Spain defeats Germany 1-0 and advances to FIFA World Cup finals

Spain defeated Germany in match 62 and will be facing off against the Netherlands on July 11 to determine the winner of the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

Game summary:

73rd minute: Spain wins a corner. Xavi’s delivery finds the head of Puyol! And Spain make a breakthrough and takes 1-0 lead.

End result: Spain wins 1-0

If Netherlands wins, we will see a new country written into the annals of the game. Out of the 18 tournaments already held, only 7 national teams have won: Brazil, Italy, Germany, Uruguay, Argentina, England and France. Brazil has won a staggering 5 times although this year, the current front runner, the Netherlands beat them 2 to 1 on July 2 and they are out of the running. Sunday may mean that the list of 7 national winners grows to 8.

While on July 10, we will witness the second to last game which will determine the third place winner, this will merely be the runner up to Sunday when all eyes will be tuned in to see who takes the final: Spain or Netherlands.

On Sunday, July 11, 2010, it will all be over. I pack up my vuvuzela; my wife stops holding her hands over her ears and life around the world gets back to normal: pestilence, war, famine and death. As the world’s most watched sporting event, the World Cup had an estimated viewership of 715 million for the final match of 2006. Who knows how many will be tuned in on Sunday to see the end of the 2010 season?

I am going to miss the sound of World Cup. In my travels throughout the day, I have found TV’s just about everywhere tuned in to the action. I have become used to hearing the incessant buzzing of what seems like a hive of busy bees in the background of every game, the result of a stadium full of enthusiastic fans declaring their love of the sport by producing the required 100 decibels with their vuvuzela.

The end of a month of non-stop soccer madness: Hello to history; good-bye to Zakumi (the official mascot). See you all in Brazil in 2014 for the next World Cup!