Toronto celebrates as Spain wins the FIFA 2010 World Cup

It’s all over but the sorting out of the office pools. Spain takes the 2010 World Cup 1-0 in overtime over the Netherlands on Sunday, July 11, 2010. One Spaniard has gone into the annals of sport, Andres Iniesta, who scored the winning goal and Spain now has the honour of passing into history as one of the now eight teams in total who have won the World Cup following Brazil, Italy, Germany, Uruguay, Argentina, England and France.

Overall, between Spain and the Netherlands, which team faced the biggest disappointment at losing this match? Spain has never before reached the finals however; the Netherlands reached the finals twice before, in 1974 and 1978. I’m picturing there will be a lot more crying in our beer this week in Amsterdam then there would have been crying in our beer in Madrid.

On a side note, Paul the Octopus finishes his own winning streak on a high note after once again correctly predicting the winner of Sunday’s game. For those not in the know, handlers at the SeaLife Aquarium in Oberhausen, Germany have been placing boxes marked with national flags in a tank with an octopus. Each box contains a mussel. The octopus makes his selection based on which box he chooses first. He first correctly predicted all six matches for Germany in the tournament and now correctly predicted Spain’s win. That’s quite the prognosticator!

As I write this, it is the start of Sunday evening in downtown Toronto and I can hear the occasional car honking, the occasion yelling. I’m not sure what language the voices are using… pero ahora tengo que aprender español (now I need to learn Spanish). 🙂