World Cup Calendar is an awesome way to check World Cup standings

I am really, really not big on sports. But my girlfriend is a pretty avid soccer fan and when she showed me World Cup Calendar (which she found over at MakeUseOf) I had to admit it's kind of cool, in a nerdy sort of way.

It's a single-screen Flash tool which shows you exactly how the World Cup is progressing and what are the current team standings. But the beauty of it is that you can slice and dice the data according to a number of dimensions – you can easly follow a specific team, or see what games are held on a certain day, where the games are played, and data about the groups and stages (quarterlies, semifinals, etc).

The cool part is that whenever you hover over any such "dimensions" (for lack of a better word), the other ones light up accordingly. So I can hover over "Spain" and instantly see their match dates (June 16, 21 and 25), the fact that they're playing at Durban, Johannesburg (Ellis Park) and Pretoria, and that they're in group "H". I can also see Switzerland beat them 0-1, the next game (on the 21st of June) will be held at 8:30pm, and that they'll be facing Honduras.

Forget the world cup; this thing is a prime example of data visualization, period. Even if you have no affinity for sports, you're bound to appreciate the care taken in producing this clever, slick UI. Definitely worth checking out.

Oh, and it's 100% vuvuzela-free!

Tags: fun, sports, vuvuzela, world-cup