Last dispatch from the opinion desk

All told, Friday's World Cup draw was a bit of a disappointment. Usually, the powers that be at FIFA never miss the opportunity to throw up a particularly spicy match-up in the group phases. In 1998, the U.S. lost to Iran. In 2002, Senegal stunned France, who was not only the defending tournament champion, but was also the country that had formerly colonized that particular West African nation. Even the UEFA got into the act, pairing Germany and Poland in the group stage of last summer's Euro 2008 championship.

This year? Well, everyone's excited about England playing against the U.S., and Brazil should play an entertaining group game with Portugal, its former European master. But that's about it.

Lest you think me trivial, these things matter to a great many people. I came to this small corner of WSN from the sports section after spending a semester in England, where games like rugby, cricket and football (soccer to you and me) matter a lot in the context of history.

Don't believe me? Then go to a rugby match at the Millenium Stadium in Cardiff and listen to 80,000 Welshmen sing "Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau" (Land of My Fathers). Ask an Irishman what the phrase "Stuttgart 1988" means to him. He'll explain that in that favored city, Ireland defeated England 1-0 in the group stage of the European Football Championships. But the smile on his face will tell you it means a lot more than that.

A more poignant example: West Germany met Holland in the 1974 World Cup final, with memories of war and occupation still fresh. The Germans rallied from a 1-0 deficit to win 2-1. When the Germans scored their second, Dutch television commentator Herman Kuiphof said, "I don't believe it; they've tricked us again."

So, yes, sports and history provide one good prism through which to view the world. But they are not the be-all and end-all. There's geography, art, architecture, literature, religion, laws, morals, education, economics and science, among others.

So, when I assembled the opinion staff for this semester, I laid out a few simple ideas which formed the bedrock of our philosophy. The greatest of these: Write what you are passionate about, not what you think you should write about. From that point, the rest of our goals followed: Write clearly and intelligently, and don't forget our audience. We aimed to provide the best possible opinion section to serve the NYU community. The question of whether we ultimately reached that goal, I will leave for readers to decide.

But as far as I am concerned, I could not be prouder of the body of work we've put together over the past three months. I feel privileged to have had some of the best, most passionate and intelligent writers on this campus writing about issues that matter to them. Some of these issues were well-known, others not as well-known. Some were only known within this place we call NYU. But that didn't stop them from speaking up.

This is the last opinion section of this semester, and my last dispatch as opinion editor. After this I will return to writing about sports, putting things in perspective in my own way. However, before I go, I'd like to encourage you to take one more look at the opinion archives at nyunews.com. Savor the writing and remember the names. I have a feeling you'll hear from all of them before very long.