Spain, other campeones and the disappointments

The World Cup was a 4 week showpiece that delivered Spain as champions and shattered the scare that dictated South Africa.

PARIS: Bruised egos, player strikes and referees embarrassed. Vuvuzela noise, goals scored with a jabulani ball boasting a suspect trajectory, European power retained and the triumph of team unity over highly-paid, under-performing individuals. There was even a new ‘Hand of God’ and a “psychic” octopus with a perfect prediction record.

The 2010 World Cup was a four-week showpiece that delivered Spain as champions and shattered the scare that dictated a crime-plagued South Africa which would have proved disastrous for the hosts. Poster boys Lionel Messi, Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo all failed to live up the pre-tournament hype.

In their place, the World Cup unveiled new talents: Thomas Mueller, Mesut Ozil, Javier Hernandez and Andre Ayew, while enjoying the deadly finishing skills of David Villa and all-round menace of Wesley Sneijder.

Spain were deserving winners, thanks to an extra-time winner from Andres Iniesta, of a poor final against a Dutch side which collected seven yellow cards and a red for John Heitinga.

The flops

France, a car crash of a footballing team, where egos tussled with the fading authority of besieged coach Raymond Domenech. The 1998 champions went on strike in an angry response to the decision to kick Nicolas Anelka out of the squad for his foul-mouthed rant at Domenech as France finished bottom of their group. Such was the furious public backlash that Domenech, who has been replaced by former Manchester United star Laurent Blanc, appeared before a French parliament commission to explain the fiasco. Veteran defender William Gallas blamed Domenech: the public targeted the players for bringing ridicule upon France.

Italy were just as poor. A shadow of the team which were crowned world champions in 2006, Marcello Lippi’s ageing, uninspiring one-paced team finished bottom of what had appeared a weak Group F including Paraguay and rank outsiders New Zealand. Italy failed to win any of their games and even New Zealand were left unbeaten to finish above them.

England arrived in South Africa confidently expecting Fabio Capello to cruise through a group dubbed as ‘easy’ by the mass-circulation Sun newspaper.

Somebody forgot about the US and Algeria, who claimed draws against a Three Lions side whose pride took a battering while Rooney never lived up to his billing. England scraped into the last-16 with a 1-0 win over Slovenia but were roundly thrashed by Germany 4-1.

As well as exposing the flaws in England’s traditional expectations and its domestic setup, where the influx of foreign stars is blamed for crowding out homegrown young talent, the result also forced Fifa into considering goal-line technology. Frank Lampard’s goal that never was, prompted reluctant Fifa boss Sepp Blatter to order a review of refereeing aids which could see goal-line technology and extra officials introduced at the next World Cup in 2014.

Dunga was axed after Brazil’s quarter-final exit while Diego Maradona, whose tactical inexperience was ruthlessly exposed by Germany in the last-eight, could possibly stay on.

He even inspired Uruguay’s Luiz Suarez to lift his hand to stop a Ghana winner in the quarter-finals.

“I have the new Hand of God now,” said Suarez as Africa mourned Ghana’s defeat.

The naysayers who predicted nothing but abject misery for South Africa now have four years to prepare similar obituaries for Brazil, a nation still bruised by its team failures in this tournament.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 14^th, 2010.