Soccer Goals Safari

Well looks like this is going to be my last post for a while, as the Soccer Goals Safari reaches its conclusion. No miracle of a World Cup Final place for any of the African teams. Maybe their day will come, but this time around, they were just not up to the task – especially when it comes to Uruguaian strikers punching away a certain Ghanaian goal! Thankfully Uruguay were beaten down to fourth place by one of the teams of the tournament Germany, in the third place playoff on Saturday evening. And it was the Germans who introduced the concept of “team” play rather than so called talented individuals to this year’s tournament; although one of the good things about the USA side was its team spirit, which will hopefully catapult the beautiful game forward in the States from now on (nope, I’m not holding my breath!)

I suppose I should write something about the final then. Spain versus Holland. English referee. Before the game, I was so wanting Holland to win the cup. They’ve been in the Final three times in the past and still never won it; so close and yet so far. However, I was pretty shocked by their style of play. Funny really, I thought the game was called “football”, not “studs chest” or “filthy tackle ball” or…(insert your own here)…! What a dirty, cheating match that one was. Fourteen yellow cards, mainly to the Dutch, with a double yellow for Heitinga in the extra time period. And that’s not all. Van Bommel was constantly sniping and fouling, despite being booked, and probably should have left the field at some point. Let’s not even mince words about De Jong; he was booked by the English ref for a flying thrust kick into Alonso’s chest that even Bruce Lee would have been proud of. Surely a straight red card, but no. That one incident set the scene for a scrappy, bad-tempered and generally viciously violent bloodbath of a game of soccer. My allegiance switched to Spain on account of the fact that they wanted to play football, rather than kicking hairy, bloodstained lumps out of the opposition.

And in the end, after a decidedly boring and defensive (irony!) game, extra time beckoned and Iniesta grabbed his chance almost at the death, of becoming a Spanish hero. 1-0 to Spain – job done. It was great that whoever won the game, they would have won the trophy for the first time ever. As it turned out, Spain got its first win, and also joined a very exclusive club of teams that have held both the World Cup and been European Champions at the same time; the other teams which have done this are Germany and France.

So that’s it. World Cup all packed away for another four years. Next stop, Euro 2012, and perhaps a totally new England team? Nah, they cling onto their “stars” from South Africa. All that remains to be said is “Well Done Spain! You weren’t too givey with the soccer goals, winning all but two of your games with a stingy 1-0 scoreline, but you put on a show and deserved it! Good on you! Viva España, and all that!”