The 2010 World Cup is Over

And it seems such a long time ago I was watching and rooting for Japan to progress beyond the Quarter Finals when they were beat One-Nil (1-0) in a bitterly disheartening Sudden-death Shootout. After having played Paraguay to a scoreless 90 minutes, then a further 30mins of Overtime, Japan would lose on the basis of one missed shot, defeated 5-4 in penalty kicks…




And thus the round of Sixteen became Eight, with one Team looking nearly unbeatable? As Germany simply rolled over first England 4-1, albeit a controversial Goal that would have seen the match tied at 2-2 just before Halftime’s call was blown by the Referees! Germany next crushed Wildman Diego Maradona’s Argentina squad 4-1, although German Striker Thomas Muller seemingly received a bogus Yellow-card for an inadvertent Handball, thus giving him a second Yellow-card and eliminating him from playing in the all important Semi-final against Spain.



Meanwhile the other side’s bracket saw the Netherlands shockingly defeat the Tournament’s favourites Brazil 2-1, having come back in the second half after trailing 1-0, as this unexpected loss saw Brazil’s Coach fired upon the Team’s arrival back home from South Africa. Then the Orange Crush, Err Holland defeated Uruguay 3-1 in its Semi-final, becoming the first Team to clinch its birth in the World Cup Finals, as Uruguay was forced to await the outcome of Germany vs. Spain to determine who it would play for the less coveted title of Third-place.



Yet once again, Spain played its methodical game of mesmerizing footwork and fancy passing to defeat Germany One-nil and advance to their inaugural World Cup Finals berth, facing the Netherlands, who were making their third appearance, having lost twice previously in 1974 and 1978, thus ensuring a first time winner of the Finals.



And after playing a scoreless 90mins, a further 15mins was played to a draw, before Spain’s Andres Iniesta scored the winning Goal in the 112th minute of this exceedingly tense 120 minute Football match held at soccer City, seeing Espana hang-on to its somewhat precarious lead to notch its Country’s very first ever World Cup victory, becoming only the eighth Nation to achieve this feat.



And having added insult-to-injury, a German Octopus named Paul had previously predicted that Spain would defeat Germany, causing Death Threats on the Octopus, demanding it be cooked after choosing Spain! Yet Paul-the-Octopus gained some respect by correctly choosing his Home team over Uruguay, in what was a thriller, seeing Germany narrowly defeat Uruguay 3-2…