World Cup Yields Germany as 2014 Champion

After watching several games in this year's FIFA World Cup men's soccer championship series, I have come to a conclusion about what constitutes "boring" spectator sports.  Earlier I had placed soccer in this category, as it seemed that all the two teams ever did was just kick the ball back and forth...if a goal did occur, it seemed to come as a fluke, not part of a strategy or the result of any special skill.  But now that I have become more familiar with some of the subtleties of the sport as it is being played, I can see how, by noting how the players are aligned and spaced on the field, I can often guess how the next few seconds of play will progress.  Toward the end of the Cup play, it almost was frightening, as a matter of fact, when more than once it seemed as if I were viewing the situation through the players' eyes when they would push the ball down the field in much the same way that I had envisioned them doing.  No, instead of the play being happenstance and random, it is really rather complicated and something quite to behold when it is well executed. 

I had been rooting for Argentina with their "Pepsi/Gatorade" star Lionel Messi to win it all...and they came pretty close, finally bowing to Germany 1-0 in a game lasting 120 minutes.  Some of the TV announcers expressed concern that low-scoring games like this were boring to watch, but I felt that it was fascinating to watch how the defenses of both teams were so quick to adjust to a change in possession and get down the field to exactly the optimal location in order to defend their goal...and when to come up and challenge whoever had the ball at the time.

Now that the European professional leagues are getting set to open their regular seasons soon, I am looking forward to watching more of this sport on TV wherever and whenever I can find a match being shown.  Who knows, maybe I'll even find a favorite team to pull for...