Who likes the Dutch? Pointy headed intellectuals.

I was looking for other so-called "experts" who favored the Dutch to win the 2010 World Cup final on Sunday. All I found was this piece by Max Bergmann on the Huffington Post. He points to the Dutch being both more talented and more thuggish than the Germans and he expects this to work to their advantage more, because taking the risk with hard tackles can give a team the counter-attack chances they need.

As for people who think Spain will win, they are much easier to find. Spain are the current European champs, and they were the pre-tournament favorite. Locally, folks I know who know their football are fond of the Spanish, including Jose, the owner of La Estrellita who was impressed with their play against Germany and the guy who owns the hot dog cart on the east side of Laney College, who likes their tight, low scoring style.


Moreover, the press has been fascinated with Paul the Octopus, who has been correct about every match the Germans have played so far. Two tasty mussels are placed inside separate plastic boxes adorned with the flags of the teams about to play and Paul, who lives in a German aquarium, correctly predicted all the wins and losses for the German team so far, which means the losses to Serbia and Spain and the wins against Australia, England and Argentina.

Given his first chance to pick a game where Germany isn't playing, Paul preferred the mussel in the Spanish plastic box to the one in the Dutch box, yet more evidence that I am whistling up the wrong tree.

Even with all this against me, I still expect the Dutch to win in an exciting replay of the Eighty Years War where they finally won their independence from Spain back in 1648.

See what I said earlier? Only pointy headed intellectuals like the Dutch.