Forget 2018 - Take a Look at World Cup 2022

We've barely finished one very exciting World Cup but already eyes are looking not at the next one, but the one after that: to be staged in 2022 in Qatar, the natural gas-rich Persian Gulf state with an average July high temperature of 106 degrees.

Grant Wahl of Sports Illustrated, takes an in depth look at Quatar, Hassan Al Thawadi, its British-educated lawyer who heads the country's World Cup Organizing Committee and at the FIFA process that awarded the Cup to Quatar over the United States.

Bottom line: despite the questionable bid process, the extreme heat and Qatar's questionable human rights record regarding migrant workers, Wahl predicts the tournament will be held there, although possible in November -December when temperatures are less extreme.

Obscenity in ESPN: The Magazine

There’s obscenity in the current issue of ESPN: The Magazine – The Body Issue.  No, not the naked bodies of athletes, all positioned discreetly to make sure we don’t see something we shouldn’t.  Rather it’s the full page tobacco advertisements.  There opposite the full-page photo of an unclothed (except for skates) Hilary Knight of the U.S. Women’s Hockey Team, is an equally full-page advertisement extolling the virtues of Camel cigarettes.  Same on the preceding pages with U.S. snowboarding gold medalist Jamie Anderson, and Seattle Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch.

Kind of ironic how The Magazine celebrates the human body of athletes on one side while promoting the single-most preventable cause of death on the other. 

It has been just over 50 years since the Surgeon General of the United States published, “Smoking and Health: Report of the Advisory Committee of the Surgeon General of the Public Health Service” and began a widespread public debate over the dangers of tobacco use and how to reduce them.  This year the Surgeon General published a report entitled, “The Health Consequences of Smoking — 50 Years of Progress.”  One of its major conclusions is that since the first Surgeon General’s report on the topic a half century ago, there have been 20 million premature deaths attributed to smoking.  Yet ESPN: The Magazine, which should be about the beneficial aspects of athletics, thinks nothing of glorifying smoking for the sake of profit.   

Now that’s obscene.

Immer Wieder Deutschland . . . or The Best Team Won

Die Mannschaft celebrates as Captain Lahm hoists the World Cup.

An  exciting end to an overall exciting World Cup.  Of course it helps if you were rooting for Germany, as Debbie and I and a number of others at the German Society of Pennsylvania were.

There was momentary gloom in the 31st minute when Gonzalo Higuain appeared to put Argentina ahead, only to be called offsides.  Replays showed he was offsides.  Then near joy when Benedikt Höwedes headed a corner towards the goal, only to see it hit the post.  Wouldn't have counted anyway, as Thomas Müller was offsides.

And so it went. Very few real chances, but sharp passing, some key saves by both keepers, momentum swings, superb officiating and incredible stamina from both sides.

Then suddenly it happened.  Andre Schürrle, who plays for Chelsea in the EPL, came down the left side and sent a perfect cross to 22-year old Mario Götze, who trapped it softly with his chest, whirled and vollied a left-footer into the lower right corner in the 113th minute.

Argentina had a last gasp in extra time as a foul outside the box gave a free kick, but Lionel Messi sent the free kick into outer space and Germany were world champions.

Here's the play-by-play from the New York Times.

Germany will have bragging rights for at least the next two years when the European Cup takes place.  Let the celebrations begin . . . or continue, since they started the moment referee Niccola Rizzoli blew the final whistle.

Nur nach Hause, nur nach Hause, nur nach Hause, geh'n wir nicht.

World Cup: May The Best Team Win, As Long As It's Germany.

Hamburg fans getting ready for the game.  From www.ndr.de

We'll be at the Rathskeller of the German Society of Pennsylvania to catch today's action.  A quick check shows the bookies around the world seem to like Germany, but when the whistle blows, that's irrelevant. There's a reason they roll the ball out there to play the game. The World Cup will be decided on the field of play, not on a computer, in a bookie's office or anywhere else.

Meanwhile, in a meaningless consolation game yesterday, the Dutch shut out Brazil, 3-0, leaving Brazil with a 1-10 goal differential in its final two games.  Victor Mather continued the New York Times' tradition of world class World Cup reporting with this piece on the game and the history of consolation games in general, which he called "a long-forgotten anachronism" in the United States.  Agreed.

But that was yesterday.  And yesterday's gone.  So bring on today's final.  And may the best team win.  Of course that would be Germany.

My Sunday Is Set

I surely would have watched the World Cup final this Sunday regardless of who played, but with Germany coming off an unprecedented blasting of Brazil going and going against fellow super-power Argentina, there is no way I won't be at the Rathskeller of the German Society of Pennsylvania.

Unfortunately I missed most of yesterday's game and all of today's while at work, but received text updates from Debbie, who was mesmerized by the action.  The Germany-Brazil match was splashed on the front page of the New York Times.  I heard people talking about it at Starbucks and elsewhere.  It was a good day to be German, or in my case of German ancestry.

The Times' superstar soccer writer, Sam Borden, wrote in today's editions that Tuesday was supposed to be a magical day for Brazil, playing at home and one game from reaching the final.  "No one could have guessed the tears would come before halftime," Borden wrote.  "No one could have imagined there would be flags burning in the streets before dinner. Certainly no one could have envisioned that any Brazilian fans, watching their team play a semifinal in a celebrated stadium, would ever consider leaving long before full time.  It all happened."  He compared the Brazilian side to an "overmatched junior varsity squad that somehow stumbled into the wrong game."

Borden quoted Moacir Barbosa, the goalkeeper for Brazil when it lost to Uruguay in the 1950 final (also played in Brazil) as saying before he died in 2002 that ever since that game he felt as if he spent the rest of his life in prison.  "That cell just got more crowded," Borden wrote.  "Every player in a yellow jersey on Tuesday, many of them superstars, will most likely be defined, and imprisoned, by those 29 minutes."

Another Times article, this by Simon Romero and Seth Kugel, described the reaction in Brazil. A sports newspaper there called it the "largest shame in history."  Meanwhile, in Germany, Alison Smale and Melssa Eddy reported the opposite emotions of the crowds watching the game around Berlin.  The owner of a small pub had bought mini-bottles of schnapps to hand out to guests with each German goal.  After 3-0 she had to start handing out small drinks in glasses.

Given the exciting nature of so many games in the tournament thus far, I can only imagine what the final will be like.