Spain goalkeeper Iker Casillas, left, receives the World Cup trophy from FIFA President Sepp Blatter. (Credit: Yahoo.com)
After a global frenzy month of football, the games are finally over. Spain won the golden cup and the Netherlands sadly returns home with shattered dreams. Nerves and renewed dreams will have to wait patiently for another four years. The year is 2014 and the place is none other than Rio de Janeiro, a city that knows how to organize huge events.
With a goal from Andrés Iniesta in the 26th minute of extra time, Spain became the eighth country to win the World Cup, beating the Netherlands by 1-0 before 85,000 fans at Soccer City in Johannesburg and millions of television viewers around the world.
FIFA is betting on a global audience of over 700 million people watching the games. In the Netherlands, 90 percent fans nervously followed the games. If the final match, which took place yesterday afternoon, fulfilled FIFA’s forecasts, the global audience will have surpassed the 600 millions which viewed the opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. With today’s telecommunications technology, the whole world is a giant living room.
South Africa gave us two wonderful gifts. The first one is the vuvuzela, and the second one is the pervasiveness of the Web in the global transmission of the games. Let me expand on these two African legacies.
What’s plastic, a meter long, brightly colored and sounds like an elephant? It’s the vuvuzela, the noise-making trumpet of South African football fans, and it’s come to symbolize the sport in the South Africa. It’s an instrument, but not always a musical one. Describing the atmosphere in a stadium packed with thousands of fans blowing their vuvuzelas is difficult. Up close it’s an elephant, sure, but en masse the sound is more like a massive swarm of very angry bees.
From now on, expect to find millions of football fans frantic blowing their brightly colored vuvuzelas. They have come to stay and put our ear drums to test. Their first performance at a soccer match was at the Nelson Mandela challenge match at Ellis Park stadium on November 2007, when Bafana Bafana took on the USA. I can just imagine a Yankee game with thousands of vuvuzelas being blown in the background. Baseball will never the same.
The second legacy of FIFA’s 2010 World Cup is the ubiquitous presence of the Web. For the first time, swarms of football fans turned on their computers, iTouches, iPhones, and other similar gadgets to watch the games. Cable TV is no longer the king of the heap in the transmission of global events. It will now have to compete with the Cloud.
I saw most of the 64 football matches comfortably sitting in front of my computer desk. I just clicked the link of Televisa Deportes of Mexico, and the games were on. No commercials. The Mexican commentators were first class, the image was satisfactory and the audio was excellent. I didn’t have to pay Cable Onda a single copper.
Televisa Deportes was streaming its signal—free of charge—to the following countries in Latin America:
- Bolivia
- Chile
- Colombia
- Costa Rica
- El Salvador
- Guatemala
- Honduras
- Nicaragua
- Panama
- Paraguay
- Peru
- Uruguay
Yep, times are changing and I love it. In the future, cable television will have a hard time competing with Internet TV and we might see falling prices for their services. The same phenomenon happened with the telephone industry after Skype and others decided to allow free phone calls over the Internet.
A sad Dutch female fan watches the fall of her team against Spain last Sunday. The golden opportunity for the Netherlands was lost 0-1. Picture taken from my computer screen - Televisa Deportes.com.
The vuvuzelas in South Africa are now sleeping for the time being. The Spanish revelers are dancing their victory and enjoying the sweet juices of Bacchus until the next tournament in 2014. Then it will be the Samba games with the tropical rhythms of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. Que viva el fútbol! Que viva España! Good Day.
Personally I, along with tens of millions of other Gringos, could care less about a game that is slightly more exciting than watching paint dry. Yes, Yes, I know it’s “The World’s Game” and all that, but it doesn’t make a nil/nil game that goes into a second overtime period with a final score of ONE POINT a real pulse pounder. It’s not that I don’t understand the game, either. I was bored with it when it was our major sport in high school. We played it, rather than American football, for a couple of reasons: where I grew up had a huge Portuguese population and our small schools couldn’t afford the expense all the equipment of American football requires.
The only thing I found fascinating about this years World Cup was the octopus, Paul, in a German aquarium that correctly predicted the outcome of EVERY game the German team played, including their defeat, as well as choosing Spain to win the final over the Netherlands. Now he should be made into a tasty ceviche de pulpo.
Hi Richard:
I’m sorry you don’t like football. I’m not much of a sports fan; any sports mind you. But I do watch the sport when the good teams play like Brazil, Argentina, Spain or Germany. For me football is like a ballet when it’s played the right way. Brazil is the master of them all. Too bad it was eliminated early on.
As far as Paul is concerned, I don’t know if it’s coincidence or not, but he was right all the way through. He should be put out to pasture due to his geniality.
Cheers,
Omar.-
First of all, Omar, regarding my previous comment: I would like to apologize to people world-wide who actually enjoy watching paint dry.
Football like ballet? My broken Bolshoi!!! When was the last time you saw a ballerina fall to the stage floor as though hit by a sledgehammer and writhe around in a grotesque parody of pain? Happens constantly in football. Anything less than a shattered bone or a severed artery and those people who go through such antics should be removed from the field immediately and not allowed to return for the remainder of the period, no substitutions allowed except in the event of the aforementioned injuries.
And FIFA needs to institute instant replays for disputed calls. In the American version of football each coach is allowed to challenge and officials call on an iffy play twice during a game. If the play stands as called on the field then that team forfeits one of its time outs. I know there aren’t any official time outs in soccer but some other penalty could ensue such as a free corner kick by the opposing team.
But Richard, instant replay for a game that’s already “like watching paint dry”? That can’t be a good thing! hahaha
Besides, watching the fans go after the officials is part of the sport.
I don’t watch the game often but like Omar, when the world championship is at stake, I do watch. And I’m glad Spain won.
jim and nena
fort worth, tx
Hi Richard:
There are lousy players and real good players that can play like in a ballet. I’ve seen plays in soccer, that look like a ballet they way they can move their bodies, fly up in the air and make real complex dribblings with the ball.
Pelé, Maradona, Johan Cruyff, Ronaldinho, Tostão, Ronaldo, Kaká, and others are good examples of what I’m talking about. I don’t enjoy violence in any sport; such as wrestling or boxing.
After what happened in South Africa this year, I’m sure FIFA will consider introducing technology into the games. There was a gol where the ball was clearly inside the line, but the referees didn’t see it. It was a horrible mistake. The same thing happens with home runs or fouls in baseball. Electronic instant replays will come, it’s a matter of time.
In the final analysis, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Cheers,
Omar.-
Omar:
Que viva Espana! Disfrute este mundial a pesar de qu3 no pude ver todos los juegos.
El futbol es mucho mas entretenido que ver beisbol o futbol americano. Quisiera ver esos jugadores de beisbol correr tanto como lo hacen los de futbol. No pueden! Y futbol americano…yo mismo cronometre el tiempo de accion (movimiento) en el futbol americano y fueron solo doce minutos en un juego de una hora (que se tarda hasta tres).
Y si, futbol es como ballet, y a pesar de que no marquen tantos goles, los tiros a puerta, las slavadas del portero, los cabezazos fallados, y hasta los fouls son parte del juego y parte de la emocion.
Yo vi alguno de los juegos a traves de la senal de Univision.com, con los comentadores en espanol de Univision que son buenos. Y esta vez, Univision trajo a nuestros televisores la senal en High Definition. Ellos siempre hacen excellente cubrimento del Mundial, con los comentaristas en el estadio siempre, y con sus estudios trasladados a la sede del Mundial, en este caso South Africa.
En US, ESPN (la cadena deprtiva) transmitio en vivo todos los juegos (primera vez) con comentadores ingleses, y se trasladaron a South Africa (tambien primera vez), contrataron a Alexi Lalas, Johan Cruiff, Rudd Gullip, y a otros dos ex jugadores ingleses y de Espana para hacer los comentarios. Los unicos juegos no vistos en ESPN fueron los que transmitio ABC, principlamente en el fin de semana. ESPN y ABC son propiedad de Disney, por eso usan los mismos comentadores. Inclusive, tuvieron senal en 3D. Todavia, prefiero mis comentaristas en espanol.
Nos vemos en Brasil 2014…Brasil sera campeon!
Jaime^
Hola Jaime:
Gracias por sus emocionados comentarios. Se nota que Usted disfruta del fútbol al igual que otros 700 millones de personas alrededor del mundo.
Saludos,
Omar.-
Hola a todos:
De deporte no sé nada, pero este año disfruté mucho el Mundial de Fútbol. Me gustó el espíritu amistoso de muchos jugadores y espectadores. La menté la falta de tolerancia de algunos y el pulpo, con juego y sin juego, es para mi horroroso!
El día del juego entre Alemania y España, me vestí de negro con rojo y bufanda a cuadros amarillos y rojos. Llovía intensamente y la temperatura bajó. Tuve que hacer un mandado, me puse una liviana chamarra de cuero negro. Un amigo de origen español me dijo: “Que gane su equipo!” Le contesté “…y si gana España, bien por nuestra Madre Patria!”
Todo me fascinó. El juego final me mantuvo en ascuas. Entonces recordé a la Virgen del Carmen, Patrona de España, pedí su intercesión y al instante Iniesta metió el gol! Qué hermoso ver el abrazo de los príncipes de España con los de Holanda, quienes veían el juego el mismo palco. Bonita lección.
El texto publicado por Don Omar, y los comentarios positivos, me han inspirado a escribir mi comentario de madrugada, pues últimamente vengo luchando con el “fibro-fog”.
Saludos cordiales,
Hola Hilda:
Muy bien dicho. Olé! Que viva España!
Saludos,
Omar.-