Germany-Uruguay Third Place Match

There's no better way to describe the third place game in the World Cup than to use a boxing analogy. Think of one of the opening fights leading up to Saturday's Pay Per View special. The fight is on national television, the biggest stage, despite very low stakes. Both fighters understand that they have nothing to lose and want to make a splash while they have the opportunity to do so.
The end result is a great fight. Very little defensive fighting. Guys swinging away, often leaving themselves wide open, hoping to deliver a knockout punch. It's never the prettiest of fights, often devoid of technique or strategy, but it's sure fun to watch.
That's exactly what today's third place game was like. Both teams had nothing to lose and they showed it out there on the pitch. The game was wide open and offense minded from the get go. Five total goals were scored in the game on 32 shots. Yes, 32.
Thinking about it, the third place game is the one we should show people to try and get them interested in the sport. Maybe they'll be tricked into thinking every game is like this and start watching. Obvioulsy, I wouldn't want every game to be like this, but for a warm up to tomorrow's final, it was great to see.
In addition to the entertainment value, a few things happened that peaked my interest.
First, goals from Diego Forlan and Thomas Muller mean that there is currently a four way tie for the Golden Boot. I looked it up and apparently, if there is a tie at the end of the World Cup, the tie is broken by number of assists. If there's still a tie, the winner is the player who played the least minutes. I would try and crunch the numbers to figure out who would win if the results stood, but at this point, I'd bet money that either Villa or Sneijder score in the final.
By the way, have there been two players who have helped their stock more than Forlan and Muller this World Cup? Muller went from being a 20 year old who Maradona didn't recognzie to Germany's best player. And Forlan established himself as the best free kick taker in the tournament. In fact, he clanked one of the top post that would have tied this game in the 92nd minute.
Last thought is on how the crowd treated Luis Suarez. Suarez is of course the forward who stood at the goal line at the end of the Ghana game and punched the ball away to save the goal, and what would turn out to be the game.
Was the booing justified? No. And it's not just because of the all too common argument that any player would have done what he did in his position. It's because he served up a win for Ghana on a silver platter. What more could they have asked for? They have their best player taking a penalty kick that will win them the game. He missed. It's their fault for not winning that game, it was given to them.
Booing a player is justified when a player returns to the city of his former team, on a new team, after deliberately throwing last year's playoffs series so he could play for that new team, all the while stringing along his former team despite having very limited contact with them all summer, only to announce he won't be playing for them on national television.
Sorry, I had to do it. Basketball has consumed me at this point.