Bundesliga All-Star Team?

As the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ starts to wind down, there have been so many interesting stories emerge from one of the great months in sports.  Even though the final script has yet to be written, here are a few observations (since I know everyone is on the edge of their chair wondering what I'm thinking) from South Africa.

»  Who would have thought that Uruguay would be carrying the torch for South America as the only team left among the final four?  Much to our family's dismay, the Uruguayans defeated Costa Rica 2-1 in a two-leg aggregate playoff just to reach the World Cup finals.  Listed by many sources as historically one of the most successful national soccer teams in the world, Uruguay is easily the smallest country left in the competition (3.4 million inhabitants).  Germany is the most populated country remaining (81.8 million), while Spain is second (47.0 million) and Netherlands is third (16.6 million).  For the record, the United States has more than 309.6 million inhabitants - the most among all the countries to qualify for the World Cup finals.

»  Until Jérôme Boateng officially signed transfer papers recently to move from Hamburg SV to the English Premier League's money-laden Manchester City, every member of the German national team plied their trade in that country's professional league - the highly-respected Bundesliga.  Boateng, who was born in Germany to a German mother and a Ghanaian father, is the half-brother of fiery Ghana midfielder Kevin-Prince Boateng (a central midfielder for Portsmouth in the EPL).  Hmmm, maybe an All-USA Major League Soccer all-star team should serve as the U.S. national team?   Oh my gosh, did I really write that?  (For the record, just four Americans play professionally full-time in MLS).

» Martin Tyler and Ian Darke have so awesome as analysts for ESPN's coverage of the World Cup!  They do an incredible job of describing the play on the field without overdoing it.  Not sure the same can be said of one of the color analysts (cough, cough... name rhymes with marks).  I was caught a little off-guard today when the color analyst pronounced the spanish names of the players involved in their native language.  Perhaps he should take a caue from Tyler and Darke, who simply pronounce the names in ENGLISH!

»  Speaking of ESPN.  How thrilled must they have been that their studio analysts the last two days were from winning countries.  Ruud Gullit was in the chair as Holland defeated Brazil and was g-i-d-d-y with excitement!  Jürgen Klinsmann was in the studio for pregame and halftime of Germany's victory over Argentina, but had to leave for another television commitment in the second half.

» Even though I'm not happy with the lack of playing time for Spain's Francesc "Cesc" Fàbregas i Soler (i.e. Cesc Fabregas, the star Arsenal midfielder), it does give him a little less wear-and-tear heading into the new English Premier League season.  Perhaps he'll be fully fit as the Gunners prepare to win the EPL title this fall!

» A quick update to my list from yesterday.  There are only eight EPL players left in the World Cup!  Neither Germany (unless you include Boateng) or Uruguay have any players currently playing in England.  All eight are from Holland or Spain!

» Not World Cup related, but I really enjoyed this great story on Arsenal.com on former England and Arsenal goalkeeper David Seaman.  Nice mustache.