The awkward thing about the World Cup is that it IS only every 4 years, and often requires teams to be patched together with players who don't play together every day.....then they play a few random games, with 'knockout' rounds at the end....and some of these decided by penalty kicks. Hardly a formula for deciding who is really 'best'.

Given a 4 month, round-robin tournament, with each team playing all of the others 3-4 times, and the final 8 playing for the last month, perhaps England would have won...or Brazil....or even Italy still. (And the US team 'might' have found a way to begin scoring..) But it is what it is, and a couple of slightly better bounces or balls that went IN the goal instead of off the bar---and the outcome would have been totally different.

What *I* would like to see is a tournament where all teams just try to be GOOD...with no diving, no intentional fouls and ...*horrors*...video REPLAYS to make sure about offside calls and fouls in really crucial situations. (perhaps 3 requests per game per team)....

silly of me, I know...but then I'm a dreamer who is not a life-long football fan and don't really appreciate the ubiquitous role of testosterone and National Pride uhhh...Tribal Bonding in all of this.

I saw some amazing talent and athleticism this last month, and also some tedious posturing and vicious thuggery...all in the name of the biggest 'sporting' event in the world.

What strange creatures we be.