Brazil Lowlight: Watching Lucio roll around on the turf faking an injury... against North Korea. It's one thing to do it in a Champions League Final; it's another altogether to do it against the World Cup's worst team. Nothing short of "truly pathetic" could adequately characterize this action.
Brazil Highlight: Maicon's opener against North Korea. I can't help but admit feeling bad for the North Koreans. They had played admirably over the first two-thirds of the game and to let a goal in at that stage must have been heartbreaking. But they can certainly take solace in the fact that the goal was spectacular. It will be one of a handful of goals I remember for the tournament.
Dutch Lowlight: Arjen Robben. Get ball. Run up right flank. Cut inside. Shoot. Complain to ref. Complain to linesman. Complain to ref some more. Get ball. Run up right flank. Fall down. Roll around in agony on turf. Wave imaginary card. Complain to ref. Complain to linesman. Shoot free kick ten meters high. Wait for ball. Throw hands up in air in disgust when Van Persie shoots instead of passing the ball. Throw hands up in air in disgust when Sneijder shoots instead of passing the ball. Throw hands up in air in disgust when Kuyt loses the ball because he his touch has the sensitivity of a donkey. Fall down for no reason. Scream at referee. Repeat.
Dutch Highlight: Gio's goal. Goal of the tournament is an understatement. It was the goal of a lifetime. And to have scored it as the opener in a semifinal World Cup match makes it all the more special. Your career might not have ended with you lifting the trophy, but perhaps you can be content with goal of the tournament.
English Lowlight: Rooney, Gerrard, Lampard, Barry, Terry, Carragher, Upson. I don't think this requires analysis.
English Highlight: 5 minutes into the world cup, a Ricardo Clark gift of a goal. Well played by Heskey, but the fact that their World Cup highlight came 5 minutes in should tell you something.
American Lowlight: The aforementioned Ricardo Clark. What was going through Bob Bradley's mind when he started Clark ahead of Edu against Ghana nobody will ever know. But it cost us another goal. Of the four we gave up, two can be directly blamed on Clark, and he didn't even play 90 minutes. He's clearly not ready to play at this level yet, and that showed for many of the fringe players. While the big name players played well for the most part (Clint Dempsey excluded), the fringe players didn't look so hot (Gomez, Findley, Clark, Feilhaber, and Torres).
American Highlight: Need I mention Landon Donovan's goal? Clearly that's the best moment in the history of American football. The celebrations triggered around the country in the middle of a work day were truly amazing. But I'd like to focus on one of the unsung heroes of the US at this World Cup: Jonathan Bornstein. Already a hero in Honduras for scoring the goal (against Costa Rica) that put them through, Bornstein should have become a hero in the US as well this summer. He started games three and four for the US, and was steady as a rock in all of them. Reluctant to get forward at first, by the end of the tournament he was delivering more quality balls into the box than anyone except Landon Donovan. The number of times he provided cover or won the ball in the Ghana game alone was truly impressive. Michael Bradley was the player of the tournament, Donovan scored the best goal, but the unsung hero should be Bornstein. Edu deserves an honorable mention here.
German lowlight: Being drawn against Spain in the semifinals. Everyone knows this should have been the final. Germany were clearly the second best team in the tournament, and they can consider themselves victims of the draw that they didn't reach the final. A class act throughout, even in defeat, this is a team impossible not to respect.
German highlight: Among the various classy players, Schweinsteiger is a head above the rest for me. When the rest of the German midfield went missing against Spain, Schweinsteiger was left to cope 1 vs. 4 (and later 5) against the best midfield in the world and he didn't do badly. He was the creative impetus in the Argentina team and a defensive rock against Germany's other opponents. I think one would be hard-pressed to pick someone else as their player of the tournament, although Müller, Lahm, and Özil all played exceptionally.
Ghana lowlight: Asamoah Gyan, how can you not score that?
Ghana highlight: Asamoah Gyan, how can you score that (x2)?
Uruguay lowlight: Luis Suarez's reaction to the missed PK and post-match comments. I think most people want to take his "real hand of God" and shove it up his ass. The insensitivity of the comment is truly astounding. If he had said "It's really unfortunate for Ghana, but it was just an instinctual reaction on my part. My condolences to their team," maybe people would have forgiven him. Now he's made himself the villain of the tournament (until De Jong and Van Bommel went about mauling the Spanish)
Uruguay highlight: Okay, fine, I'll admit it. Diego Forlán had a great tournament. I don't like the guy at all, but he carried his team, and he deserves much of the credit for their great performance.
Japan lowlight: Participating in "lamest knockout match in the history of the World Cup."
Japan highlight: Keisuke Honda, clearly. Endo was also excellent.
Paraguay lowlight: See Japan lowlight
Paraguay highlight: Alcaraz - solid in the back and scored the opener against Italy. It helps that his name sounds evil. I can just hear parents saying "If you don't eat your peas, I'll send you to Alcaraz!"
South Africa lowlight: Victims of poor refereeing. There's no way Khune should ever have been sent off. 1) There was an offsides on the play and 2) The player was moving away from goal anyway. England, France, and South Korea all benefited from refereeing as hosts. Unfortunately, South Africa were not so lucky.
South Africa highlight: Siphiwe Tshabalala. You'll hear more about his goal when I talk about my top moments of the tournament, but his goal for South Africa against Mexico was symbolic on so many levels on top of the beauty of the goal itself.
Sometime soon I'll offer my best moments of the tournament - stay tuned!
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