This tournament has been historic. It will always be remembered as the first World Cup to go to Africa, in particular, to South Africa – a country that has suffered so much oppression, that has fought to show the world that it is safe and that has shown the world that white people and black people are co-existing in peace.
Holland have beaten Uruguay 3-2 in the first World Cup semi final. The result means that the World Cup final will be an all-European affair as it was in 2006. This is only the second time in World Cup history that consecutive finals have been all-European; the last time it happened was in the 1934 and 1938 finals.
The semi finals start tomorrow and are heavily dominated by Europe. Having suggested only a week ago that the South American teams were doing so well the dominance by one continent at the World Cup has again shifted.
Once again, the result of Germany vs. Argentina has sided with modern history. I eluded briefly to the history behind this fixture in a preview to the quarter finals and like in 1990 and 2006 it’s the Germans who have emerged victorious. Germany continued their superb form through to the quarter final match and won 4-0 with goals from Muller, Klose (x2) and Friedrich. Germany seem to have the game one in every area of the pitch.
We now know from which eight countries the winner of the World Cup will come. There are four South American nations, three European nations and one African nation.There is the prospect that all four semi finalists could be South American with the draw shaping up like this:
Netherlands vs. Brazil
Uruguay vs. Ghana
Argentina vs. Germany
Paraguay vs. Spain
This assessment comes in three parts: vs. Germany; the tournament as a whole; and the future. As with my last post, I am very keen to get a discussion going at the bottom of the article. As I have experienced this afternoon, everyone has an opinion on what has happened and where to go – there is no right answer, so have a read of what I think and then I want to see what the World Cup Statistic’s readers think. We’ve been accustomed to England Football Jokes over the years, now we want to know what you think!
Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay, Brazil and Argentina all qualified for the knockout stages. There wasn’t a South American team that didn’t advance past the groups. Why have they been so successful?I’m not really sure what the answer is to this, so I’m quite hoping that this will trigger some suggestions (type away in the comment box at the bottom of the page).
That weekend felt draining. I don’t think I’ve experienced so much footballing information in such a short space of time. Saturday started with the England hangover. Everyone has their own opinion as to why England continued their poor form with another failure. England fans weren’t the only ones feeling angry. The USA’s fans awoke to their own frustrations. They felt, quite rightly, that their side had been denied a 3-2 victory against Slovenia which would have capped an excellent turnaround having been two goals behind. Maurice Edu’s late goal was harshly ruled out by the referee.
Cameroon have become the first nation to be knocked out of the World Cup. Boasting a strong squad made up of a lot of European-based players more was expected of Paul Le Guen’s side. After a 1-0 loss to Japan they lost 2-1 to Denmark yesterday to sit rock bottom of Group E. They will play merely for pride in their final group match against the Netherlands later this week.
As the World Cup started I agreed on a (slightly bold and rushed) statement with my housemate: ‘if England don’t win the World Cup it’ll be down to the players and not the coach’ – that statement doesn’t stand so true anymore. After the USA game I attacked the England players individually with some player ratings. Post-Algeria I don’t see any point to individual assessment. Everyone was poor. The team must be examined as just that – a team.
