It’s over.

  • Four years of dreaming for this month.
  • Four years of thinking back to the past 4 years when USA and Portugal both lost in the round of 16 knockout phase.
  • The pain of those losses. 3 years and 11 months of hearing nothing about soccer in the media.
  • And 1 month of “sports experts” trying to talk soccer in the media but it is now over.
  • Germany won their 4th world cup.

We saw:

  • Brazil completely falling apart at the end, a total shocker.
  • Defending champs Spain getting trashed by Holland 5-1 and bowing out early in the group stage along with Portugal, Italy, and England.
  • Luis Suarez trying Italian for the first time (too soon?).
  • Fellow Concacaf rivals Costa Rica playing in the quarter-finals before losing to Holland in penalty shots.
  • Plenty of goals, even some beautiful ones, like James Rodriguez’s beauty vs Uruguay, Jermaine Jones vs Portugal, or Robin van Persie’s now famous flying Dutchman header vs Spain.
  • Great goalkeeping performances from stars like Mexico’s Ochoa, Chile’s Claudio Bravo, Costa Rica’s Keylor Navas, Algeria’s M’Bolhi and USA’s Tim Howard.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lw5seu7gHVQ&w=560&h=315]

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cj9vnjTY51U?rel=0&w=560&h=315]

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAWxlgc8Bgk?rel=0&w=420&h=315]

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XABjMGFcmhA?rel=0&w=560&h=315]

In the end it was a great World Cup and I cant wait for the next one in 2018 in Russia but until then lets enjoy the tournaments yet to come here in North America and all around the world.

In two months Europe will start their qualifiers for the 2016 European Champions.