Mail & Guardian staffers take the opportunity to make excuses for their World Cup predictions.
I told you so …
I have observed mostly English commentators saying we should compliment South Africa on being good hosts — but adding that the football was nothing to write home about.
But they are wrong. The football was exciting overall although there were some disappointing matches. What made it exciting was its unpredictability and the shocks that we never saw coming. So many of the outcomes were the result of a freak red card, a poor refereeing decision or a goalkeeper miscalculating the speed of the Jabulani ball.
I was lucky to have predicted that Spain would finally perform on the big stage and win the World Cup. I was always convinced that Argentina and Spain had by far the most talented players.
Last year while watching the Confederations Cup, it was clear to me that the strength of Brazil was their cohesiveness as a team and their strong defence. But winning a World Cup would always require a level of extraordinary brilliance when the chips were down. Both Argentina and Spain had those qualities but, while Spain were led by a coach with a proven pedigree, Vicente del Bosque, Argentina were being coached by an eccentric, inexperienced manager, Diego Maradona.
Despite losing to Inter Milan in the Champions League, in my opinion Barcelona is the best football club and their players form the spine of the Spanish team. — Rapule Tabane
Bafana Bafana
The 2010 soccer spectacle has come and gone. Inevitably, all eyes will now turn to Brazil 2014.
Given the euphoria the event created, many South Africans would be forgiven for having high expectations of Bafana Bafana. In all fairness the team’s performance under former coach Carlos Alberto Parreira has shown significant improvement.
The challenge for South African football authorities now will be how to build on the foundation laid by Parreira.
The first step would be to divorce politics from the beautiful game and channel more resources into football development. For Bafana the long journey to Brazil starts on September 11 when they take on Niger in a 2012 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier. Pitso Mosimane, the new Bafana coach, will know how crucial it is to do well at the Africa Cup of Nations. The Spanish team, which won the Euro 2008, their first major title in 44 years, demonstrated this when they emerged victorious in this year’s World Cup.
Though it will not be a walk in the park for Bafana to reclaim their spot as African champions, the boys demonstrated they can do better if they want to when they beat former world champions France in this year’s World Cup.
The secret of success lies in how you mould youngsters to become world-class football players. It is not too late for us to put some of the players who raised their hands during last year’s Under-20 World Cup in Egypt to the test. — Matuma Letsoalo
Brazil
Brazil’s failure to win the World Cup has been hailed in many quarters as the only way to get rid of Dunga. He is accused of killing the spirit of jogo bonito (playing beautifully) associated with the five-times world champions.
With only Robinho fighting to keep the Brazilian brand of football alive, Dunga’s team appeared content with hitting the opposition on quick counters. For some of us who have long admired the devastating way the Brazil of old dominated their opposition, this was disappointing. The South Americans are known to camp in the enemy half, and not the other way round.
Dunga’s selection was centred on a strong defence marshalled by Lucio and Maicon — two players who also enjoy venturing upfront — so it is no wonder that Dunga resorted to counter-attack. Add to this three defensive midfielders — Dani Alves, Gilberto Silva and Felipe Melo — and the little life in the Brazil flair was snuffed out. A case in point is the 0-0 with Portugal. What a damp squib. The match was punctuated by fouling and theatrical acting that left fans feeling shortchanged.
But even with an approach foreign to this great side, Brazil appeared on course to fulfil my prediction that they would win the World Cup. They emerged from the group stages unbeaten. Little did we know that was to be the end of Dunga’s luck. Holland came from a goal down to eliminate the tournament favourites 2-1 in the quarterfinals.
It is hardly surprising that there was no sympathy for the joy killer when he was fired, with his entire staff, days after returning home. — Phathisani Moyo
Italy and Ghana
Going into this World Cup, there were two pervading football philosophies vying for supremacy. The first was the more aesthetically pleasing, short-passing, all-out offensive style of club sides like Barcelona and national teams like Spain.
The second was based on the “anti-football” approach perfected by the Champions League-winning Inter Milan coach José Mourinho. This blemished this World Cup, with most teams adopting its tenets of absorbing pressure and hitting opponents on the counter-attack.
It would be simplistic to suggest that all teams playing in this manner, and the 4-2-3-1 formation most common in this tournament, were dour and destructive.
The youthful Germans played with two screening defensive midfielders but Sami Khedira bustled forward at every opportunity, leading Die Mannschaft at times to have five or six attackers buzzing around their opponent’s goals.
The German interpretation was more fluid and joyfully attacking than, for example, the Dutch (where midfielder Mark van Bommel was in all his niggling, fouling, cynical pomp), Uruguay or even Brazil.
My initial prediction that Italy would win was tempered by notes on why they wouldn’t and it stands true — an ageing defence, anonymous midfielders unable to orchestrate swift counters and immobile, inefficient strikers.
That’s why they didn’t even qualify for the knock-out stage of the tournament.
My heart was saying Ghana and the Black Stars and, but for a Luis Suarez handball in the quarterfinal, they could have, at least, marched to the final. Ghana did better than any other African team because they pressed high up into their opponent’s half, were organised in defence and had several stand-out individuals, including midfielders Anthony Annan, Kevin Prince Boateng and André Ayew. — Niren Tolsi
Argentina and England
Argentina lost 4-0 to Germany in the quarterfinals and their neighbours Brazil, lost 2-1 to Holland at the same stage of the competition. The Diego Maradona coached Argentina was welcomed by 15Â 000 cheering people at the airport. But Dunga, Brazil’s coach, was summarily dismissed.
I predicted that Argentina would win the World Cup but, as with all things Maradona, one can never be sure, so I had to insure my bet by also stating that I had dreamed they had won.
Argentina’s World Cup qualification bid was as bizarre as it was sensational, as improbable as it was theatrical. It was marked by a mutual trading of insults with opponents, an endless tinkering with tactics and more than 100 players were used. Once qualification had been secured, established players (Inter Milan’s Esteban Cambiasso and Javier Zanetti) were left out to accommodate fringe participants.
Consider the inclusion of the defender, Ariel Garce. He was drafted in because Maradona dreamed that Argentina had won the Cup and the only person he could identify was Garce.
Maradona’s odd style, questionable grasp of tactics and his penchant for spontaneity was always going to be caught out the moment the team met a decent side.
England, on the other hand, were hampered by a sheer lack of talent. Apart from Wayne Rooney and Frank Lampard, it’s difficult to see which other English player could have played in one of the top sides like Brazil, Germany, Spain and Argentina.
The English hoof the ball to the opponent’s goal and hope for the best. There’s never an attempt to keep the ball or to open up defences using guile and tricks, and no sense of geometry whatsoever.
They only have spirit, passion and aggression. That may work in the Sunday social football league but not at this level. — Percy Zvomuya