A world cup to write home about

So many great stories have emerged from the world cup in South Africa. For instance: being the best player in the world counts for nothing in the greatest stage in football, great players don’t make great managers, the vuvuzela is extremely annoying and home advantage is not always enough. Oh and one more thing, Paul the Octopus is always right. Lionel Messi, arguably the greatest player in the world, failed to take his team past the quarter-finals and has gone home without a single goal to his name. The most prominent discovery of Fifa 2010 was not a player but of an instrument which makes, as many came to experience, a lot of sound. The vuvuzela had its fans and its detractors, including some of the players, but it certainly lent some character to the tournament.

This was the first world cup to be hosted in Africa and many thought that it would be a great opportunity for traditional African powerhouses like Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire and Nigeria to show case their talents. But not even African champion Algeria made it past the first round. The mantle of carrying Africa’s hopes fell on Ghana’s shoulders and the Black Stars did this admirably. They reached the quarter-finals to play against Uruguay and would have gone further had it not been for Luis Suarez’s chicanery. The eventual winners, the Spanish, arguably played the best football through much of the tournament, and by doing so they were able to prove to the rest of the world that they were best team in the world not only as far as Fifa rankings were concerned. The Dutch were formidable contenders in the final but they could have done without their overly aggressive tackling and fouls – a tactic which perhaps cost them the match. As for the South Africans, they earned the dubious distinction of being the first host nation in the history of the world cup to exit in the first round – but they should take heart, and immense pride, in hosting a memorable tournament which showed to the world that the future of the game lies in young players.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 13^th, 2010.