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Nike Scored the last Goal, not Spain!

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Based on preliminary reports the 2010 World Cup, which was hosted by South Africa was a success - in viewership, merchandise and even tourism. The point of today's commentary is not to talk about the cup's success, but about the who really scored the last goal.
As I came across the attached email I began to think what an amazing job Nike had done through out the world cup in order to ambush Adidas marketing. Sure, after Adidas noticed Nike's approach) and well known strategic point of view (i.e. Olympics in Barcelona) they took it to FIFA and pretty much said, "we are paying you millions of dollars to be the "World Cup" sponsor, make sure its known. Any how, so as the month long tournament progressed, there were more mentions of the soccer ball, and the importance of its sponsors.
With all of the above said, I have a couple of comments to close with (thought starters if you will)?
  1. It is usually said "no publicity is bad publicity." Can Adidas really say this? I mean, there was a constant reiteration from the narrators on the constant discontent the players were with the Jubulani.
  2. Should we as sport's fans be annoyed that a corporation was trying to alter the game by changing the most essential item of the game itself, the ball? I would like to remind them that soccer is not all about goals - its about the constant strategic struggle between two teams driven by goals and pride - it is not basketball (though I love this sport as well)
  3. If you were Adidas, what would you have done to stop/control Nike's big audacious goal to claim the top spot of 'the' world cup sponsor?
Finally, and going back to the title of this post, how can you compete against a company that very intelligently launched an insightful spot full of pop culture references? More over, a spot that rhetorically asked/suggested the public to write the future. Or even better, a company that without buying air time in the middle of the game gets constantly viewed because they sponsor the teams, and most importantly, the shoes? After all, who would have thought that having such an advanced technology (TV specific) would play to Nike's benefit with the amazing zoom-ins when scoring and/sliding...
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