Soccer: Argentina-Germany

Damn it.. Germany won in a penalty shoot-out..

... between this turn-of-events (followed match during penalty shoot-out at this site - a NY Times blog; with live coverage of the match) and India's disastrous cricket performance today on day 1 of the 4th test against West Indies (India lost 2 wickets real early and then went into a shell and scored only 29 runs in 29 overs at lunch, if you can believe that! And just now even as I type this, they lost another wicket in the first over after lunch!), my day is ruined...

I was hoping for a Brazil-Argentina final.... now I'm hoping it will be Germany-Brazil^, since I love Brazil as a team... everyone else just kicks the ball, Brazil actually 'plays' - but despite the record of home country rarely winning the WC* ( France in 1998 was an exception after Uruguay won at home at the inaugural one in 1930 and also, I think England won at home in 1966.)... but right from day 1, I have thought that Germany might actually win the World Cup this time...

^ Oh.. I didn't realize that Germany-Brazil were the finalists in the 2002 WC in Korea/Japan...with Brazil winning. Maybe it will be time for a revenge on home-ground for Germany then....

* Also just noticed that home country has won the title more often than I thought... Italy won at home in 1934, Argentina won on home soil in 1978 and so did Germany ..the last time the WC was played in Germany in 1974, Germany won, led by Gerd 'der bomber' Muller.

Also, here is a tidbit I found regarding the 1950 WC in Brazil (won by Uruguay, btw) which is very interesting and amusing..

Throughout the Second World War the Italian Vice-President of FIFA, Dr. Ottorino Barassi, hid the FIFA World Cup trophy in a shoe-box under his bed and thus saved it from falling into the hands of occupying troops.The qualifying competition turned into something of a farce with teams qualifying then withdrawing - and teams already eliminated being offered places. India withdrew because FIFA would not let them play in bare feet. So only 13 teams participated in the final tournament.