In a physical and tough send off in which the final view on the soccer scoreboards was 1-0 to Spain, the English Referee Howard Webb broke a new record for a World Cup final by showing yellow cards to 13 players. All in all 47 fouls were committed in one of the worst tempered finals ever. With a continuous succession of late and aggressive challenges in particular from the Dutch team, Webb was left with little choice. The previous record was 7 yellow cards, but this was beaten in the 57th minute when the referee showed the 7th yellow card to the Dutch defender John Heitinga.
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The final of every single World Cup since the tournaments inception in 1930 has been played out by at least one of the following four teams: Italy, Brazil, Germany and Argentina. For the first time in the history of the World Cup, the 2010 situation finally broke the 80-year monopoly.
Women play a key role in the soccer world, especially in the United States. Men prefer the brutality of American football, while women enjoy the somewhat delicate nature of soccer. If you happen to watch the Olympics, the American men tend to get beaten quite handily, unlike their female counterparts who are going for the gold every four years. Mia Hamm and company save us from national embarrassment when it comes to soccer. Women are as central to soccer as men are to baseball. Soccer is the American woman’s sport.
Soccer is the most played game in America, far exceeding every other sport in total athletes of every age group. With that statistic in mind, it is incredibly ironic how unpopular soccer is in mainstream American culture. There is a following for soccer, however, and those who play soccer are immersed in a sport very different and far more complex in organization, outside NCAA Football’s BCS formula.