The New York Times has a piece on the Cruyff connection.
Jonathan Wilson at The Guardian dissects the prevalence of the 4-2-3-1 formation at the World Cup, and contrasts the two examples of the formation on display in the final.
Zonal Marking has their preview of the final up (well, part one of it), and it's as thoughtful and detailed as you'd expect. Full of interesting links.
For a little homer nostalgia, here is Grant Wahl interviewing Landon Donovan on his World Cup experience. Happy to see him give props to Clint Dempsey.
And finally, Gawker's hilarious look at World Cup winners and losers.
By the way, that third place match between Uruguay and Germany was fantastic. Pity we probably won't see a game that open in the final. The lead changed three times, and Forlan almost equalized on the last tick of added time, his direct free kick striking the crossbar. His 51st minute goal, struck high on the volley, skipping off the wet grass and into the net, demonstrated his unbelievable quality at this tournament.
Hi Mitch
ReplyDeleteGood list of reads, prompts me to recommend a book to you in return. It's called 'Death Or Glory - The Dark History of The World Cup' by a guy called Jon Spurling.
I'm an avid reader of all good football books and usually have two to three on the go at once (partially because I'm lucky to work in a football-related capacity, partially because of some small media work, but mostly because I'm so obsessive about the sport. Sad, I know).
The title of the book is a little misleading - it's not really the dark side of the World Cup itself, but rather dark stories that are associated with it (for example, Escobar's murder in 94; Argentina's junta in 78; and many others). Each chapter deals with a separate subject matter so it's a great 'pick up / put down' book and I can thoroughly recommend it to you and any of your followers.
By the way, I'm not connected to the book - I was fortunate to interview the author briefly upon its publication, and picked it up because it covers (correctly for once) one of the greatest World Cup tales - the story of Ilunga Mwepo in 1974 (a chilling story so often glossed over by many other books).
If you do pick up a copy, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did (and if you're interested in Spanish football try a book called 'Morbo' - great reading and better for learning about the country than any travel guide)
best,
Roy
Hi Mitch! I found you! Now I can follow your comments on this and that... I'll visit you from time to time. Alicia Barajas
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I couldn't agree with your review of the final more.
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