How Do You Remember The 2010 World Cup in South Africa?

By News Source • on July 14, 2010

The Blowing of the now famous vuvuzelas, wearing of the makarapas, the excited fans jumping up and down after their teams had won matches in their various team colors, the interviews, the friendly South African people, and who can ever forget the Madiba impact on the final day of the World Cup . . . the sight of him and his wife on the field waving was worth more than a million dollars. Unfortunately, all these have come to a disappointingly early end. One month already?

But that is the impact of soccer on its enthusiasts . . . always wanting more – more of the thrills, the goals, the celebrations, the card happy referees, the penalty miss by Asamoah Gyan. And yes, the hero/villain Suarez infamous handball, the Yakubu miss from two yards, the excellent Forlan, exciting Dede Ayew, the tenacious Muller and how can we ever forget the World Cup winning goal by Iniesta following a great pass from substitute Fabregas. Did it really have to end so soon? Let’s try and relive the good, bad and the ugly of South Africa world cup 2010.

Let’s start from the organizational point of view, beginning with the infrastructure. The training facilities for instance, were very impressive. A sentiment echoed by Fabio Capello and the entire English team. The stadiums were bigger than the ones used in Germany four years ago with the huge Soccer City Stadium molded in the shape of a calabash being my all time favorite. There were even special Courts to deal with any disorders and World Cup associated crimes. Unlike in previous tournaments, there were no reported clashes of opposing fans. A plus to the hard working South African security forces and policemen and repudiation to those doubters who thought South Africa were not up to the challenges.

Let’s talk about the performance of the teams. The disappointing performances of some of the big guns in football like England, Portugal, Italy, and France and to an extent Brazil and Argentina left much to be desired. The England team for example was on a good winning streak coming into the World Cup and many pundits tipped them to be in the semis at least. Player for player they had some of the best and highest paid players in the world in their squad but they failed to turn up when it mattered most.

The French team looked like they would have rather been relaxing in Paris. Their supposed boycott of training when their colleague Nicolas Anelka was sent home for indiscipline and the ensuing meltdown and drama that followed is a testament of that. Their performances on the pitch indeed made their win against Ireland to qualify for the World Cup even more painful. The Irish will forever believe that they deserved to have taken part in the 2010 World Cup, and not France.

The inability of the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Rooney and Kaka to shine had a huge impact on the performance of their respective teams. In all fairness though, even though he failed to score, Lionel Messi still had a good tournament. The disappointment of five of the six African teams deserves a mention too. Cameroun was a massive disappointment as well as the Ivorian team who in the eyes of many connoisseurs of the game would have qualified had they been in any other group apart from the group of death they found themselves in.

In equal measure, the perfromance of supposed minnows like Ghana, Slovenia, Japan, and Uruguay exceeded expectations. It may have come as a surprise to some but Diego Forlan 100% deserved the golden ball award and one of the few decisions FIFA got right. Unlike the likes of Iniesta and Schweinsteinger, Forlan was not surrounded by great players. He ticked and that made his team look good. His great technique to score the second goal against Germany in the third place match was astounding.

Ghana had a great tactician in Rajevac and a good crop of youngsters in the likes of Kevin Prince Boateng, Dede Ayew, Jonathan Mensah, Samuel Inkoom, Kwadwo Asamoah and Asamoah Gyan. They could still form the core of the team for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil and that should scare any team in four years time. They deserved to have been in the semis but one cannot take anything away from the Uruguayans. They worked real hard as a team. Suarez can be termed a villain amongst Ghanaians and Africans in general for swatting a continent’s hopes away but he did what he had to do in that situation and every player would have done that in his shoes. It was the last second of the match and he obviously did not want his team to go home!! As a Ghanaian it hurt soooo much though.

Let’s go to the thousand and one questions asked about the FIFA Goal line technology and when it will be implemented especially when Frank Lampard scored a glaring goal against the Germans but unfortunately the linesman and referee failed to see that the ball had crossed the line. What about the offside goal scored by Tevez against Mexico in the round of 16 and the many questionable calls? The jabulani uproar generated by goalkeepers and coaches alike cannot be forgotten too. Wouldn’t it make sense for FIFA to have the players who would eventually joggle such new balls to test it out first? That uproar though seemed to have died down getting to the end of the world cup though.

Now to the World Cup winners . . . SPAIN. Historically the Spanish team is the first World Cup winning team to lose their first game and go on to win the ultimate. Ike Casillas is the third goalkeeper captain to lift the cup. The Spanish passing game was second to none especially in the only game they lost against Switzerland, Del Bosque’s tactics of sticking to Torres until the semi-final although he was unfit and only bringing him on the last 15 minutes of extra time in the final and also failing to use a fabulous player like Cesc Fabregas as much as the player and his admirers would have loved to see him play were two brave but successful moves and thumbs up to him.
The Dutch team will unfortunately have to make do with being bridesmaids again for another four years…a very sad end for a team that had not lost in such a long time that they had forgotten how to lose. If only Robben had scored one of the two one on one chance he had maybe just maybe the Oranje would have been singing a song for brides…….

This successful world cup will be remembered for many but it will definitely be remembered mainly for the unity it brought amongst the South Africans black and White alike. The final question I would like to ask is would the World Cup be staged again in Africa? Probably not for another 30years!
Brazil will have a lot of work to do to upstage South Africa 2010 though but we just cannot wait for the carnival to start in Rio…

Source: Hillary Kuma-Duah

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