My highs and lows about Fifa World Cup

Ahhh..at long last, the 2010 FIFA World Cup has ended, with the crowning of a new World Champion--- SPAIN!!! So, I enjoyed the whole 31 days of Football, but definitely, there's the shortcomings too.

HIGHS!!

1) Tsabalalalalalalalala's.... GOAL!!!


South Africa 1-0 Mexico

Simão | MySpace Video

It's the first goal of the tournament! And besides, just look at the strike. Wonderful!

2) Diego Forlan

He scored 5 five in the tournament. Practically brought Uruguay to where they are, with a helping "hand" from Suarez and all five of those goals were magical.It's a pity his last kick of the tournament, a free kick hit the bar. Otherwise, it would have brought the 3rd placing play-off to extra time.

3) La Furia Roja!! Spain the world champions!

Just look at them, they have Iker Casillas as the man between the sticks. Puyol and Sergio Ramos as defenders. A midfield spoiled with Xavi, Xabi Alonso and Iniesta, even Fabregas and David Silva are on the bench! And the strike force...David Villa!!! And Torr... let's forget about that shall we? We also cant forget the beutiful passing and ball control...a total of 3389 passes. Yeah....3389 passes. That's an average of 484 passes per game.

4) Germany's Blitzkrieg.

In just one World Cup, a total 7 matches of them. The German's destroyed their reputation of just plain technical football with the demolition of Australia,Germany and even England. They showed the way to play beautiful, solid passing football with swift counter-attack. It's akin to seeing the former Nazi armada during World War II..... but this time, the whole world applauded it.

5) Landon Donovan's goal against Algeria

Background: the US had a goal from Clint Dempsey disallowed. It's over 90 mins and 45 seconds, a few more before the whistle ends. Had USA drew, they would be eliminated at the group stage.

Result: Landon Donovan's strike sent not only the National team to the top of the group, leaving England to be trashed by Germany(thought they lost to Ghana in the end). It sent the whole US into esctasy.

6) Shakira's Waka-Waka. =D





Low's.....

1) Italy and France

Well, there isn't nice to say about them right? Italy, the defending champions were not even 5% of the might they used to be.Heck, they drew with New Zealand. All the so called Italian legendary defending were crumbled by the Sloaks(3-2) and the Kiwi's. They were probably scared when the Haka dance were performed.


2) England

I had to reserved one special place for this "team" cause they epitomized the terms of "Crash and Burn". A team, with all the abundant talent with the likes of Gerard, Lampard and Rooney can't even score against Algeria. And Algeria wasn't playing that well. It's not a need to elaborate on Robert Green's blunder, Rooney's lack of form(to say the very least) and the whole team in general. Thank God for the whipping by the Germans. They deserved it. My previous blog post on them elaborates more.

3) Luis Suarez's handball.

It's not Luis Suarez was the total villain. It'll be most footballers reaction to ensure their country won't get eliminated so easily. What happened next was out-of-this world. First, Asamoah Gyan missed his penalty kick, and Luis Suarez was celebrating like they won the World Cup. It didn't help that the players held Suarez up in the air as if he was the hero and Suarez's boasting his "Hand of God" and poor PR skills. A wonderful match nonetheless.

5) The-Goal-That-Never-Was

It's a shame that England did not get that goal, even more so for Frank Lampard, who hasn't got a goal in the WC finals to his name(and judging by his age, not anymore). But this opens up the debate about the goal-line technology. I still have a gut feeling the problem will never be resolved at all.....