World Watches: Spain Prevails
September 3, 2010
By: Stephanie VanDerWal
Four years in the making, and four years of waiting. It’s the month-long event that “futbol” fans around the world wait for. It’s the World Cup.
This summer, 32 national teams converged in South Africa for the 2010 World Cup.
Futbol fans are some of the most dedicated fans; attending every game in costume, donning flags, face paint, team colors, scarves and this year vuvuzelas.
This summer, the vuvuzela made its mark on the world of soccer. Traditionally, a vuvuzela is an antelope horn that was used in Africa by tribes to call citizens to meetings. The modern day vuvuzela is made of plastic in a variety of colors. The horn makes a very distinct sound.
The vuvuzela made its first major appearance at the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup. After the horn’s success at the Confederations Cup, South Africa started producing the horn for use in the World Cup.
The online video tycoon, YouTube, even got in on the vuvuzela action allowing viewers to click on a button to overlay the vuvuzela horns audio over any video.
Since the World Cup, vuvuzelas have been showing up everywhere from Florida Marlins Baseball games, to high school graduations and protests.
Commentators and spectators alike complained about the noise of the horns, making it very hard to hear the whistles of referees and the commentator’s comments. As the use of the horns became more and more prominent, the World Cup looked into banning the use of the horns, and since the World Cup Wimbledon, Melbourne Cricket Ground, Yankee Stadium, Fuji Rock Festival, Ultimate Fighting Championship, and the Rugby World Cup, all have banned the use of vuvuzelas at events.
Musical instruments weren’t the only things catching attention at the 2010 World Cup -- the officials and their calls caught the eyes of spectators.
Many spectators and commentators, alike, were disappointed with the referees at the World Cup. Some of the calls were questioned by spectators, and with the use of TV replay people felt that there was a need for instant replay on the field to review plays and possibly overturn calls.
The debate of whether instant replay should or should not be used in soccer has been an ongoing battle for years. Many argue that instant replay would nearly eliminate human error, but on the other hand the use of instant replay would lengthen the game of soccer.
This year, World Cup history was made when both teams in the final had never before won the title. The Netherlands had been in the 1974 and 1978 World Cup finals in which they were the runners up, losing to West Germany (2-1) in 1974 and Argentina (3-1) in 1978.
This year, the Netherlands Oranje ended the runner up once again, losing to Spain (1-0) in extra time. Andrés Iniesta scored in the 116th minute to win the game for Spain. An estimated 24.3 million Americans watched Spain defeat the Netherlands on television, making the 2010 World Cup the most-watched soccer game in U.S. history.
Many businesses in South America and Europe changed employees’ work schedules to allow them to view the games. In some businesses, televisions were brought into workspaces so that the employees would stay at work rather than take the day off to watch the games.
Paul the octopus, a German celebrity so to say, has predicted the past five World Cup winners. Flags of the two nations were placed in a tank with Paul and he picked Spain as the winner. After five successful World Cup predictions, Paul is retiring.
It will be another four, long years before soccer fans around the world can once again enjoy the month long event. Until June 2014, Spain is the champion.
Four years in the making, and four years of waiting. It’s the month-long event that “futbol” fans around the world wait for. It’s the World Cup.
This summer, 32 national teams converged in South Africa for the 2010 World Cup.
Futbol fans are some of the most dedicated fans; attending every game in costume, donning flags, face paint, team colors, scarves and this year vuvuzelas.
This summer, the vuvuzela made its mark on the world of soccer. Traditionally, a vuvuzela is an antelope horn that was used in Africa by tribes to call citizens to meetings. The modern day vuvuzela is made of plastic in a variety of colors. The horn makes a very distinct sound.
The vuvuzela made its first major appearance at the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup. After the horn’s success at the Confederations Cup, South Africa started producing the horn for use in the World Cup.
The online video tycoon, YouTube, even got in on the vuvuzela action allowing viewers to click on a button to overlay the vuvuzela horns audio over any video.
Since the World Cup, vuvuzelas have been showing up everywhere from Florida Marlins Baseball games, to high school graduations and protests.
Commentators and spectators alike complained about the noise of the horns, making it very hard to hear the whistles of referees and the commentator’s comments. As the use of the horns became more and more prominent, the World Cup looked into banning the use of the horns, and since the World Cup Wimbledon, Melbourne Cricket Ground, Yankee Stadium, Fuji Rock Festival, Ultimate Fighting Championship, and the Rugby World Cup, all have banned the use of vuvuzelas at events.
Musical instruments weren’t the only things catching attention at the 2010 World Cup -- the officials and their calls caught the eyes of spectators.
Many spectators and commentators, alike, were disappointed with the referees at the World Cup. Some of the calls were questioned by spectators, and with the use of TV replay people felt that there was a need for instant replay on the field to review plays and possibly overturn calls.
The debate of whether instant replay should or should not be used in soccer has been an ongoing battle for years. Many argue that instant replay would nearly eliminate human error, but on the other hand the use of instant replay would lengthen the game of soccer.
This year, World Cup history was made when both teams in the final had never before won the title. The Netherlands had been in the 1974 and 1978 World Cup finals in which they were the runners up, losing to West Germany (2-1) in 1974 and Argentina (3-1) in 1978.
This year, the Netherlands Oranje ended the runner up once again, losing to Spain (1-0) in extra time. Andrés Iniesta scored in the 116th minute to win the game for Spain. An estimated 24.3 million Americans watched Spain defeat the Netherlands on television, making the 2010 World Cup the most-watched soccer game in U.S. history.
Many businesses in South America and Europe changed employees’ work schedules to allow them to view the games. In some businesses, televisions were brought into workspaces so that the employees would stay at work rather than take the day off to watch the games.
Paul the octopus, a German celebrity so to say, has predicted the past five World Cup winners. Flags of the two nations were placed in a tank with Paul and he picked Spain as the winner. After five successful World Cup predictions, Paul is retiring.
It will be another four, long years before soccer fans around the world can once again enjoy the month long event. Until June 2014, Spain is the champion.
- Feed: The Lycourier
- Original article