MY 'FINAL' THOUGHTS

Having watched nearly every single game of the World Cup, I'm overall pretty happy with the competition in its entirety. Were my favorite teams in the final? Nope. Did I think the two teams that went to the final deserved to be there? Probably. France and Italy arguably played the most solid ball all tournament. So here are some random thoughts about it.

-The first round refs made some really shitty calls that changed the dynamics of the tournament - but they were instructed to not put up with certain shenanigans that are most prevailent in international play. They did as instructed. It didn't do them any favors.

- The US team had great players. It also had very little heart and very little teamwork. The best game they had was against the Italians where, being down to 9 players, they were forced to work as a team.

- I always like seeing underdog teams do really well. Ghana was a great example of this.

- Brazil had probably the most talented players in the tournament as a group. Like the Americans, they didn't play well as a group.

- I thought both Spain and Argentina would have also deserved to be in the final.

- Zinedine Zidane was my favorite player to watch all Cup. I don't care for the French team as a whole, but his ability to place the ball exactly where he wants it makes plays happen. I also like that he never pulls the bullshit injury tricks.

- He's a human being, so he's going to get angry now and then - that's just natural.

- The Italians, who would have ranked on my favorite list at the beginning of the tourny, made my stomach turn with the world-class acting. They're a bunch of pussies.

-The Aussies got screwed in their final game. But they got really lucky in some of the other games prior - which got them to the game they lost anyway.

-The Germans were fun to watch, but they couldn't find the back of the net, despite controlling the ball for the majority of minutes in their games. They ranked high in my opinion as far as ball control - perhaps the best in the tournament.

-Wayne Rooney has a lot of growing up to do.

-Finally, I'm sad that it's all over now. Going back to one-hour lunches doesn't seem like much fun.

-Oh! One more... Eventhough Zidane deserved the red card and his headbutt was unsportsman like, I (not so secretly) think it was fun (and funny) to see. Finally that little Italian pussy Materazzi really had something to cry about. Just sayin'.