Wow what a world Cup. The first world cup on the African continent and arguably the best ever. The 19th FIFA world Cup saw over 200 teams try to qualify for the Greatest showpiece on earth from which 32 won the right to represent their nation at the worlds biggest stage. For 31 days the world’s eyes fell on the most southerly country in the Dark continent of Africa. The 2010 FIFA world cup truly exceeded our expectations.
One word to describe the world cup is “Drama”. For 31 days the 19th World cup was just like a soap opera. There were fairytales and tragedies, smiles and tears. We witnessed history unravel in front of our eyes. We saw the hosts become the first host nation not to make it to the 2nd round of the world cup. We witnessed les bleus also known as les miserables implode in front of the world. All were shocked when the former world Champions the azzurri failed on the first hurdle and left with their heads their legs after defeat to Slovakia. African teams seemed out of their league like in all previous tournaments with the exception of Ghana. Many were entertained by the previously underrated Mannschaft as they ran riot against the imperial England and Argentina. We watched dreams end in tears, handballs and disallowed goals.
This was a world cup for the minnows, the smaller underrated teams that weren’t expected to hoist the Jules Rimet. These minnows were expected to just lie down and allow the bigger nations to stamp all over them but they did the opposite. One such team is the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea which managed to score a goal against the then World number one’s Brazil which was amazing . their country is ostricised from the world but they came to South Africa and touched all our hearts with their passion and pride for their nation. One was humbled watching Jong Tae se in tears during the Korean national anthem in that game. Other unknown teams like Slovakia, New Zealand, Algeria, South Korea, Greece, Chile and Slovenia all knew that it wasn’t going to be easy but they fought and bled for their country’s. They all left South Africa as heroes.
South Africa 2010 gave us memories that we will never forget. We saw Ghana stand up and be counted and unite a continent. We saw Uruguay show the world that they would do anything for their country and deservedly reach the last four and also have the winner of the Ballon d’or, the best player of the world cup, in Diego Forlan. We will never forget the Germans amazing run to third place they were truly a joy to watch, Maradona’s antics on the side of the field, Luis Suarez’s amazing save and Portugal’s 7.
The world cup ended in history as spain won their first world cup and became the first team to win the trophy after losing their first game. We also saw the dutch reclaim their tag as the greatest nation not to win the world cup. The Spanish and the dutch gave us amazing football and deserved to play in the final and congratulations to Spain.
This world cup didn’t go as the scientists predicted. They claimed that in order to win the world cup a team must master the intercept, passing, score a lot of goals, defend like Gods and know how to take penalties. However they also said that it is football and their research does not include moments of madness, misfortune and pure luck. This world cup had all of that and more and I can safely say it was the best ever. South Africa really came to the party on this one.
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Hope is my road, Victory my destiny
“We can all share dreams, but not victory”. This quote epitomises one of the greatest human conundrums and it summarises competitive sport. In the case of football, many men like me have the same dream and that is to win the world cup but every four years 11 men realise their dream with victory.
The 22 men that will take to the field at Soccer City on the 11th of July have dreamt of winning the world’s most coveted footballing trophy all their lives. The Netherlands and Spain will finally have an opportunity to try and make their dreams come true. For ninety minutes these 22 men will fight to place their names in world footballing history. Both countries will make history if either one wins as they will be fighting to be the eighth team to control the Jules Rimet trophy.
Spain, the current European champions and the masters of total football, are in their first world cup final. After many years of not winning trophies on both the continental and world stage, they finally achieved it in Vienna, Austria by clinching the 2008 European championships. La Furia Roja (the red fury) has been the best footballing nation ever since that 2008 victory. They are amazing ball players and their total footballing style which has been the age old Spanish style has the ability to unlock even the hardest defences. Here in 2010 they have made Spanish history by being the first Spanish team to make it to the world cup semi- finals. At Soccer City they will be hoping to end years of being in the wilderness and the golden generation from Spain will place their country in football history.
The Netherlands have been considered the creators of total football. They unlike the Spanish will be in their third final and have also been given the tag of the unluckiest team in world cup history as they lost in both their previous finals to West Germany in 1974 and Argentina in 1978 with their Golden generation. This current Dutch team has been on a 24 game unbeaten run which commenced after their Euro 2008 exit and have resurrected Dutch football with their silky footballing style. With victory at Soccer City this team will do what their much revered heroes Cruyff, Haan, Van Basten and Rijkaard couldn’t do and bring back their 2nd trophy after their 1988 Euro Triumph.
The final between Spain and the Netherlands will be history in the making. The question on everyone’s lips will be which fairytale will be spoken about for years to come; will it be third time lucky for the Oranje or first time does the trick for La Furia Roja. In the end one team will still be on the road named Hope and the other will be arriving at destination Victory because we can all share dreams, but not victory.
The 22 men that will take to the field at Soccer City on the 11th of July have dreamt of winning the world’s most coveted footballing trophy all their lives. The Netherlands and Spain will finally have an opportunity to try and make their dreams come true. For ninety minutes these 22 men will fight to place their names in world footballing history. Both countries will make history if either one wins as they will be fighting to be the eighth team to control the Jules Rimet trophy.
Spain, the current European champions and the masters of total football, are in their first world cup final. After many years of not winning trophies on both the continental and world stage, they finally achieved it in Vienna, Austria by clinching the 2008 European championships. La Furia Roja (the red fury) has been the best footballing nation ever since that 2008 victory. They are amazing ball players and their total footballing style which has been the age old Spanish style has the ability to unlock even the hardest defences. Here in 2010 they have made Spanish history by being the first Spanish team to make it to the world cup semi- finals. At Soccer City they will be hoping to end years of being in the wilderness and the golden generation from Spain will place their country in football history.
The Netherlands have been considered the creators of total football. They unlike the Spanish will be in their third final and have also been given the tag of the unluckiest team in world cup history as they lost in both their previous finals to West Germany in 1974 and Argentina in 1978 with their Golden generation. This current Dutch team has been on a 24 game unbeaten run which commenced after their Euro 2008 exit and have resurrected Dutch football with their silky footballing style. With victory at Soccer City this team will do what their much revered heroes Cruyff, Haan, Van Basten and Rijkaard couldn’t do and bring back their 2nd trophy after their 1988 Euro Triumph.
The final between Spain and the Netherlands will be history in the making. The question on everyone’s lips will be which fairytale will be spoken about for years to come; will it be third time lucky for the Oranje or first time does the trick for La Furia Roja. In the end one team will still be on the road named Hope and the other will be arriving at destination Victory because we can all share dreams, but not victory.
Sweet Dreams or Nightmares
When one looks at the 2010 FIFA world cup or any of the previous 18 world cups; the one thing that resonates from 1930 in Montevideo to 2010 in Johannesburg is not only goals but belief. The world cup is a tournament based on dreams. Be it winning the Jules Rimet trophy or reaching a certain phase each team has a dream for the world cup.
The world cup journey begins at the qualification stage and that is where the dreams start to get formulated. All 200 plus teams that participated in the qualification for the 2010 world cup had dreams, many dreamed of making the finals and a few dreamed of lifting the trophy on the 11 of july. As the games are played some dreams get accomplished but others get shattered like the Irish in paris or the Egyptians in Sudan. In the end there apart from being good enough or moments of madness, the difference between the teams that qualified for this world cup and the other 18 is that they believed in the dream.
Believing in the dream of making the Finals is the driving force of any teams journey to the finals. The 32 teams that made it to the 19th FIFA world cup their dreams became realities and they needed to have new dreams and that’s the important thing. To win the world cup or for the dream to be a sweet one the entire team must believe in the dream. If you don’t believe, you will go know where.
When a team believes it is the most wonderful sight as that team gives all they have and accomplishes the dream they set out to achieve. The moment one stops believing is when everything starts to go wrong. This can be seen in this tournament with the hosts South Africa. In the words of their captain they failed to believe in their second game against Uruguay and that’s when an entire nations dream ended. Although they managed to beat the French that fateful night in Tshwane summed up their tournament and underlined a big thing about dreams and the world cup. One can’t at any moment fail to believe.
Teams that win World cups believe throughout the whole tournament even when times are tough. In those times the character of teams comes to the surface. When times are tough two questions are asked. Will you give up and throw in the towel effectively ending your dream or will you fight till the death and make sure that when you do not succeed you gave it your all? The latter is what makes world cup winners that never say die attitude, the attitude of champions who know that they will give all they have, sometime even sacrifice themselves just to keep the dream alive. We have seen this attitude many times over in World cups. There is a story of the semi-final of the 1982 world cup held in spain where france played germany and in extra time the French scored twice to lead 3-1 but the germans turned what seemed the end for the into a winning situation but managing to equalize and win on penalties. That shows that the germans refused to give up on their dream and showed their famous geist.
The 19th FIFA world cup will be won by the team that believes in their dream more than all the other teams in that tournament, a team that will fight for their dreams and in the face of the impossible; be inspired. The team that BELIEVES will have a very sweet dream.
The world cup journey begins at the qualification stage and that is where the dreams start to get formulated. All 200 plus teams that participated in the qualification for the 2010 world cup had dreams, many dreamed of making the finals and a few dreamed of lifting the trophy on the 11 of july. As the games are played some dreams get accomplished but others get shattered like the Irish in paris or the Egyptians in Sudan. In the end there apart from being good enough or moments of madness, the difference between the teams that qualified for this world cup and the other 18 is that they believed in the dream.
Believing in the dream of making the Finals is the driving force of any teams journey to the finals. The 32 teams that made it to the 19th FIFA world cup their dreams became realities and they needed to have new dreams and that’s the important thing. To win the world cup or for the dream to be a sweet one the entire team must believe in the dream. If you don’t believe, you will go know where.
When a team believes it is the most wonderful sight as that team gives all they have and accomplishes the dream they set out to achieve. The moment one stops believing is when everything starts to go wrong. This can be seen in this tournament with the hosts South Africa. In the words of their captain they failed to believe in their second game against Uruguay and that’s when an entire nations dream ended. Although they managed to beat the French that fateful night in Tshwane summed up their tournament and underlined a big thing about dreams and the world cup. One can’t at any moment fail to believe.
Teams that win World cups believe throughout the whole tournament even when times are tough. In those times the character of teams comes to the surface. When times are tough two questions are asked. Will you give up and throw in the towel effectively ending your dream or will you fight till the death and make sure that when you do not succeed you gave it your all? The latter is what makes world cup winners that never say die attitude, the attitude of champions who know that they will give all they have, sometime even sacrifice themselves just to keep the dream alive. We have seen this attitude many times over in World cups. There is a story of the semi-final of the 1982 world cup held in spain where france played germany and in extra time the French scored twice to lead 3-1 but the germans turned what seemed the end for the into a winning situation but managing to equalize and win on penalties. That shows that the germans refused to give up on their dream and showed their famous geist.
The 19th FIFA world cup will be won by the team that believes in their dream more than all the other teams in that tournament, a team that will fight for their dreams and in the face of the impossible; be inspired. The team that BELIEVES will have a very sweet dream.
Heroes
This world cup needed a hero; every team that participated needed a hero or heroes. They needed that one person or group of individuals that took it upon themselves to ensure that their team’s world cup dream was kept alive. Since Uruguay in 1930 each team that participated in the world cup had heroes these men are the likes of Diego Maradona, Eusebio, Gerd Muller, Mario Cempes, Roger Milla and many more. Fifa have released a shortlist of ten men who they believe have been the heroes that have kept their dreams alive although some didn’t make it to the finals they brought hope to many and made them believe.
This list of Xavi, Andres Iniesta, David Villa, Wesley Sneijder, Arjen Robben, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Mesut Ozil, Diego Forlan, Asamoah Gyan and Lionel Messi is the list of men who are in contention for the coveted Ballon d’or. All of these men have been a delight to watch and made us all believe in their dreams as they were the driving force behind their team’s successes.
We all know how brilliant the Spanish trio of Iniesta, Xavi and villa are and it was expected of them. Lord Andres has this uncanny ability of unlocking hard defences and supplying David villa with amazing balls. Xavi has come to South Africa and continued to show us all how to play soccer and made it look easy. He has touched the ball the most time at the world cup as he has made the most passes out of everyone. David Villa is the most prolific strike with a 70% conversion rate for Spain which is bettered by only a few. This world cup he has been at his absolute best.
No one expected the Oranje to make it this far since the mercurial Brazil would be in their way. However all were shocked when they stunned the five-time champions in Port Elizabeth. The difference between the two sides on that day were the two Dutch players that made it on the shortlist Sneijder and Robben stole the world cup from the Brazilians. The Oranje army has been pushed by sneijder who has been on a roll especially after his champions league victory. He has made an ordinary Dutch team look like world beaters and is a shoe-in for the world player of the year. Arjen Robben is the best weapon the Dutch have, his pace and attacking prowess has really important and to think that he could have missed the Finals through injury and one wonders how the Dutch would have fed without Robben.
When the mannschaft arrived in South Africa with their youngsters, many wondered if they were going to be like the great German teams of 54’, 74’ and 90’ without Ballack and other key players who were injured. Honestly Germany was the best team of the world cup they played with a certain fearlessness and massive amounts of heart and pride for Deutschland. Their transition play was second to none and that was evident in their 4 goal drubbings of Australia, England and Argentina. They were able to be amazing due to their two players on the shortlist. Mesut Ozil has been a revelation, I’ve always thought he was a good footballer but in this tournament he showed he was amazing, he is truly an intelligent player. The second Bastian Schweinsteiger has grown up as a soccer player. His new position in the middle of the German midfield has given the mannschaft as stable spine. He has not had a bad game in the tournament and has adjusted admirably to whichever situation the German team found themselves in.
The other names have been great in this tournament and instrumental in their respective team’s successes at the 19th world cup. Lionel Messi the world player of the year 2009 was Argentina’s commander as he pretty much created nearly all of their goals. He has given defences many problems and even though he did not score he showed many as to why he was the best. The most unlikely two names on this list are Asamoah Gyan and Diego Forlan. Gyan who was the pride of Africa was a man, who wasn’t well known, but fought to keep that black star flying. If he scored that penalty to take Ghana to the semis he would have been a strong contender for the ballo d’or. Diego Forlan may be disliked by many South Africans but this man made Uruguay, a team that no one gave a slight chance, famous. He was the major influence that took the last team to qualify to the 2010 showpiece to the top four in the world cup.
This list of ten is not the only list of heroes and there are those who fought with all they had. They may not have been prominent but deserve a mention. Philip Lahm was inspirational as the German captain, a solid defender and Germany have a lot to thank you. Nigel de jong and Mark van Bommel have been silent but effective and key to the Oranje’s march to glory. On the African’s front Anthony Annan and Richard Kingson were great in keeping the Ghanaian dream alive. Other names like Jorge Valdivia of Chile, Lazlo vittek of Slovakia , Enrique Vera of Paraguay, Landon Donovan of the USA, Diego Lugano the captain of Uruguay, Park ji Sung of South Korea, Keisuke Endo of Japan. These are only a few names and were many more.
Along with these heroes there were young players who were also instrumental in their countries campaigns. They are Thomas Muller, Andre (dede) Ayew and Giovanni dos Santos. These three have just been out of this world and have played with the maturity levels of the more experienced teammates. Other young players to watch for the future are Christian Eriksen from Denmark who I wished got more game time to show his talents, Dominick Adiyiah of Ghana, Pedro of Spain.
Heroes are what make tournaments and these men have made the 2010 FIFA world cup a pleasure to watch. What made these men better than the rest is the fact that they believed in their team’s dreams of world cup glory and they will always be remembered in the memories of fans and some in Football History.
This list of Xavi, Andres Iniesta, David Villa, Wesley Sneijder, Arjen Robben, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Mesut Ozil, Diego Forlan, Asamoah Gyan and Lionel Messi is the list of men who are in contention for the coveted Ballon d’or. All of these men have been a delight to watch and made us all believe in their dreams as they were the driving force behind their team’s successes.
We all know how brilliant the Spanish trio of Iniesta, Xavi and villa are and it was expected of them. Lord Andres has this uncanny ability of unlocking hard defences and supplying David villa with amazing balls. Xavi has come to South Africa and continued to show us all how to play soccer and made it look easy. He has touched the ball the most time at the world cup as he has made the most passes out of everyone. David Villa is the most prolific strike with a 70% conversion rate for Spain which is bettered by only a few. This world cup he has been at his absolute best.
No one expected the Oranje to make it this far since the mercurial Brazil would be in their way. However all were shocked when they stunned the five-time champions in Port Elizabeth. The difference between the two sides on that day were the two Dutch players that made it on the shortlist Sneijder and Robben stole the world cup from the Brazilians. The Oranje army has been pushed by sneijder who has been on a roll especially after his champions league victory. He has made an ordinary Dutch team look like world beaters and is a shoe-in for the world player of the year. Arjen Robben is the best weapon the Dutch have, his pace and attacking prowess has really important and to think that he could have missed the Finals through injury and one wonders how the Dutch would have fed without Robben.
When the mannschaft arrived in South Africa with their youngsters, many wondered if they were going to be like the great German teams of 54’, 74’ and 90’ without Ballack and other key players who were injured. Honestly Germany was the best team of the world cup they played with a certain fearlessness and massive amounts of heart and pride for Deutschland. Their transition play was second to none and that was evident in their 4 goal drubbings of Australia, England and Argentina. They were able to be amazing due to their two players on the shortlist. Mesut Ozil has been a revelation, I’ve always thought he was a good footballer but in this tournament he showed he was amazing, he is truly an intelligent player. The second Bastian Schweinsteiger has grown up as a soccer player. His new position in the middle of the German midfield has given the mannschaft as stable spine. He has not had a bad game in the tournament and has adjusted admirably to whichever situation the German team found themselves in.
The other names have been great in this tournament and instrumental in their respective team’s successes at the 19th world cup. Lionel Messi the world player of the year 2009 was Argentina’s commander as he pretty much created nearly all of their goals. He has given defences many problems and even though he did not score he showed many as to why he was the best. The most unlikely two names on this list are Asamoah Gyan and Diego Forlan. Gyan who was the pride of Africa was a man, who wasn’t well known, but fought to keep that black star flying. If he scored that penalty to take Ghana to the semis he would have been a strong contender for the ballo d’or. Diego Forlan may be disliked by many South Africans but this man made Uruguay, a team that no one gave a slight chance, famous. He was the major influence that took the last team to qualify to the 2010 showpiece to the top four in the world cup.
This list of ten is not the only list of heroes and there are those who fought with all they had. They may not have been prominent but deserve a mention. Philip Lahm was inspirational as the German captain, a solid defender and Germany have a lot to thank you. Nigel de jong and Mark van Bommel have been silent but effective and key to the Oranje’s march to glory. On the African’s front Anthony Annan and Richard Kingson were great in keeping the Ghanaian dream alive. Other names like Jorge Valdivia of Chile, Lazlo vittek of Slovakia , Enrique Vera of Paraguay, Landon Donovan of the USA, Diego Lugano the captain of Uruguay, Park ji Sung of South Korea, Keisuke Endo of Japan. These are only a few names and were many more.
Along with these heroes there were young players who were also instrumental in their countries campaigns. They are Thomas Muller, Andre (dede) Ayew and Giovanni dos Santos. These three have just been out of this world and have played with the maturity levels of the more experienced teammates. Other young players to watch for the future are Christian Eriksen from Denmark who I wished got more game time to show his talents, Dominick Adiyiah of Ghana, Pedro of Spain.
Heroes are what make tournaments and these men have made the 2010 FIFA world cup a pleasure to watch. What made these men better than the rest is the fact that they believed in their team’s dreams of world cup glory and they will always be remembered in the memories of fans and some in Football History.
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