After very nearly a month the 2010 FIFA World Cup is reaching it's climax. This evening's 3rd place play-off between Uruguay and Germany will have a sense of what might have been for the beaten semi-finalists. However both camps have been keen to stress that there is plenty left to play for, even if the match is usually seen as being of little overall importance.
The sentiments of Uruguay and Germany cannot be judged properly until the match kicks off in a couple of hours, but in front of the press corps there has been plenty of positive talking. Uruguay's boss Oscar Tabarez stated that his team "will go in with the same commitment and enthusiasm as always. We will prepare to fight to the death." Strong words indeed.
Meanwhile over with the Germans, their team manager and former striker Oliver Bierhoff similarly declared that "for us, this World Cup is anything but over". Unfortunately what isn't clear is a prediction from Paul the octopus. The 'psychic' inhabitant of the Oberhausen Sea Life Centre has rather had his focus trained on tomorrow's final between Holland and Spain, for which he picked Spain out to win the competition.
This is understandable, but Paul should really be looking to play the long game. He became a 'celebrity' during the 2008 European Championships, when he 'predicted' the majority of Germany's results correctly. Unfortunately in that final he plumped for a Germany win, only for Spain to burst his bubble.
This time around he has bizarrely managed to pick the correct winner of every German fixture in the World Cup (luckily for him there were no draws!). Of course this meant that Paul learned from Euro 2008 and went for the Spanish when they met again in the semi-final last weekend.
The downside for Paul has since been the realisation that heroes can very quickly become villains and scapegoats. As if to prove once and for all that the German's do have a decent sense of humour, the Sea Life Centre that hosts Paul has received numerous recipe suggestions for octopus in the last week.
So, surely in an effort at appeasement Paul should be given the opportunity to pick the winner for tonight's 3rd place play-off, as long as he picks Germany that is! Perhaps he is simply too upset, or maybe he realises that another German loss would see more blame laid at his aquarium.
Either way it is now clear that England really should have lined up their own 'psychic' creature representative. That way we could have cooked up an excuse for the dire efforts of the players or simply a cruel twist on the celebrity masterchef concept, where the celebrity is the main course.
Back to the football. And although both Uruguay and Germany have had to suffer the strange notion of staying around a tournament they can no longer win, they do still have individuals that can etch their name in World Cup folklore. The Golden Boot is far from decided and intriguingly all four semi-finalists have a player or two who could walk off with the award for most goals of the competition.
All talk at this point suggests that Diego Forlan will take to the pitch for Uruguay. The former Manchester United and current Atletico Madrid striker had had to be subbed off near the end of the 3-2 defeat to Holland with a thigh complaint, but he now appears comfortable enough to compete. Forlan has been instrumental in leading Uruguay from the front in South Africa and he stands on 4 goals so far with a view to more.
Meanwhile Germany's Miroslav Klose is looking doubtful due to a back injury picked up in training. The striker has again been a success at a World Cup, even despite his sometimes-abject domestic form with Bayern Munich last season.
If Klose can get onto the field, he not only has 4 goals at this World Cup but 14 overall- spread over 2002, 2006 and this year. This leaves him tantalisingly close to the all-time record of 15 career World Cup strikes, achieved by Brazil's Ronaldo in Germany four years ago. Alas if Klose doesn't make it into tonight's game he will have to settle with joint second in the list, alongside his countryman Gerd Muller.
Luis Suárez may be another contender for the Golden boot, although it seems relatively unlikely at this stage. The 'villain' of Ghana's quarterfinal exit will return from his suspension tonight, but his quality earlier in the tournament means that he has already yielded 3 goals of his own to be in with a shout.
Germany's Thomas Mueller may also sneak off with the Golden Boot. He was suspended for the semi-final but will return tonight and like Forlan and Klose he has scored 4 goals thus far. He may only have 7 caps in total but it appears that this young German team already have their future fulcrum.
On the other hand it seems more than likely that the winner of the Golden Boot will come from the winner of tomorrow's World Cup final, which is probably how it should be. David Villa of Spain and Holland's Wesley Sneijder have both had an outstanding last month, and both are tied with 5 goals apiece atop the goal scoring list.
It should however be mentioned that Sneijder was rather fortuitously gifted a goal by FIFA. Instead of confirming the fact that Brazil's Felipe Melo had indeed deflected the ball off his head and into his own net during the Brazil/ Holland quarterfinal, the powers that be generously awarded the goal to Sneijder who had been responsible for the initial cross that happened to be goal bound. C'est la vie!
So, dare I embarrass myself with another prediction before this largely successful and entertaining World Cup signs-off; yeah of course I should. Germany will have too much for Uruguay and will win before extra-time, you heard it here first!