July 11, 2010

World Cup 2010, Visually

All in all, I thought that the both sides played well in the final—I’m tempted to draw a comparison to the NBA finals, which was equally physical, not to mention prolonged for the teams’ defensive prowess and perhaps even grueling to the point of ennui, yet entertaining nonetheless. Contrary to the subtext of recent imagery, I was hoping that David Villa, the Creative Force in Spain’s Attack, would pull through with the epic overtime clincher, though Iniesta’s execution was also worthy of, say, Donovan.

• Boston.com’s Big Picture photoblog documented the excitement over four dramatic chapters. The well-curated selection of superlative photos is coherent (and readily minable) with a palpable narrative arc: in a word, beautiful.

• Hyperakt’s excellent (and portentous) radial bracket (click for full size). (via Notcot; win one through Dezeen)

• Michael Deal infographics for Umbro

• Where Players Are From (via FlowingData)

O'Keeffe-esque

Plus:

• Mashable has more (in the vein of social media / real-time / mobile app visualizations); the Guardian‘s Twitter bubbles are kind of interesting, while the productivity infographic is also worth checking out.
• WC2010′s massive carbon footrprint (via Inhabitat)
• Qualitative data: highlights.