From Vuvuzelas to Favelas

• Any match with Bafana Bafana, pity the home side didn't make it out of group play.

• Bradly, Donovan and Dempsey as US stand-outs.

• The, purportedly, Chinese actors hired to pose as fans of North Korea cheering madly when DPR Korea scored against Brazil.
  

• New Zealand's wholly improbable draw with defending champion Italy.

• Watching Germany. A great squad of youth and experience. Who will step up to fill Klose's role as cold-blooded striker?

• The crazy Dutch fans.

• Ghana-Uruguay. The match of the tournament.

• The vuvuzelas. Annoying? Sure. But fun to say and no more annoying than listening to the USC band.

• And, of course, watching Spain pass and pass and pass the ball. And then control the ball some more.

As has happened more often than not with the final match of that "other football" (aka, the Super Bowl), the 2010 FIFA World Cup Final was something of an anticlimax to this year's edition of the tournament. Yay! Spain won (my personal "other team" after cheering on the Yanks) but the match itself was quite dull and included little of the excitement or flair that the Spaniards and the Dutch, their opponent in the Final, had shown in previous matches. Understandable to a point: fatigue and nerves certainly played a part.

But, like the Germans before them in the semis, the Dutch were sufficiently concerned about Spain's skill and altered their own tactics that had proven so successful to that point. Leading up to the Final, the Netherlands were undefeated in qualifying and a perfect 6-0 in South Africa. Thinking they could rattle Spain's cold-blooded composure - La Furia Roja had won all of their knock-out round matches by the same 1-0 score, waiting until deep into the second half to notch their markers - the Dutch fouled, fouled and fouled some more throughout the match. Yellow cards and whistles abounded, and eventually, that caught up to them. John Heitinga was sent off for earning a second yellow in extra time and Andres Iniesta scored for Spain in the Final's 116th minute adding to their penchant for the dramatic and, fortunately, saving the second consecutive Final from being decided by penalty kicks.

There seems to be little disagreement that the better team won yesterday's match and was the best team in the tournament. And, I believe the tournament's two best teams met in the final match, not a regular occurrence in the round-robin plus knock-out format of the tournament. Germany certainly was the most eye-opening squad, scoring four goals in three of their matches. If the 2014 tournament wasn't being contested in Brazil, they would have to be considered a very early favorite. Their knock-out round wins over a clearly-flawed English side and Maradona's defense-last Argentines were pretty to watch, but the Germans may arguably have had the easiest route to the semis where they were overmatched by Spain.

Uruguay played in some of the most entertaining matches of the tournament, especially the nail-biting quarterfinal against Ghana and their semi against the Netherlands. Rightfully so, their dynamic striker Diego Forlán earned the Golden Ball as tournament MVP. Seemingly everywhere on the pitch for La Celeste, taking every free and corner kick, Forlán was never shut down by opposing defenders and was always in the middle of action. And he ended the tournament in a four-way tie for first with five goals scored. The only other serious consideration for that award should go to Spain's magical midfielder Xavi, but Forlán wasn't playing alongside a galaxy of superstars.

So it's done for four years. Attending a World Cup has been on my personal sports "bucket list" for quite a while. Yes, I went to a match when it was in the US in '94, but I'm holding out for somewhere more exotic. Perhaps a samba to South America...