64 matches were to be played by 32 teams in the beginning of June. Now, a month later only two matches are left. During the first one, on July 10 Germany and Uruguay will compete for the third place. However, after the second match, on July 11 the new world soccer champion will be crowned.
Will it be Spain or the Netherlands? Both teams deserved with their style the right to fight for the gold. And this final will be a historic one – for a first time ever a European team will become the champ of a World Cup that took place on the Old Continent. Neither Spain, nor the Netherlands knows the feeling of being No 1 in the world. However, both teams deserved their participation in this final match with their game. Spain won over Portugal, Paraguay and Germany on its way to the final. The Netherlands on the other hand won over Denmark, Brazil and Uruguay. Therefore there are no doubts whether these two teams have the right to play at the final of FIFA World Cup 2010.
The final game on Sunday symbolizes something else too – Europe will have more world cups won than its eternal rival South America. So far both continents have 9 titles within this competition that has continued since the first World Cup, held back in 1930 in Uruguay. Europe will be the current winner in the race now, no matter who will win on Sunday. Besides that, a new name will be engraved on the cup and it will be different from the ones of Brazil, Italy, Germany, Argentine, Uruguay, France and England.
Experts said different things on the quality of football at this World Cup. They said: “boring”, with more technique than physics, with no technical innovations. However, the average fan that had traveled thousands of miles only to watch the game of his favorite team, or those millions of people in front of the TV sets were really thrilled. It was a thrill of joy to some of them, and thrill of sorrow to others. But that is exactly what makes football a great game – you win, you lose, you feel happy or sad and still you look with hope forward to the new matches. So we shouldn’t be surprised by the thousands of people that welcomed in a most touching manner the teams of Argentine, Paraguay and Ghana after they dropped out. There were, of course, the opposite emotions too – at the arrival of the Brazilian and Nigerian teams in their homelands. It is a question of traditions, manners and emotions.
The failure of most of the stars was the most impressive thing at the World Cup 2010. Messi, Kaka, Ronaldo, Rooney, Drogba – these all are the names of famous masters of the ball. However, their game was less than impressive. The reason was that team football had its triumph in South Africa and those, who counted on casual brilliant play of their stars, were the first that had to pack. Teamwork was the main secret of those, who made it to the end.
English version: Zhivko Stanchev
