World Cup Final: Brazil 3, Germany 2

It's down to eight teams now in the tournament and, sadly, there are no real surprises in the quarterfinal line-ups. All the heavyweights are there: Germany, Brazil, Italy, Argentina, France, England. The only eyebrow raisers in the bunch are Portugal and Ukraine, but I don't expect either of them to advance.

I was saddened by the losses of Australia and Ghana, both of whom outplayed their opponents in the Round of 16. Ghana's 0-3 loss to Brazil was perhaps inevitable, but Ghana remained an entertaining and creative team until the end. Brazil played lazily, almost non-committedly, seeming content to literally walk around until the ball popped into view. Though it was the game that marked Ronaldo's record-breaking goal, it was Ghana that put in the more worthy performance. They will be a strong contender in 2010's South African games.

Australia played well against Italy, and really only lost because of what can only be called a brilliantly timed dive in the final seconds of stoppage time. I'm generally not a fan of players or teams who make the dive part of their gaming strategy (hello--or rather, goodbye--Paraguay), but Grosso's fall was the genius mark of a World Cup professional. Check out this defense of the dive by Austin Kelley for Slate, for an interesting argument (with which I strongly disagree).

I would have much rather seen Australia advance, if only to bring some fresh meat into the quarters, but it looks as if this will be another Cup dominated by European and South American teams. Ho-hum.

In other news, the backlash against the inane ESPN/ABC presentations is well underway. The NYT World Cup blog has posted a good article on the failure of North American broadcasters to field knowledgeable commentators and their annoying tendency to flash on-screen graphics that block the action. The comments on the post are pretty fun to read, too. In a recent letter to The Economist, my new favorite newsweekly magazine, Kenneth Enright of Greenwich, Connecticut writes:

SIR – Until the rules of soccer change to allow time-outs, which can cause the final five minutes of an NFL game to last half an hour, advertisers will not sponsor matches and they will not be broadcast.

Clearly, our national broadcasters (and pretty much every recliner jockey in the US) have a lot yet to learn about futbol. Maybe they're just not intellectually prepared for the Beautiful Game, as Bryan Curtis argues.

Meanwhile, I'm having my Brazilian national flag pressed and ready for July 9. I think Germany will score the final goal in the World Cup, but it will be a futile stab at the dominating Brazilians. Auf Wiedersehen, Germany!