All in the Game

A World Cup miscellany compiled by Mary Hannigan

Artistic merit: Puyol sparks the fireworks

IT WOULD be fair to say Spain's victory over Germany on Wednesday night was rather well received by the nation's press, Diario de Sevilla's"At The Gates Of Glory" a flavour of the euphoric headlines that greeted the Spanish population yesterday morning.

"On Top Of The World", declared Marca, like most of the papers using a photo of Carles Puyol being smothered in adoring appreciation by his team-mates.

Catalan daily Mundo Deportivocombined the goalscorer's name with "Chupinazo" (fireworks) to come up with "Puyolazo!", noting in its report "only Barca's skipper managed to score". They resisted the temptation to bill Sunday's final as Barcelona v Netherlands.

"If football is a reservoir of feelings – Spain is a joy. If football is art – Spain is the team to watch," said El Pais, with El Mundoleft similarly moved. "Once upon a time it was the Brazil team of 1970," they wrote. "Soon it will be Spain 2010 who will be talked about as the ultimate in a sport converted into one of the beautiful arts by the likes of Xavi, Iniesta, Alonso and the other magicians. Do not say Spain, say glory!" "Was it Michael Jordan jumping near the penalty spot," they asked, "or was it superman? No it was simply Puyol, with springs in his calves, and a cape of invincibility."

Paul backlash: German fans want to fry oracle octopus

REPORTS OF the crowd on Berlin's fan-mile singing "anti-octopus songs" at the end of Wednesday's semi-final could only prompt the question: what exactly is an anti-octopus song? "You're dinner and you know you are?"

Sadly, the people at Oberhausen Sea Life Aquarium in Berlin, where Paul the Octopus lives, have confirmed they have received threats against his life since he tipped Spain to beat Germany, a prediction that maintained his 100 per cent accuracy rate in the World Cup so far. Ah, if only the mystery punter who bet €500,000 with William Hill on Germany winning the game had heeded Paul.

"People send us recipes in threats," the aquarium's entertainment director Daniel Fey told the Toronto Star.

"But most of the people, even in Germany, are so intelligent they can see Germany lost because they didn't play as well as the Spanish."


Upset: other Webb vilified

HOWARD WEBB, the man who's in charge of street lighting for Rotherham Borough Council, will hope his namesake, also from Rotherham, has a controversy-free World Cup final on Sunday having been chosen to referee the game.

At Euro 2008 Webb – the referee, that is – infuriated Poland by awarding Austria an injury-time penalty, a decision that had some consequences for the street-lighting Webb – he claimed he received a heap of abusive phone calls from angry Polish fans.

"I have never been a referee and I am not likely to become one – especially if this is the sort of abuse they receive," he said. He will be holding his breath on Sunday.


Cheers to tears: Bild wakes up from World Cup dream

HAVING ASSURED readers Germany would win the World Cup poor old Bildhad to concede "The Dream Is Over" yesterday, "Aus der Traum" also the headline chosen by a few of the paper's rivals.

"The whistling stopped, the cheering died, the flags were rolled up and the tears began to flow," they wrote, "the dream was over."

They did, though, concede Spain deserved their victory.There was some criticism of the performance in the inside pages.

Die Welt, though, saluted the team and the impact its run in South Africa has had on the country. "This young team played their way into our hearts with elegance rather than drive. The multicultural team changed Germany. We used to be a land of complainers and pessimists. We're a different country now."