We return from our extended break with the number 15. I feel very fortunate to have seen 15 World Cup matches in person in the last 12 years, including five at the recently concluded tournament in Germany. I cannot recommend the experience highly enough. Every soccer fan should try to see at least one World Cup match in their lifetime. The experience is fairly amazing, to say the least.
Everyone has opinions about how the tournament went, and I am no exception. After the first two matches, I got the feeling that Brazil would not be able to win as long as Ronaldo started, and lo and behold, the pre-tournament favorites were knocked out in the quarterfinals. The Brazilians' experience, especially when compared to that of the victorious Italians, shows that a relatively easy first-round group may not actually be a good thing in the long run. The same goes for Mexico.
Italy, on the other hand, emerged from the "Group of Death," and those early tests may have steeled the Azzurri for the knockout rounds.
Another early favorite, Argentina, committed the twin sins of peaking too early and then killing their own momentum by taking it easy in their last group match against the Netherlands. England got the early results they needed, but only just barely, which was not enough to keep them afloat when things got serious.
As for the Americans, I'm as disappointed as any U.S. fan with how things came out. In particular, Bruce Arena's side looked flat and unimaginative for long stretches of the Czech and Ghana matches, with too many players standing still when they received passes. Landon Donovan has been criticized quite a bit, and rightly so, but the interesting part of his performance was that he did pretty well in the second half of the game with Italy when there was much more room on the field due to all the red cards. Donovan's limitation seemed to be that he was at his best when he could run straight into the defense with the ball, and while that may work in MLS, in CONCACAF and when three players are missing, the World Cup is a different story altogether.
On the positive, I knew Jimmy Conrad was a good MLS defender, but had no idea he would be so cool and composed under such pressure. That he was the only defender passing the ball out of the back instead of banging it upfield in that same Italy match spoke volumes about his poise and maturity. Clint Dempsey also stood out.
And then there was the Final. Given his role in every other major event in the match, I was sure Marco Materazzi would miss the critical penalty kick to give the match to France. As an Italian-American, I'm happy to say I was wrong. The Zinedine Zidane headbutt, if nothing else, has provided work for legions of lip-readers around the world who have been trying to divine what transpired all week.
But the World Cup isn't only about what happens on the field. Many lasting memories are made from many other parts of the experience.
The American fans marched for what had to be at least two miles, uphill, to the stadium in Kaiserslautern for the Italy match. As one of two U.S. fans with a drum, I was an integral part of that procession, and when we reached the top, I was completely exhausted. Who should end up next to me, but Frankie Hejduk, whose injury kept him off the U.S. team but also allowed him to go to the games. He hadn't even broken a sweat.
Croatian fans at their country's match with Brazil in the awe-inspiring Olympic Stadium in Berlin reminded me of the Polish fans in the early days of the Fire, and Fire fans will be interested to note that security kept them from standing in the aisles, too. And I saw a Paraguayan grandfather beam with a sort of wounded pride when his granddaughters, who had to be between 11 and 14 years old, welled with tears after Sweden scored late to win in the same stadium.
As was the case in Korea four years ago, the home team advanced as far as the third-place match. The reaction of the German fans has been well-documented, but everything you've heard - particularly the reluctant embrace of both coach Juergen Klinsmann and the whole concept of national pride - was true. There was a palpable sense of an entire country relaxing and becoming more comfortable with itself, which might be difficult to convey in words, but that's the best way I can explain it. Of course, Berlin is going through its own transformation as a city and was a fascinating place to visit for that reason.
Outside of soccer altogether, I also got to witness what seemed to be a bad German cover band, with a horn section, playing "Highway To Hell" by AC/DC at a citywide festival in Mainz. However bad that sounds, it was worse. Then again, the Germans' love of David Hasselhoff is legendary, so maybe it fits very logically into their aesthetic.
The Internet and the blogosphere have provided countless accounts of this wonderful experience. I must have posted more than 50 times to my own Web site from various Internet cafés and friends' computers. The vicarious thrill of experiencing the World Cup through all these different sets of eyes makes the event seem much, much closer to all soccer fans, and while that's not the same as being there, I hope it can at least give a taste of what it's like to see the beautiful game on it's largest stage. Again, if you can find a way to see at least one game at this level in your lifetime, I urge you do to it.
