This is quite a clichéd topic after every world cup in most newspapers and websites, but I decided to have a go at one on my own anyway. So here's the A-Z of this year's recently concluded spectacle that is the FIFA World Cup 2010
A for Africa : This was always going to be pitched as the Cup hosted by the entire continent, and it's fair to say that the hosts have exceeded expectation in terms of organising.
B for Blue : Blue was a bad colour for jerseys this year as giants like France and Italy crashed out infamously after the group stages putting their nations and footballing legacy to shame.
C for Casillas : San Iker will go down in history as the first captain to break Spain's curse of not winning the World Cup. Of course there was the small matter of the Golden Gloves.
D for Diego Forlan : Forlan wowed us with what Manchester United failed to see in him. This class act showed us some fantastic football capping it off with lots of brilliant goals.
E for Expectations : France,Italy,England,Brazil,Argentina. What was common to them in this World Cup is that none of their teams performed to the fans mighty expectations, which seemed to be the flavour of this tournament.
F for Flops : Flops again seemed to be the bug biting all big name players. Ronaldo, Messi, Kaka, Rooney were all bitten and put on quite a horrendous show.
G for Germany : If there was one team that deserved to win the tournament and didn't, It was the Die Mannschaft. Playing counter attacking football at levels we have not seen since the Brazilian teams of old, they gave us some amazing matches. This team is young and is bound to be around, and hungry for many years to come.
H for Handball : The world cup just seems to love Handball incidents. The Hand of God by Maradona paved way to a new tactic of using the hand to the benefit of the team. Suarez showed us all, a supposedly heroic sacrifice, with good presence of mind, taking his team past Ghana through to the Semi-Finals.
I for Injuries : Most teams were not at their full strength thanks to injuries. Blame the long club season or lack of fitness or desire to come back ahead of recovery period, we were unlucky not to see some good players in action.
J for Jabulani : World Cup's always have controversial balls and this was no different. A Goalkeeper's nightmare, this ball showed us physics as never seen before.
K for Kung-fu : A term that became popular after Nigel De Jong's tackle on Xabi Alonso in the final, justified the way The Netherlands tackled throughout the whole tournament.
L for Larissa Riquelme : The Paraguay lingerie model created waves all across the world and made lots of men Paraguay fans as she promised to strip if they went all the way.
M for Maradona : The man who was the centre of all attention even with the Argentina team boasting of arguably the best player in the World. Only Maradona could have done it, and it is only a pity that his coaching career is not nearly as glamorous as his playing.
N for Nigeria : Nigeria's FA gave us some humour by initially banning the national team from all competitions for the forthcoming two years as a punishment for their performance, which was later revoked after the firing of 3 top officials.
O for Oranje : Once again, the Oranje made it to the finals, and once again they would not win. I personally felt this was a good thing because the way they played would not do justice to the great Netherlands teams of the past, if they did better.
P for Paul : The most valuable person of the tournament would end up being the Psychic Octopus Paul who got the predictions right for all of Germany's matches and the finals. He has now become a betters’ favourite and German enemy number 1. Rumour has it that he has retired from his newfound profession.
Q for Questions : Some questions will never be answered. Was he offside? Did the ball cross the line? Were the FIFA officials right with that decision? Expectedly, this world cup was full of such Questions.
R for Referees : The refereeing this tournament was clearly sub-par. Barring a few excellent performances, most Referees, and linesmen made some rather horrible calls. Time for Video Technology.
S for Spain : Spain has at long last won a World Cup. The team always full of talent, and years of lack of unity due to regionalism and other reasons finally delivered with what is not becoming known as the Golden Generation of Spanish Football.
T for Tiki-Taka : The Spanish (Catalan) word for touch football used by Spain(Barcelona) has evolved into the new(boring) style of possession football and ended up winning the tournament(It was Villa!)
U for Uruguay : If everyone were to bet which South American team would qualify for the semis, nobody would have predicted Uruguay. Yet this bunch of no nonsense footballers, led by some spectacular goals by Forlan and Suarez did their country proud.
V for Vuvuzela : Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. 'nuff said.
W for Waka-Waka : The jumpy number from the ever sizzling hot Shakira became the anthem for this World Cup with every Tom-Dick-Harry addicted to it, including my 3 year old cousin.
X for Xavi-Xabi : The X-Men (Ok, that was bad) were a solid centre of midfield pairing carefully picking out passes, became one of the hardest duo's to play against.
Y for Young Players : Every World Cup produces some fine young players, and this one no different. Germany being the most impressive with their youth gave us some fantastic promise in players like Ozeil, Mueller et al.
Z for Zuma : I was running out of creative thoughts, and thought I had to do justice to South Africa being such great hosts for this spectacle. The guy may be really boring with speeches but heads a country the loves football, which is now loved by the footballing world.
I hope that puts in a nutshell what this World Cup was about. Let me know your views, or if I've forgotten any important thing. Joga Bonito!
