As the final whistle blew on Africas first FIFA world cup , fans reflect on what they would take away from the historic tournament, the sound of the vuvuzelas would be dearly missed
The world cup was a triumph for Africa but not for the game, a triumph for Africa in the sense that amidst all the negative reports about high rate of crime in South Africa and the level of organizational preparedness, critics were stunned with the performance of the host country throughout the tournament.
But for the game however, football [soccer] followers never foresaw a disappointing average of 4 yellow cards per match; 145 goals scored in 64 games – an average of 2.27per game thereby making South Africa 2010 the second worst ever after 2.21 per game in Italia 90. The tournament was short of goals with world class strikers/goal scorers like C. Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney, Michael Essien, Fernando Torres, Didier Drogba and Kaka among many others not coming to the party.
The overall performance of African teams was definitely disappointing as Africa could not take advantage of hosting the world to announce her arrival on the biggest stage in football, only Ghana got to the quarter-final making it the third African team to achieve such feat with Cameroun and Senegal previously reaching this stage in 1990 and 2002 respectively. No African team could go one step further to the semi-final stage; teams like Nigeria, Cote d’Ivoire, Algeria, Cameroun and the host country South Africa did not make it past the group stages of the tournament leaving only the less fancied Ghanaian team flying the African flag.
The first shock of the tournament was recorded when Spain – one of the favourites to win the world cup was defeated by Switzerland ,the defeat was a wakeup call to all other big teams like England, Italy, Germany, Brazil, Argentina, France, Holland, Portugal as well as the lesser teams to give them the necessary confidence to go all the way. The tournament was about the best attack against a well organized and disciplined defence. After the first round, the most shocking exit was that of the defending champions Italy who were knocked out of the tournament, the second round saw Germany thrashing England 4-1 with Muller of Germany the eventual golden boot winner bursting into limelight in the tournament ,even with the likes of Rooney , Gerrad, Lampard, etc. England could only find their way past a disciplined German defence once. Aside Lampard’s effort on goal that crossed the line and might have changed the outcome of the game but was ruled otherwise by the referee. The Germans continued their fine form by sending the Argentines packing in the quarter-final match scoring 4 goals and breaking the hearts of Argentine fans and their passionate coach DIEGO MARADONA; this time it was Bastian Schweinsteiger pulling all the strings in the midfield as Muller and Klosse increased their goal tally in the world cup. Klosse eventually equalled Ronaldo of Brazil’s record of 15 goals in the world cup.
The Dutch team was another team who against all odds defeated the Brazilians 2-1 with Wesley Sneidjer grabbing the winner. Holland’ s win against Uruguay and Spain’s win against Germany set up a classic final as two countries with the same style of football got to the final: the inventor of total football- Holland and the innovator of total football- Spain. Before the final kick off, African supporters especially South Africans supported Spain to win because it has never won the cup. the Dutch supported the apartheid era in South Africa, and also the great paul the octopus (sea animal) which had correctly predicted previous German games favoured Spain to defeat Holland in the final. At the end, Spain was victorious, a victory for beautiful football and a loss for advocates of negative football, with Iniesta striking the winner in the 120th minute of a game that had 13 yellow and 1 red cards issued, a tense final to the end with both teams losing scoring chances, at both ends.
With all the action on the field, fans had a great time in South Africa blowing their vuvuzelas and freely supporting their teams without been harassed, it was a world cup to be remembered for a long time and it was indeed a triumph for Africa and the whole world looks forward to the next world cup in Brazil by 2014. The samba drums have been rolled out already so let’s start shaking and dancing to the rhythm.
AWARDS GIVEN OUT AT THE TOURNAMENT
GOLDEN GLOVE – IKER CASSILAS
GOLDEN BOOT – THOMAS MULLER
BEST PLAYER OF THE TOURNAMENT/GOLDEN BALL- DIEGO FORLAN
YOUNG PLAYER OF THE TOURNAMENT- THOMAS MULLER
FIFA FAIR PLAY AWARD – SPAIN
LAST ‘MAN OF THE MATCH’- ANDRES INIESTA
FLOPS OF THE TOURNAMENT
WAYNE ROONEY OF ENGLAND
CRISTIANO RONALDO OF PORTUGAL
FERNANDO TORRES OF SPAIN
KAKA OF BRAZIL
LIONEL MESSI OF ARGENTINA
DIDIER DROGBA OF COTE D IVOIRE
YAKUBU AYEGBENI FOR MISSING AN OPEN CHANCE AGAINST SOUTH KOREA
DIEGO MARADONA FOR LACK OF TECHNICAL INPUT AS A COACH
HEROES OF THE TOURNAMENT.
WESLEY SNEIDJER, DAVID VILLA , THOMAS MULLER , BASTIAN SHWEINSTEINGER, ANDRES INIESTA , VAN BOMMEL, RYAN NELSON, DIEGO FORLAN , LUIS SUAREZ FOR TAKING ONE FOR THE TEAM AGAINST GHANA HIS HANDBALL ON THE GOAL LINE, IKER CASSILAS, MARTIL OZEIL,
FIFA ELEVEN
IKER CASSILAS(GOAL KEEPER), PHILLIP LAHM , SERGIO RAMOS, CARLOS PUYOL, MAICON, WESLEY SNEIDJER, DAVID VILLA, DIEOGO FORLAN, XAVI, ANDRES INIESTA, BASTIAN SCHWEINSTEGER.
