The Times of London reports today that FIFA analysis shows that nearly 60 percent of the players who were treated on the pitch during matches were not injured.

From the Times:

Professor Jiri Dvorak, the chief medical officer of football’s world governing body, presented his findings from the tournament to a meeting of the Fifa referees committee yesterday and they reveal that more than half the players who were treated on the pitch during matches were not injured at all.

Although they suggest that cheating is endemic among the elite nations and pinpointed “tactical reasons” as the most likely cause of the players’ actions, there was no indication whether players or coaches were to blame.

“Fifty-eight per cent of the players who were treated on the pitch during the 2006 World Cup eventually turned out not to be injured,” a statement from the committee read.

So there you have it. Let's hope FIFA can figure out a way to cut down on this type of gamesmanship or the 2010 World Cup may be just as painful to watch as this year's model.

First off, who knew that the feel-good story of the World Cup would be Germany? Unlike Italy, Germany actually followed through on their promises of playing an attack-minded game. Their players raced up and down the field with zeal, taking the game to their opponents with enthusiasm. They scored four in the curtain raiser and a pair in the first 15 minutes against a shocked Sweden in the Round of 16. Their tournament was summed up by the play of Bastian Schweinsteiger in the third place game, who pounded the Portugal net with two brilliant long-range goals, displaying the kind of carefree confidence that the whole country enjoyed by the time the final rolled around. (Yes, the Rising Pig lived up to his name... by rising to the occasion)

Off the field, Germany amazed as well. While the phrase "German hospitality" must sound like an oxymoron to most people, it will recall fond memories for those of us who were lucky enough to be there. Our favorite city was Frankfurt, which is ironic because we received some odd looks from natives of Köln when we explained that Frankfurt was our next stop. The impression we got was that they felt Frankfurt was too modern and not "German" enough for their tastes. Maybe we were lucky to stay in the beautiful Sachsenhausen district, just across the river from the central city, but Frankfurt (or at least that part of it) felt very contemporary and friendly, even by California standards. It didn't hurt that we had some outstanding meals there, either, at Lokalbahnhof (where the salads were a joy, particularly after a week of pork saturation, and don't miss their delicious home-made noodles), the India Palace (thanks again for the mango liqueur—the Madras curry was mind-blowingly spicy but fabulous), and Erdapfel (we never would have guessed that a potato-themed restaurant could offer such culinary joy). There was also a West African restaurant in the noisy, old-style section of the Sachsenhausen that offered a great meal. Oh, and if anyone is listening and interested, we would highly recommend the Hotel Maingau—it's not fancy but it was everything we asked for, quiet and comfortable.

I've complained about the gamesmanship at this Cup but there were also some amazing moments. Germany provided a bunch, as mentioned above. The 24-pass goal engineered by Argentina against Serbia & Montenegro was breathtaking and is probably my favorite goal of the tournament. (Here's a version with Spanish commentary as well.) Maxi Rodriguez's stunning extra-time volley that pushed Argentina past Mexico is also amazing, and check out this version with commentary from Radio Argentina. As for great goals that weren't scored by Argentina, Thierry Henry's volley against Brazil comes to mind, and as a USA fan, Clint Dempsey's emphatic goal against Ghana was an overdue thrill.

When we were still in Germany, a friend of mine asked how I was enjoying my first World Cup on foreign soil. My answer surprised me a bit—I told him that I was having a good time but that in many ways, it's easier to watch the games at home. You don't have to endure long, sometimes hot train rides or, if you're not going to a game in person, trek down to the public viewing area or find a friendly bar; you just head for the TV and voila, 64 games in uncrowded comfort. Plus, it's a strange thing to travel thousands of miles to get somewhere and then spend four hours a day (or more...) watching TV. For someone like me who typically travels off-season to avoid crowds and high prices, I concluded, it doesn't make a lot of sense to do this. Besides, as someone who has hit his forties (or perhaps I should say my forties have hit me), the whole beer, soccer, and endless parties thing gets old surprisingly quickly. (Especially if it's taking place outside your hotel window at 3 am, as we experienced a bit in Köln.)

There's another side to it, though. We struck up more conversations with strangers in Germany in 10 days than we do at home in a year, and the general conviviality of the event meant that they were usually happy to talk to us, too. (Sometimes too happy, but you learn quickly to avoid the packs of English fans if you can see they've been drinking. It's pretty easy—if they've been awake for more than an hour, chances are they've had a beer.)

So, if you go to a World Cup, have your beers and party like the trophy is destined to be yours. But make sure you take the opportunity to say hello to the other people who've come from all around the Earth to be there. That's where the real magic of the World Cup lies.

To me, though, this will be the World Cup that collapsed under its own weight. Maybe it was FIFA's last-minute recommendations to referees to card at will; maybe it was the players' willingness to engage in gamesmanship at every opportunity, enhanced by the knowledge that it was easier than ever to get an opponent booked; but this year's tournament for me will always be tainted by those willing to seek any advantage they could, even if it really had nothing to do with playing soccer.

The final proved itself to be a great microcosm of the whole tournament. There was gamesmanship on both sides, starting with an early dive that led to a penalty kick for France. Italy proved to be much better at it, as is their habit and inclination. (It's no coincidence that the largest clubs in SerIe A are facing an enormous match-fixing scandal; cheating is part and parcel of the game there.) I wonder if we will ever learn what Materazzi said to Zidane that led the French captain to retaliate with a head butt? It's a shame that a player with a legacy as great as Zidane's will be capped by that moment of idiocy, as he charged like a bull into Materazzi's chest. Tragic.

It is a sad fact that people are so frequently willing to bend their own rules and disregard common decency when tempted with a large enough prize. Some players on both teams today showed that they considered the World Cup a prize worthy of that all-too-human failing.

I don't expect to hear sound philosophical admonitions from shoe company ad agencies but perhaps Nike had it right: please, for the sake of the game, Play Beautiful. Today was not beautiful.

Soccer is a subtle sport, though, and we've got a perfect example of that now. For all their dominant play of late, France hasn't scored a goal from the run of play for two matches. (Their last goal that didn't come off a PK or a free kick was Zidane's late insurance tally against Spain; Vieira's game-winner in that match also came off a free kick.)

Statistically, this has been the lowest-scoring World Cup since the 1990 edition and it certainly seems true from observation as well. Teams are stingy, preferring to sit back and defend rather than sending the hordes forward to crash the opponent's net. (Does this say something about the world's mood right now? Probably so—in times of uncertainty, people have a tendency to protect what's theirs rather than try to expand their creative realm.) It's likely that Sunday's final will continue the defensive trend, considering the results that both teams have put up so far. Neutral fans should hope for an early goal to open things up, but the game should be fascinating in any case.

I've avoided making predictions in the blog thus far but I have a sneaking suspicion it may be Italy's year. I'll be pulling for France, though, in hopes that they can send Zinedine Zidane into his retirement in the most dramatic way possible. I really don't want Italy to win but if they do, I'll be able to console myself with the idea that the only goal they conceded through six games was against the U.S.

That would be a sad consolation, however. Allez les Bleus!

With the increasing globalization of soccer (European coaches leading non-European teams, South Americans playing their club soccer in Europe, etc.), I thought the conventional wisdom might be tested this year in Germany.

Apparently not. We've got four teams left and they're all from the continent. (Although, to be fair, there is a twist this year: Brazilian Felipe Scolari is coaching Portugal.)

I don't want to get into just why ESPN's coverage is so bad; that topic is being covered on blogs all over the place and even at Salon.com. I will instead offer a moment of brilliance from Univision's announcers today, just after Jens Lehmann stopped his second PK and sent Germany through to the semifinals:

¡El alemán! ¡Lehmann! ¡El alemán! ¡Lehmann!

In Spanish, "el alemán" is "the German" and the last two syllables of "alemán" are pronounced the same as "Lehmann," but with the accent on different syllables, so the whole thing was quite poetic. He continued on that theme by shouting, "Yes! Jens! Yes! Jens!"

Inspired.

For the U.S. National Team, there are already a number of strong contenders in the scapegoat derby. I've heard blame placed on the ref; on Bruce Arena; on the players; on FIFA, for seeding only eight teams instead of all 32; and on MLS, for not providing a competitive enough environment to develop young talent. I'm sure that there are more that I'm forgetting.

The sad fact of it is that if only a few small things had gone our way, we U.S. fans would have been cheering as the team went through to the second round. It's the nature of the World Cup, though, to make every moment, every unexpected bounce of the ball, something that we relive, analyze, and re-analyze endlessly in hopes of solving something that can't be solved. Things went our way in 2002 and they didn't in 2006.

That's not to say that the team's results were simply a matter of luck. As Obi-Wan Kenobi said in the first Star Wars film (er, fourth, I guess), 'In my experience, there's no such thing as luck.' I will stand on that same, seemingly invisible platform, and say that the U.S. didn't do enough to create its own luck in this tournament.

That is a quote from the Jay Leno show tonight, June 21, the eve of the last Round Robin game for the USA in the group stage. An appropriate rallying cry for USA Soccer fans on a night full of nerves, butterflies, and anticipation.

1, 2, 3, 4
The numbers tell the story for for the US team in this year's World Cup.

Finally—the team I recognize as mine showed up on Saturday night to challenge Italy. I fully expected to get at least one point out of this game and I suppose that was the best we could hope for under the circumstances—those circumstances being, of course, that the referee would send off three players in the game. It just goes to show that it's not only the players who can buckle under the pressure of a World Cup.

The match was also interesting from another perspective. One of the reasons I wanted to create this blog was to provide a snapshot of U.S. supporters, to show that people here get the sport and that our own soccer culture is growing. I also wanted to see where the bulk of U.S. supporters outside the groups I associate with were coming from, what they were like, and how they expressed their support. This match, in many ways, provided me with that snapshot.

An interesting thing happened before the game. A group of U.S. supporters started singing a melody I've only heard before at college gridiron games. I won't try to duplicate it here in text but I remember hearing it in Ann Arbor at Michigan games in the early 80's, a series of notes that repeated three times, leapt to a flourishing finish, and ended with an emphatic chant of "Let's go Blue!" I know lots of U.S. supporters who have been wracking their brains trying to come up with simple songs that we can do and here was one that everyone already knew and was uniquely American. That was the first time the light bulb went on that night.

The second was a chant that grew in response to gamesmanship from the Italian players and is one I also heard first at college football games in response to bad calls from the referee. It's simply "bullshit," shouted rhythmically over and over, and it was cathartic to be able to state plainly what Italy has been doing for years. That was light bulb number two.

Here's the thing: In many ways, we've spent years imitating things we've seen in England or other European countries, adapting songs slightly for our own uses. But these two chants last night were born and raised in the U.S., and I'm reasonably certain that a Uruguayan referee or a diving Italian midfielder has never had 20,000 people chanting "bullshit" at him before. It's loud, blunt, and a little rude, but what the hell? We're Americans. Our soccer culture is growing and last night, it took a big step.

There are lots of teams are getting good support here—some friends and I who attended South Korea/Togo on Tuesday estimated that 25,000 Korea fans made it into the Frankfurt stadium for that match—but there's nothing to compare with the enthusiasm that the host country is showing for their team. Two different places I visited for last night's Germany/Poland thriller show the depth of the German fans' support.

After a public volley of criticisms and finger-pointing by Il Bruce and several members of the USA starting XI yesterday, Bruce Arena stood before the world's media and told them it was all his fault.

I ran the gamut of emotions on this one and spent the better part of my morning apologizing to my European co-workers for our horrible performance. They were kind, saying that we didn't play badly (ha!) and that the Czech's are number 2 in the world.

As lunch time approached our attention turned to the matches between France / Switzerland and Brazil / Croatia. Many of our office are from France so they, of course, chose to watch this match-up during their lunch hour.

However, the Brits, our one Mexican and I opted for a late lunch and a much needed dose of joga bonito. Brazil did not disappoint and played well enough to replace the bitter after taste of the USA loss with a sense of wonder.

Kaka, Ronaldhino, Roberto Carlos - the sound of their names alone evoke excitement.

Thank You Brazil!
My faith in the beautiful game has been restored!

So what's the difference between FIFA's second-ranked team and their fifth-ranked team? Three. As in, three to nothing, the result that the USA had to choke down last night in Gelsenkirchen.

It is the USA's turn to take to the field today against the mighty Czech Republic. I am so glad today is finally here!

The big question over here in the states is "Where are you watching the US game?" Astoundingly, the answer is anywhere they have a TV and ESPN2 or Univision. Long lunches are de rigeur among soccer fans this month, and it is key to find the location nearest your workplace so that your entire time is spent watching the game and not driving around lost.

I will be watching from the stadium cub of my local soccer stadium - Pizza Hut Park. It was a fairly easy choice for me as I took the entire day off so that I could immerse myself in the beautiful game.

All right, I hear you saying, enough with the atmosphere—how about a first-hand report of a game? We at WAATF aim to please and, hey, we were lucky enough to acquire a pair of tickets to the Sweden/Trinidad and Tobago match held last night in Dortmund. So, here's the scoop.

During the week, I will be having to track the games on the computer while trying to be quite. On weekends, I will be at my local soccer bar with other supporters as I sip coffee and enjoy the action.

Needless to say, I prefer the latter.

I know that a lot of you who are unlucky to not to be in Germany are recording the matches to watch at night, while trying to avoid results. I am not like that. I just can't wait for six or so hours so I can catch the match. So, my plan has been to watch the match tracker of the games, then catching them at night when I get home, where three games will be waiting on my DVR.

The only problem I had was which match tracker to use? I decided to try the one on the FIFA World Cup website at first and found it to be pretty boring. Not a lot of details of the German-Costa Rica match but it did have a chat feature. In a smart move, they made sure that all comments on the chat were legit before they were posted, or else we would have a lot of spam and desperate guys looking for women in Brixton and Boseman.

I then decided to try out the Fox Soccer website. They had even less descriptions of the play, but there did have a cool little gadget where they showed, via animations, where the shots were taking place and the result. Still, I was not satisfied.

But, I then remembered the place where I always go to track the big European matches and they were doing the same for the World Cup. The Guardian's tracker is just a reporter recapping the match with a lot of snark while answering the best of the emails the writer gets during the match. I used them for the Ecuador-Poland match as the guy mocked the Polish midfield play while there was a long discussion on an Iranian supporter driving through London with his nation's flags flying around the vehicle and that the UK embassy in Teheran is located on Bobby Sands Street.

Of course, the hardest thing to do while doing this is to make sure you look like you are actually working. One of my bosses, who thinks I am a lazy guy (even though he doesn't give me anything to do), would flip if he saw me doing this. Knowing my luck, he would make me do some bizarre task as a punishment, like wash the tarp in his SUV (he actually has done this to me. By the way, if you know of a Chicago company that needs a guy who has writing and customer service skills, please email me at this address.)

When I got home on Friday, I watched both matches before going out to play in a pickup game at an indoor soccer center. The Germany win over Costa Rica was a fine start to the tournament, while Poland should be packing their bags, as they will be going home in another week.

This morning, I went down to my favorite soccer bar here in Chicago, The Globe Pub. Even thought the first match, England vs. Paraguay, was kicking off at 8:00am Chicago time, I had to get up at 5, since the bar said that they would be showing a rugby match between England and Australia and it was easy to assume the Brits who came in would stick around for the other form of football that morning.

So, after spending time shaking the cobwebs out of my head and getting the cat fed (who lets off one of the most evil sounds ever heard when he demands his food), I got on my bike and road in a cold shower down to the bar. Considering this is typical british weather, the atmosphere was pretty perfect for watching and England match.

When I got there, I had a minor shock. Turns out, the rugby match was taking place on Sunday morning. Too late to turn back, but there were a lot of spots open to sit down. So, for the next two hours, I spent the time drinking coffee to keep awake and talked with people I knew.

By the time the kickoff time came for the first match of the day, The place was packed with people to the point where they had people lined up half a block waiting to get in, a long wait it turned out since the bar was stuffed to capacity. In addition to the large contingent of England fans, there were some people that have Chicago Fire connections, including injured defender Jim Curtin, who lives around the corner from the pub, and former GM Peter Wilt, who is a frequent visitor to the bar.

Except for the own goal early in the match, the crowd was not all that loud and boisterous compared to past World Cups that I have watched at bars. Maybe it was the combination of the weather, the time of day or the fact that England played some piss poor soccer that kept the enthusiasm down. It was more like watching Wigan and Birmingham City playing instead of a World Cup match.

As time was running out, I had to leave the bar and go to a Starbucks temporarily so I could do a brief interview on a local internet show hosted by one of my friends. I talked about the World Cup for 10 minutes and pimped my website as well, before heading back for some breakfast while waiting for the second match.

There was still a decent crowd in the bar as Trinidad and Sweden kicked off, but everyone just assumed that the Swedes would romp to victory. That didn't happen as Shaka Hislop had the game of his life to secure a point for T&T in their World Cup debut.

After that match, I had to head home to get some housework done and watched the Argentian-Ivory Coast match. While the former world champions got the win, the Ivory Coast gave them quite a battle, a sign that Group C is going to be a dogfight before its all said and done. Should be interesting to see how Serbia and Holland turns out tomorrow.

Sunday is going to be a big day for us here in Chicago. Mexico will face Iran, and I will be in the bar again, rooting for the Iranians while hoping that nobody accuses me of hating America for doing that. Then its off to Bridgeview, as the Fire play their first ever match at Toyota Park.

The World Cup is on and as far as I am concerned, life is sweet right now.