The FIFA World Cup 2010, which as you all are aware is being in held South Africa. It is the first time that an African Nation has had the honour of hosting the event. The preparations made by the country to host the World Cup may be below par but this has certainly not dispirited the African Fans. Yesterday South Africa etched its name in history of the FIFA, by not only being the first host nation to be eliminated from the tournament from group stages, but by also defeating one of the Footballing greats France by a Margin of 2 – 0. It was the first time ever that the South African Nation had ever defeated France on such big stage. Although most of us never really expected South Africa to qualify for the last 16 phase(well at least I know I didn’t, but we also never really imagined France to be eliminated with such a humiliation. The French squad consists of some of the well known Footballers (F.Ribery, G.Cisse, T.Henry, Toulalan, N.Anelka) exited the tournament without a single victory in the group stage. I guess France should try to convince Zinedine Zindane to come back from retirement & show the team how its done.
On the the other hand most of the African nations have failed to impress me so far, except GHANA . I never Imagined teams like Nigeria &
Cameroon & Ivory Coast would put poor performances, despite their strong squads which compromised of players from major clubs of Europe, such as Barcelona, Arsenal, Chelsea etc… & to be honest the so called ‘God’s of Football’ aka The Samba Boys(Brazilian’s) have also failed to impress me, although they have won both of their qualifying matches so far, but I never really expected such low margin of goals from the 5time World Champions. I never really liked the Brazilian game play but also never expected this from them as well…(perhaps it’s not their fault, they can always blame the kits they are wearing made out of recycled bottles xD)
As for the most disappointing team of the tournament can rightly be granted to the star studded team of England. Yes fellows, England is the team that many of the bookies this year had kept their hopes high on but England sure knows how to discourage betting scandals…. Starting from Robert Green, The England’s no.1 choice, Fabio Capello selected Green over David James, hums….isn’t it a dream of a Coach to win the World Cup??? Well certainly Mr.Capello thinks differently, otherwise he would have sent Robert Green Home back to England after that pathetic display of skill in the match against USA. Next disappointment came from the English Star, Wayne Rooney. Rooney’s form in the EPL is arguably V.good but when it comes to big stage he somehow fails to reproduce his original form, why is that so??? Ans is simple the applied Pressure of being on big screen in front of millions of eyes is just too big for the Manchester United Striker.
Personal favorites To Win this Year’s World Cup:
I am tipping You guys with the following 4teams that would enter the Semi’s this Year, namely they are:
Argentina
Germany
Spain
Uruguay
C’mon people don’t be surprised over the selection of Uruguay as one of the hot favorites to win the World Cup this Year ….The Uruguay reminds me of France as they were in the 2006 World Cup, The whole team depended on the mastermind Zidane. Well this time history has repeated itself but only the victims are different. This time its Uruguay’s, ‘Diego Forlan’, who has helped the team to go through the qualifying stages of the Cup. Lets be fair & not to forget the D.Forlan has remained the top scorer of the Spanish League in 2005 & 2009 & the display of ball control that he exhibited against the matches of France & Mexico, were out of this world. I’d personally rate him higher than C.Ronaldo(who by the way is also in his top form this Year)
Nayyar Shafi's Blog 