South Africa 2010: A Reflection

That's the World Cup done for another four years, then. And as per usual, the final was crap of the highest order, which is to be expected. I can't actually remember there being an engaging final in all my 22 or so years of following the game.

It matters not. On the plus side, we got first-time champions, which is nice. Shame it was Spain, who constantly failed to impress me to the degree I felt I was supposed to. Great goalkeeper, yes, and David Villa is a world-class striker, but seven goals in six games isn't exactly thrilling.

Enough of the negativity. My highlights of the tournament were:

a) New Zealand being the only team to go home unbeaten. In their game vs Italy, I was willing them to hold on and felt a tension I never did during any other game.

b) Diego Forlan shutting up those pathetic pundits who have labelled him "Man United flop" for the last six years or so. Despite his development into one of the top strikers in Europe, in this country he never seemed to escape a time where he was hardly a consistent starter. Joint top scorer and a series of show-running performances mean Diego can feel very proud of his achievements.

c) Javier Hernández slightly easing my worries about the forthcoming season.

And the negatives:

1) The lack of exciting football. It's a strange World Cup when Germany are one of the most exciting teams, but kudos to them for playing some great counter-attacking football. I see them as a good bet for Euro 2012 when their core of young players have a couple more years experience.

2) Mark Von Bommel being a complete prick in several games.

3) The media coverage in England. Fuck. Ing. Hell. Seldom have I seen a less informed bunch of apparent experts in one place. The biscuit grabber for me was Mick McCarthy expressing surprise that Argentina's Veron was the same Veron who had played for Man United seven years ago. Jesus H. Corbett. Here is a man getting paid to be an 'expert' who is also apparently paid a fair whack to manage a team, and he isn't aware that Seba Veron has actually enjoyed continued success at club and international level since he left England.

Rant over. Viewed from my sofa, the tournament was a bit of damp squib, and not because of England's hilarious antics. Perhaps next time, the Sun's campaign "Maybe, Just Maybe, England won't make complete bell-ends of themselves". The question now is whether all the pre-summer hype of it being the first African World Cup makes any difference to the horrific levels of poverty and disease in the country - will any of the money made trickle down to the people? The cynic says no, but I do hope that the last four weeks will be of some benefit to people whose struggles make my own bleatings seem as stupidly insignificant as they truly are.