For letting me know who won via email when I had tivoed the game and was in the middle of watching it. ARRRRGGGHHH. Way to go and spoil the game for me ;-)

Seriously though, Spain looked great today. They could’ve won 2, 3 nil. I think Torres hit the post with an amazing header. And they had a couple of other great chances. While I do agree with some of the criticisms levied at Lehmann, I thought the German defender (don’t remember who it was) on the Spanish goal didn’t want the ball as badly as Torres did. He had body position and he should’ve NEVER been beaten on that play.

I definitely agree that Podolski should’ve been in the lineup today. Was he hurt or was that a coach’s decision? If it was the coach’s decision, that was an extremely poor one. I thought Schweinstagger (sp?) had the best game for the Germans. He generated a lot of their chances.

Not sure why Low felt that Podolski was best used out on the left, though it had worked reasonably well during the tournament up to this point. Seemed strange that when he wanted to go to a 4-4-2 he bought in Kuranyi and took off Hitzlsperger and kept Podolski on the left flank, rather than just moving Podolski to the front and Hitzlsperger out left.

Schweinsteiger had a good tournament all around but was maybe most dangerous early on when trying to get into the box (e.g. his goal against Turkey from Podolski’s cross); he probably would’ve generated more from out wide if Klose had been in better form.

After yesterday’s game I feel a lot better about the USA’s 1-0 loss to Spain. :)

I watched the game in Cancun, Mexico with a ton of Spain supporters. Although I am mostly German… I donned my “El Nino” shirt and rooted on Fernando and the boys. Great atmosphere down here and great game from my perspective.