament has been criticized by the Spanish press, it’s carried the team to unprecedented heights: the team’s first World Cup final. Regardless of coaching chances or small alterations in aproach, Spain is now in its third year as the best team in the world.

While his tactics have not elicited results commensurate with the team’s talent (riding three straight 1-0 victories through the knockout stage), del Bosque has maintained the one facet of Spanish fútbol that has become synonymous with their current ascendancy: a composed dominance of the ball, morphing into a furious quest to regain it the few times the ball’s lost.

Spanish soccer journalist Guillem Balague, speaking with the BBC after Spain’s win over Germany, may have best explained the current state of Spanish football:

"Three years ago, we decided to keep the ball, and nobody’s taken it off us. It’s just a different way of playing, one that’s wonderful to everybody. I think the neutrals have enjoyed it.

"(The style) comes not from thinking that we’re superior to the rest (of the world). In fact, it comes from thinking, `We can not compete physically with the rest. What can we do well? We’ll keep that ball.’

"And we’ve learned to also compete."

Balague’s emotions then overcame him.

"Sorry, I think you’ve got the child, not the journalist here. It’s been all our lives, hoping for a moment like this."

On Sunday, Spain will be favored to win their first world title, cementing the moment for which Balague’s nation has been waiting. Should they fail to do, Spain will leave South Africa having already provided their supporters with a historic achievement. Should they raise the World Cup, La Roja will take their rightful place amongst the soccer world’s other traditional powers.