The Final Four in the 2010 World Cup

Rather than having 3 South American teams in the final four of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, as many were predicting, we have 1 team from South America left, from Uruguay (who beat Ghana yesterday with penalty kicks), and three European teams: The Netherlands (who beat Brazil 2-1), Germany (who beat Argentina 4-0 today), and Spain (who beat Paraguay today 1-0).

Next week, Uruguay will play against The Netherlands, and Spain will play against Germany.

The New York Times had a wonderful article on Diego Maradona, the coach of the Argentinian team, which, I suspect, he may even have time now to read. I heard that his top player, Lionel Messi, was not feeling well on Thursday and missed practice (perhaps that affected his team's performance today).

Congratulations to all the teams who played their hearts out at this World Cup. From my perspective as a spectator and a huge World Cup fan, they all deserve standing ovations.

Even Hillary Clinton was in Argentina

In honor of the great World Cup win by Argentina today against South Korea to the score of 4-1, I have posted the above photos that I took in Buenos Aires last week where I attended the ALIO-INFORMS conference.

In the top photo above is a nice note from Hillary Clinton who dined at the Cafe Tortoni in Buenos Aires, a cafe that we also had the pleasure of eating at last week. I also recommend La Biela in La Recoleta, a very historic part of Buenos Aires, whose charming waiters gave us many extra pieces of exquisite dark chocolate.

If you'd like to see more photos of Buenos Aires, please see my earlier blogposts. The New York Times has front page coverage today about the Argentine soccer coach, Maradona, and his team's star player, Messi. Maradona, who is considered one of the top former soccer players ever, has promised to run naked through the streets of Buenos Aires should Argentina win the World Cup. He continues to coach his team at the World Cup matches dressed in a gray suit, which, as many have noticed (and despite the elegance of the people of Buenos Aires) does not fit him well.

Also, Professor Peter Lohmander of Umea, Sweden has kindly posted gorgeous photos that he took while at the same operations research conference in Buenos Aires . His photos may be accessed here.