blog.nforget.com

Google analyzes search queries during World Cup matches:

Throughout the world, real life also slowed during World Cup matches. Which teams had the most loyal fans? Which game captured the attention of world the most? To answer these questions, we looked at counts of queries using Google. People search using Google day and night—except for football fans when a game is on.

Click through for graphs showing the volume of search queries during the big games. When a soccer-mad country like Brazil is playing, the volume of queries drops during the game. There is a small spike during halftime.

Brian Phillips argues that true fans of the beautiful game—fans of total football—should be cheering for Spain on Sunday, not the Netherlands.

Like all soccer writers, I have a debilitating nostalgic streak, and like all soccer writers, I love Holland. The Dutch, who face Spain in Sunday’s World Cup final, are soccer’s most gorgeous losers, a team defined by a single generation of players who brilliantly failed to reach their potential. The Dutch teams of the 1970s—led by the mercurial Johan Cruyff, who’s widely considered the greatest European player of all time—launched a tactical revolution, played one of the most thrilling styles of their era, and lost two consecutive World Cup finals in memorable and devastating ways. In the process, they became the icons of soccer romantics who would rather see teams play beautifully and lose than win and be boring. That’s a harsh legacy for any team that just wants to take home trophies, and this year’s Dutch squad is trying hard to transcend it. The dreams of millions of fans are riding on their success. Personally, I hope they fail.

The legend of Dutch soccer begins, and inevitably ends, withTotaalvoetbal: “total football.” The Dutch haven’t really played total football in years; their current World Cup team is constructed more in opposition to the system than in line with it. But embraced or resisted, it’s the idée fixe that looms over everything they do. Devised largely by Rinus Michels, the Dutch national-team coach who also managed the Amsterdam club Ajax in the late 1960s, total football was a ferocious and freewheeling set of tactics designed to take advantage of Cruyff’s unconventional style of play. Because Cruyff liked to wander well outside the bounds of his center forward position, his teams needed to be able to reorganize themselves swiftly. Total football therefore emphasized fluid position-switching, with players moving into open spaces and the whole formation adjusting on the fly. Combined with a high back line to limit opponents’ space, and aggressive offside traps to keep them from getting the ball, total football produced a relentlessly attacking style of play. It was exhilarating to watch, and it almost, but not quite, conquered the world.

On Sunday either Spain or the Netherlands will become just the eighth country to lift the World Cup, meaning a new national anthem will join the select group sung in celebration of the most longed-for sporting achievement on the planet.

The national anthem of the Netherlands, “Het Wilhelmus,” dates to 1574 and is widely considered the world’s oldest. The lyrics are written in the voice of William of Nassau, pledging loyalty to the Spanish king, Philip II, while at the same time explaining why he and the Dutch are rebelling against the excesses of Spanish rule — a nice touch going into a Spain-Netherlands final. “A prince of Orange am I, free and fearless,” go the words; “the king of Spain I have always honored.”

Click through to listen to the Dutch and Spanish anthems, as well as the anthems of the seven nations that have previously won a World Cup. You will also learn why none of the Spanish players sing during their national anthem.

Patrick House, writing in Slate, thinks he’s found the secret to success at the World Cup: high rates of Toxoplasma gondii infection.

What if I told you that last week I predicted all eight winners of a round of the World Cup? And that instead of rankings or divination all I did was look up how many people in each team’s home country had a tiny parasite lurking in their amygdalas? Would you believe me? A decade ago, Discover Magazine concluded that parasites ruled the world, and now I’m going to try to tell you that, at the very least, parasites rule the World Cup.

Tim Vickery previews the Netherlands vs Brazil game by looking back at some previous meetings between the two nations.

Brazil versus the Netherlands has given us some wonderful World Cup memories. The 1998 semi-final was one of Ronaldo’s best performances in the competition. The Dutch should probably have won a pulsating game, losing their nerve in the penalty shoot-out, but they softened up the Brazilians for France in the final.

The 1994 quarter-final had Bebeto’s immortal ‘rock the cradle’ celebration, a shock Holland comeback and finally Branco’s spectacular long-range free-kick.

But the really important contest - the one whose repercussions continue to ripple through the game - was the meeting in West Germany in 1974. In what was effectively a semi-final, the Netherlands won 2-0 while a frustrated Brazil, the reigning world champions, resorted to a full repertoire of rugby tackles and body checks.