Requires sound and apparently doesn’t like Firefox much.

It was an amazingly negative final — Holland went old-school, clearly meaning to kick chunks out of Spain in order to gain the advantage, while Spain continued to flatter to deceive by passing, passing, passing . . . to no end other than more passing, passing, passing. Several pundits and authors have already suggested that Spain were the more “positive” side, but until the Oranje finally exhausted themselves, I didn’t see it.  This Spain is a fantastically negative side; other teams have used the possession game to craft chances, this one uses it defensively. It was an ugly final, and I still wish we could have seen a Holland-Germany or Brazil-Argentina game, to at least add some rivalry spice to the event.

The World Cup is the best month in sports for me, the NCAA tournament writ large (and minus the heartbreak at the end for a Kansas fan), and I love the sport, but it does seem like the world is in a negative swing tactically, a la the 90s again. The 4-5-1 that everyone and their mother plays right now can be so gummy and miserly.  It does make me wish that some of the brighter South American teams had a solution to unlock that system.  Hopefully The Smart Guys ™ are working on it now.

Spain looked much better once Fabregas came on, demonstrating that at Arsenal they teach you how to use possession to attack. Cesc: do not go to Barcelona. You sat behind the entire Barca team this World Cup — which of them do you think you will beat out for a spot next season? Stay with Arsenal, let them build around you and win things there, on your own terms.

From Slate.com:  
Compared with other major sports, soccer can easily become chaotic and incoherent. This is one reason unconverted fans find it boring: Watch a random passage of play, and you’re likely to see players booting the ball out of bounds or frantically kicking it nowhere in particular, so that what ensues looks as much like an accident as a series of intentional actions. Teams that play it safe tend to go along with this entropic tendency, disrupting their opponents’ play, creating long periods of stalemate, then haphazardly smashing the ball toward their own strikers in the hope of a lucky bounce. The teams that become beloved, on the other hand—Leo Messi’s FC Barcelona, Pelé’s Brazil, and Cruyff’s Holland—are the ones that bring order or clarity to the game, so that the randomness and dullness fade out and the play assumes the shape of perceptible intention.

I would add that a pragmatic approach can also be beautiful, and bring that order and clarity to the sport.  Jose Mourinho’s Inter Milan dismantled FC Barcelona (the current Torch-Carriers for Total Football and the “beautiful game”), and did so with a ruthlessly pragmatic style that relied upon Holland’s Wesley Sneidjer to direct lethal counterattacks.  Inter defended calmly, surrendered possession without allowing chances, and then took advantage of the brief moments between Spain . . . uh, I mean Barcelona . . . losing the ball and gaining it back.

And so while Sneidjer has already beaten Spain (Spain will start 7 players from Barcelona today), he doesn’t have Inter Milan’s defense behind him.  I’m rooting for Holland, but think it will be Spain 2 -1 The Oranje Bridesmaids.

Edit: My post-match prediction is that I think it will be 0-0, go into extra time, with Heitinga getting sent off and Iniesta scoring the game’s only goal two minutes from time.

Wow, what does it mean?

We’ve decided that July is Dungeon Master Appreciation Month. Do something nice for your DM during the month of July. After all, your D&D game just isn’t the same without your DM. He or she delights and confounds in slaughtering your player characters on a regular basis, and we wouldn’t have it any other way.