South Africa
So what did people expect of South Africa? A miracle or juju insipred performance? This is a team which never qualified for the African Cup Nations and if by any chance the host nations were required to go through the rigor of qualification then they definitely would have not made it to the Wolrd Cup being hosted in their own country.
World Cup is the theater for the World Best and therefore each continent should give the best that they have. Allowing the host to qualify automatically is both absurd and mockery of the beautiful game. The strength of a team is measured during qualifications and that is why it is called Finals.. Football is the most popular sport in the world and the argument that the host people will not be interested if the local team is not playing is null and has no basis. I can’t believe it that if the World Cup was hosted in Kenya people will not go to watch it because Kenyan team is not playing!! Really! We watch anything Football, people stay a wake past mid night just to watch Champions League games which are a continent a way. Don’t even say it when comes to World Cup, Kenyans dream, sleep, drink,walk , tweet, facebook World Cup.
Host Nations participating in qualification should be a must just like the defending Champions have to go through qualification to confirm their participation on the next tournament. May be just to be fair there should be some different sort of rules guiding the host nations qualification criteria. They should be allowed to go through even if they come out of the group worst than the expected for the qualifying teams. But there at the same time if they are too bogus..then they should not participate at all at the World cup..keep the purity and the standards of the game.
Video Replays
To me South Africa was loosing yesterday’s match anyway but after the match the Supersport commentator showed that just before the goal mouth incidence the Uruguayan player was offside. Many South Africans might think that two bad decisions costed them dearly on that match and now the rainbow nation have very little to cheer about. Offside decision that was never given and the faul by the Goal Keeper that never was. And when we talk about bad referring the next thing on our lips is when would Sepp Blatter and the entire footballing fraternity see the sense in introducing video replays in soccer matches. There those who believe that referring to video technology would disrupt the flow of the match and spoil the natural flow. But looking at the modern football the game get interrupted all the time. When there is incidence the referees stops the game and makes instant decision, while in some cases they race to the touch line to consult their assistants. Bad decisions lead to on pitch confrontations with players arguing with referees, fans voicing their opinions on the stands , while the tv commentators make their verdicts looking at the replays. If referees can race to touch line to consult their assistants, what is the big deal in waiting a few secs to consult the video replay?
There are two circumstances that referees should be very sure before making their final decisions, when sending a player off and when giving or not giving a penalty. Football is full of cheats, players diving knowing very well that referee will not spot that part of the act and probably punish the opposing player. Referees are meant to yellow card diving players but in most occasions they get it wrong, and it is costly when the action is within the box. Cheating should be completely eradicated from Football because it is annoying for the neutrals watching the game and costly to the innocent parties. When you see a huge player like Drogba or Ronaldo going down for any slight contact on them you start to wonder what the state of their minds..i mean in real life do these players fall when the wind is blowing or when someone tapped them on the streets? Ok they probably don’t walk on the crowded streets like most of us but even flowers withstand the landing of the bees. Lesser sports like cricket, tennis or rugby have shown that the replays can work effectively and therefore there should never be any doubt that it can work.
Other African Nations
Just like last World Cup in Germany it seems probably there would be only one African team going through to the next round. I know it is too early to judge but at this point Ghana has the best chance of making it to the next round. Nigeria played very well against the mighty Argentina but a lot still depends on how they will perform against energetic South Korea. Assuming that they will easily overcome Greece today.
Cameroon is as good as out of the tournament once they lost to the weakest team on paper in the group, Japan. Anybody out there expecting Cameroon to beat Netherlands? I don’t think so, and even if they manage to beat Denmark which is not going to be easy, overcoming Robin Van Persie and co. is next to impossible although miracles happen as we saw with Switzerland against Spain.
Ivory Coast the best team in the continent looking at their individual players has huge task ahead of them. Most people looked at drawing with Portugal as favorable results but the fact that they are meeting Brazil next and Portugal will play Brazil last might work to Portugal’s advantage. Assuming that Brazil will beat Ivory Coast in their next game, that means they would have qualified for the next round by the time they meet Portugal in their last game. At that point Dunga boys might not take the match that seriously and the possibility of them losing the match or even drawing is high. Another elephant in the room is Spain factor. After loosing their first game Spain might not go through as the group leader and although Brazil is among the favorites they might not want to meet another favorite that early.
Algeria…no comments
Vuvuzelas
Somebody commented that Diego Forlan is the man who stopped stupid vuvuzelas. Vuvuzelas are part and parcel of South African football and I think people complaining should just shut up. The worst are those sitting behind the computers in far a way land like UK and then complaining loudly the way vuvuzelas are spoiling the World Cup. Really?
World Cup Winner
Personal Predictions..Argentina