Ivory Coast

They are clearly the best team that won't be advancing. Playing Argentina to a 2-1 game and likewise with Netherlands, the small African nation ought to be proud. These are two teams that might make it to the finals, if not win the entire thing, and they gave them serious games. What a shame the schedule had to play out this way.

On the flip side...Germany. A team I traditionally don't like for multiple reasons - one, principally, Germany - come on, the image of that country in our collective consciousness will not get around the whole idea of Nazism. I remember my first time in Austria and getting onto a bus and the German language blared over the bus speaker, a chill ran down my spine because of my association with the language.

Their soccer teams did not help, huge guys, playing unstylistically, but smart, concentrated soccer, and inevitably winning against "weaker," if not more skilled, opponents. Prime example: Janecker. That big brute of a forward for Bayren Munich and the German national team. A SS officer disguised as a soccer player.

But now? They are hosting the cup and they play with some...flair. And heart. And courage. Are they, announcing themselves, 50+ years after the fall of the Reich, to be above it? Cheering their half black, 22 year old, star substitute, Odonkor.

I sure as hell hope so. And the future has hope.