Me and My World Cup 2010 Madness

Thank God the World Cup 2010 in South Africa ended on the wee hours of 12 July 2010. Phew! Yes, the Spanish team were crowned the new champions, just like Paul, the octopus predicted. Not that I believed Paul, because I actually wanted the Dutch to win. Anyway, gone are the days where I will be in front of the idiot box at home or some restaurant nearby to view three live matches in a row. I actually did this several times. I did bet that Holland would beat Brazil 2-1. Put a RM10.00 wager and I actually won RM65.00! Well, I did not use the money to buy food, as it is against my beliefs, but did have some fun with it. Ehem! Ehem!

Italy and France were big letdowns. So were Cristiano Ronaldo (of Portugal) and Lionel Messi (of Argentina). I wonder how the latter got nominated for the best player award. Worst goalkeeper must be Robert Green of the Three Lions of England, who had turned to Three Kittens after being thrashed 4-1 by the German machine. The German themselves were licked by the Spaniards who could read the German's team tactics like a book.

England was a real disappointment. So were Argentina and Brazil. Uruguay were a pleasant surprise and their performance exceeded many fans' expectations. Out of the Asian teams, Japan and South Korea did well enough to qualify out of their group. Ghana was also great, only succumbing to penalty kicks in the quarter-finals.

I wonder how much did Shakira get for singing the World Cup song "Waka Waka". It's catchy all right. But the airplay has reduced for obvious reasons.

All in all, underachieving Spain finally proved that they deserve the World Cup crown and it will be interesting come Euro 2012. And the suffering will start again...