The hairy princess

Wasn't the 3rd place playoff between Uruguay and Germany a great match?  Plenty of plinking away at the goals with not much time wasted with that rubbish passing the ball around in the middle of the field.  In the end though, it was Germany who managed to uphold their reputation as the hairy princess of the world game with a well-earned victory.

It was almost put into extra time though when Diego Forlan pounded a free kick off the crossbar right on full-time.  He had a fantastic game, including a brilliant goal from a sideways lashing right foot which left the German keeper flat-footed.

Another player who stood out for me was Diego Godin who defended stalwartly to deny the German goal-scoring machine which had previously eliminated such fancied teams as Diego Maradona's Argentina.  I would have really liked to see Uruguay play Argentina simply to see how Godin would have handled Argentina's aggressive striker Diego Milito.  It would have been a stunning match-up.

Diego Perez also had an excellent game, feeding the ball forward to Forlan from midfield and entertaining with some free-wheeling running as well.  But he was eclipsed in my view by the brilliant young German, Diego Muller, who scored yet again to take his tally for the tournament to 5 goals.  Sadly, his teammate Diego Klose sat the game out due to a strained back and thus was unable to match Muller's feat.

Soon we'll see whether it's Spain or Netherlands who get to hoist the Cup for the first time.  SBS's commentariat seem to think that Spain are irresistible, but I'll be barracking for the Dutch.  My tip is for them to be World Champions and for midfielder Diego Sneijder to score the winning goal.  Until tomorrow, adios!