Ke Nako, Hamba kahle.

Its time, Farewell!

It has been a tournament to remember, whether you are a local or flew in from the far corners of the earth to be part Africa’s first highly anticipated chance to host this tournament. I’m sure I am in a position to say that it has crossed all expectations in hosting a commendable and successful World Cup.

My favorite moment out of the World Cup is the World Cup itself, as a tournament, as an event, it is an experience and I wish Sepp Blatter  could bestow upon every nation as it is an event that is able to build and unite a nation as well as it is an economical investment in the future of that nation. So thank you to FIFA for selecting South Africa and we hope that the World Cup has been as wonderful for you as it was for us locals. We can now be proud for hosting an event of this magnitude to the greatest of success.

Thank you FIFA

Thank you World Cup

-Ageez

Salani Kahle South Africa!

It seems like just yesterday we were all gearing up for the main event. Vuvuzelas blowing, flags waving and people from all over the globe come to be part of the world’s biggest party. Everybody seemed to be in a festive mood wearing their best to support their respective countries. Nothing else really mattered.

The World Cup was different this time. We had a few shocks and some terrible mistakes but on the whole it was quite an entertaining World Cup. We were all stunned with Spain’s defeat to Switzerland and France, England, Italy and Brazil’s early exit. We were furious with refereeing decisions regarding offsides and disallowed goals. We were surprised with how far teams like Slovakia, Ghana, Paraguay and even Uruguay for that matter reached and were definitely mesmerized by some amazing goals and saves.

The opening and closing ceremony was breath-taking and South Africa and her people must be given their due credit for their spectacular efforts. The stadiums were grand, the people were warm and friendly, the country was beautiful and though some would say that the vuvuzelas, kuduzelas and sockzelas were annoying there are many who would beg to differ.

Spain were the crowned world champions and though I personally think that their game was not spectacular in every way, they yet deserved to win it. They got the goals when they needed them, they stood united in defence and their game was fair play even though they were faced with opponents who looked rowdy, extremely aggressive and played the game with a mentality that almost seemed disturbing.

“I prefer a very ugly game and we win, instead of a beautiful game and we lose….. We’re in a World Cup final, so it doesn’t matter how we’ve played….. These are all things that aren’t important. I don’t want friends, I want to be world champion.”                                    -Arjen Robben

The adidas Golden Boot and Best Young Player award went to Thomas Müller and was rightly deserved. For a player of 20 he was impressive. He scored 5 goals and had 3 assists.

The adidas Golden Glove went Iker Casillas another deserving candidate. He has made some impressive saves and has been a terrific captain.

Lastly, it was Diego Forlán who won the adidas Golden Ball. He has been a marvel to watch this world cup scoring 5 goals in 7 games.

So its goodbye World Cup 2010 South Africa and thank you for an entertaining month of football. But don’t be sad because in 4 years which is really, not that far away we will we saying Hola World Cup 2014 Brasil.

The Other Side

Have you noticed how there is hardly a football game these days that is played in a fair manner? How everyone loves the team when they are winning but criticizes them for the smallest faults they commit?

Paraguay v Spain

Spain were not that great against Paraguay. For a team with world class players their performance was pretty low. The score line should have read anything but 1-0 to Spain.

To begin with, Nelson Valdez’s 41st minute goal should have been allowed to stand but he was said to be offside. This nonsense of disallowing goals just because they ‘seem’ to be offside has been happening one too many times. We can’t keep blaming referees all the time so I guess goal line technology must be introduced. Then it was the penalty. The referee should have either let Xabi Alonso’s goal stay or he should have made Cardozo take the penalty again because on both occasions when the penalties were first taken there was more than one Spanish player in the box.

That is why I say that the scoreline should have been anything but 1-0 to Spain had the game been refereed well.

Netherlands v Brazil

Robben took full advantage of the situation and the referee was too blind to see it. It is more than likely that the Brazilian left flank began to get frustrated mainly because Robben seemed to be going down with every touch and the referee seemed to believe that the Brazilian left-back was constantly fouling Robben which was not really true. Felipe Melo being a hot-headed individual lost his cool and was thus red carded. Wouldn’t you react the same way if you were in his place?

Yes, the players did not have a great game but how can you forget the times they did play well and the times they did win?

Uruguay v Ghana

Do you really think Suarez ‘stole’ the game? On any other given day it would not have been such a huge issue. Do you remember the group stages when Ghana played Australia. Kewell was red-carded for a deliberate hand ball and Gyan took the penalty, only this time he converted it into a goal. Had the same thing happened against Uruguay nobody would have made such a huge issue about the incident. Suarez did what any other player would have done and hence it is wrong to accuse him of ‘stealing the game’. The grapes were sour for Ghana and hence they made a big issue out of it for nothing.

However, they must be credited for the splendid performance that they put up.

It is NOT Rooney’s fault!

Don’t blame the lad just cause he could not score a goal. Football is a team sport, not a one man show. You need (in most cases) 11 players to win a game. If you have good forwards but bad defence you are bound to lose at some point (Argentina v Germany) and if you you can only defend then, at the most you could take the game into penalties but then you are most likely to lose due to lack of good strikers.

England did not play well on the whole and picking on one player and his club manager is the stupidest thing to do.

Spain v Honduras

1st Half Analysis

OK….. So Spain have had the better of the first half but have got just 1 goal to show for it which in my opinion is NOT enough. The Hondurans may not have the best squad but that does not mean they can’t score a goal. If Spain are going to make it to the next round they will have to try harder…. Probably make a few substitutions, get Fabregas on? So far, Spain leads 1-0