Spain Win World Cup…Now What?

Andres Iniesta after his extra time goal.

With the 2010 World Cup in the books, the remaining American soccer watchers who hung on past the U.S. National Teams exit might be left to wonder what is next.  The World Cup has a history of drawing in the casual soccer fan for the four or five weeks it is on and then alienating them for the next three years and 11 months.  National team players scatter across Europe (for the most part) to their respective club teams.  Most who thought the rules and regulations of a contained tournament like the World Cup hard to figure out will find club schedules, league cups and continental cups convoluted and confusing.

So if that doesn’t discourage you and if you made it through today still are wanting more, never fear, because many of Europe’s big league teams are gearing up for the start of their season in a little over a month.  In the meantime, you might be able to keep yourself satisfied with the top flight of American soccer in the MLS, however the level of play between what you’ve been witness to the last five weeks and what we consider our best professional soccer league is as wide as the Grand Canyon.  I’m not trying to come down on our domestic league, but it is what it is.

Hopefully your local cable or satellite provider is armed with Fox Soccer Channel, which primarily shows Barclays (English) Premier League matches every Saturday and Sunday morning.  Some of the time it will also show Italian Serie A matches.  Although if you found yourself frustrated by 0-0 draws and 1-0 wins, you’ll want to avoid this defensive minded league.  If you want to keep up with it all, I’d recommend ESPN Sportscenter style shows like Fox Soccer Report and Sky Sports’ hour long daily recap show.  What you don’t see in the limited matches broadcast will be shown in a highlight format everyone should be familiar with.

Picking a team is important as well.  You would have to be a pretty big fan of the sport itself to not have a rooting interest in any of the teams.  I chose to follow Premier League giant Manchester United based on the recommendation of my soccer watching guru, who has been a fan since the mid-90′s.  It’s also important to find people you can talk show with, because if you’re the only guy trying to keep up with soccer while all your buddies are only watching the NFL or college football, your interest from this summer will die a pretty quick death in the fall.

Believe it or not, the Premier League also has fantasy soccer as well.  If you watched a good portion of matches you might have picked up on some of the players that are in the league.  But you might want to spend a year figuring out who is who.  If you’re a numbers geek, you might be able to look at stats and figure out who is who.  I’d recommend watching for at least one season before really trying to get in to it.

So what if you don’t want to watch a league with no playoffs and a point system that might be foreign and semi-difficult to grasp?  The Euro 2012 tournament is only two years away, and qualifying matches with the same European national teams you’ve been watching lately will be in action starting with qualifying in less than two months.  And if you felt yourself wanting more from the U.S. team, don’t worry.  Their next match will be an international friendly at the new Meadowlands Stadium in New Jersey against South American giant Brazil.

Taking Shape

United States midfielder Michael Bradley chases down referee Koman Coulibaly.

The group stages are beginning to come to a close, and the knockout round of the 2010 World Cup is beginning to take shape.  Tomorrow the eyes of soccer fans around the globe will turn to Group C as the U.S. will try to punch their ticket, which will be guaranteed, with a win over Algeria.  At the same time, England will try to avoid complete and total embarrassment by defeating Slovenia.  If England fail to move on they will be grilled in the normally and already rowdy British press.  England being booted from South Africa tomorrow would be the equivalent of NFL football being a global sport and our national team exiting early from a similar world wide tournament.

This morning Group A and B were settled with Group A winners Uruguay now squaring off against Group B runners up South Korea in the knockout stage.  On the other side of the bracket Group B winners Argentina will take on Group A runners up Mexico.  Neither match are really that interesting, save for Mexico upsetting Argentina who are sort of a dark horse favorite to go deep in to the knockout round.

As far as scenarios go, the U.S., as previously stated, will move on automatically with a win.  The U.S. could also go to the next round with a tie and an England loss.  I’m sure there are other scenarios out there, but I’m too lazy to figure them out or even read about them.  Lose, and the U.S. will be coming home.

My point for posting this, beyond getting the above paragraphs out there just because has to do with that same old soccer fans versus the world in the United States type argument.  My real point, is to have a few words with said casual viewers.  I know ties, yellow cards and overacting players are hard to digest.  Trust me, I really have begun to have a passion for the sport and sometimes it is hard for me to identify with.  Mainly because the brand of soccer I watch, MLS and the Barclays Premier League (believe it or not, the technical name is not the English Premier League) are mostly filled with players who don’t turn in to gigantic vaginas when they brush up against anyone in an opposing shirt.

However, if you do make it to Friday and get beyond the group stage, you’re in for a pretty good show.  Like most sports here stateside, this is the postseason by World Cup standards.  It’s do or die, win or go home.  So the defensive minded, hang back and play the counter attack type play that has riddled the matches thus far with 0-0 and 1-1 results will become of thing of the past.  The sense of urgency is heightened and makes for more of a spectacle.

Don’t get me wrong, I have had my fun watching the play at the group stage, and I’m still going to watch the rest of the week to see who makes it in and who goes home..  I find a lot of the nuances of this part of the finals are pretty interesting, especially since upping my soccer I.Q. since the past two World Cups when I first started dabbling in the sport.  But I’m not going to sit here and preach like some soccer aficionados will do.  If you’ve watched a few matches and still don’t get it, you won’t get your face rubbed in it here.  I get that the sport is not for everyone.  I’m not one of those people who think it can or should catch on here.  If it does it does, if not we’ll live.  It seems sometimes soccer fans and non soccer fans get in to a, uh, measuring contest about their respective opinion on this particular sport.  I think that argument is a little passe, and a little boring.  You like what you like and if you don’t, move on.  But if you were hanging around as an observer still, and maybe you’ve only watched the U.S. matches, but if you hold on to watch the more exciting part of the the finals you probably won’t be disappointed.  Hey, at least the games won’t end in a tie.

A Forgone Conclusion

Jose Mourinho is Madrid bound.

Ok, so it’s not exactly confirmed.  But when Mourinho ends up in La Liga you can say I told you so.  With the axe finding the back of the neck of Manuel Pellegrini earlier today, the road should be paved straight from Milan to Spain.

Mourinho has held five positions as head man starting with 2000 for Benefica.  It didn’t take him long to figure out how to pull teams together to win big.  With the exception of Chelsea, he has won the UEFA Champions League with two different teams since 2002.  He’s also racked up domestic club titles along with league cups in the countries he has coached.  To say he is one of the hottest commodities in big league soccer on planet Earth is an understatement.

But here is a big league prediction from this blog.  Mourinho will not win the Champions League while at the Bernabeu.  How do I know?  Well, I don’t obviously and most would probably say the thought of him not finding success managing the second most well known soccer club in the world is me just trying to be bold.  But Madrid is a pressure cooker.  Mourinho has two years to not only bring European glory back to Real, but they also have to displace a team widely renowned as the best club team on the planet in Barcelona.  It’s a two man show in Spain, but it could be difficult, relatively speaking, to push back and bring home some silverware for Galacticos.

At the moment, the roster is full of all-stars.  Starting with none other than former Mr. Manchester United himself Christiano Ronaldo and Brazil superstar Kaka.  Building a team will not be a concern, but the pressure to win immediately will be.  Mourinho will be tested not because of the players at his disposal, but because the pressure from the fan owned Real will be daunting.  However, if the Portuguese wizard can strike while the iron is hot and stay in one place for more than a few seasons, it could spell disaster for other big name European clubs.