WORLD CUP 2010 South Africa

Loved that game today. The goals (and saves) were fabulous. Great game to watch! Neither team has anything to be ashamed about. Great entertainment! Wonderful athletes.

The British journalist who was involved with the soccer fan getting into the English soccer team's dressing room, was also just given a fine. R750. That's not a lot really. Now he wants the Police Commissioner to apologize to him in person. I think the journalist can just be glad that he got his passport back and everything is fine!

Tonight, 2 hours before kick off there will be a closing ceremony for the World Cup 2010. Local and international artists will be appearing. Shakira will close with the World Cup 'song', 'Waka Waka - This time for Africa'! My favourite World Cup song is still K'naan's 'Waving Flag'. You know, that one that goes: 'When I get older I will be stronger, they'd call me freedom, just like a waving flag, a waving flag...oh, oh, oh, oh, oh... Beautiful!

Queen Sofia of Spain and Prince Willem Alexander and Princess Maxima of the Netherlands will be attending the Spain / Netherlands final. Our ex-President Nelson Mandela's family has still not indicated if he will be fit to attend the World Cup final. I wish he can be there...

Looking forward to the game... I'm leaning towards the Netherlands I think... but gosh .. who knows it could go either way I think... Guess we shall see .. Good luck to both! Kinda sad its all coming to an end today...

Netherlands got this- Spain's good and all, but that Psychic Cephalopod's gotta be wrong eventually.

82 minutes and still no goals but if fouls were goals we'd all be hoarse. Come on teams, let's see a goal!

This happened to my Stanley Cup pick too... Second place is better than nothing though.

La Congratulacion Espana! Not a beautiful game, but we have a winner that deserved to win! Viva Espana! Very scrappy soccer game. Loads of yellow cards and one red! At half time still 0 -0. At full time 0 -0! We go into extra time. No goal yet. And 5 minutes before the end of extra time Andres Iniesta scores a great goal! Spain takes the World Cup 2010! I haven't seen such a rough and tumble game in quite a while. It was very equal throughout. But I must say the Netherlands definitely played dirtier than the Spanish. Four yellow cards for Spain and 10 yellow cards for the Netherlands! Lots of chances missed on both sides and a display of good goalkeeping on both sides. A very tense game to watch. I loved seeing a country(Spain) winning the World Cup for the first time ever! And this happening in a World Cup that was held on African soil for the first time ever! It was beautiful seeing the Spanish captain, Iker Casillas, crying like a baby after winning.

Spain 1
Netherlands 0

South Africa 2010 World Cup Winner:

Spain

It was an ugly game but Spain was the best team.
The Dutch played way too rough, it was unpleasant to watch. Ten yellow cards for the Dutch team was outrageous and actually, Nigel de Jong should have gotten a red card in the first half when he pushed his foot on the chest of a Spanish player.

Congratulations, Spain!

Van Bommel, Van Persie, and De Jong had bad fouls in the beginning, but that's about it. The Spanish kept diving and overreacting after that.

Just my thoughts on it. I'm biased though.

And just like that, after weeks and weeks of hype. It's all over. South Africa can return to reality.

alright go spain 8]]]]
now i can gloat about my Spaniard side

I was glad that Nelson Mandela could be there with his wife, Graca Machel to wave at supporters if only for less than half an hour. A little golf car drove them along the field. Then they went home to watch the game from their home. One can really see now how frail Mandela has become. He is after all in his 90's and a living legend.

So the 'Golden Ball' award for best player of the tournament goes to Diego Forlan of Uruguay. Very, very much deserved. Brilliant player and playmaker. I think the great way Uruguay played was really built around Diego Forlan.

And the 'Golden Boot' award for most goals scored goes to Thomas Muller of Germany, who scored 5 goals. Three other players also scored 5, but Muller assisted in more attacks that led to other goals. The other 3 players who scored 5 goals, were David Villa(Spain), Wesley Snijder(Netherlands) and Diego Forlan(Uruguay).

Viva Spain! Viva Soccer! Viva South Africa! To me this was such a great ride and I can't believe it's all over.... Thank you very much for everyone's replies. I thoroughly enjoyed writing about this great World Cup 2010. I will really miss writing about it a lot... Go Well... Until Brazil 2014!!!

Thanks for the thread, Eljay.

Eljay,

Not a pretty final but still amazed at Spain's passing and connecting on the passes. Brilliant!

I totally enjoyed your colour commentary from South Africa, Eljay. Hope you can keep it up just a bit longer and give us a bit more of what happens winding up such a successful tournament. Who will use those stadiums now, etc?

Loved seeing the humble and great Nelson Mandela in the furry crown riding on the back of the golf cart. He truly is an inspiration and has an amazing smile!

Thanks again, Eljay

Hunny

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Thank you very much for your thanks and nice words, Byzantine and Hunny. Hope you go on enjoying soccer whenever and wherever you watch it. Soccer rules! And it bring people from different places together. I really hope this World Cup would lead to a future increase in South Africa's tourism industry and economy.

Eljay, this thread was a great idea, thank you so much!

I loved that too. They had a shot of him crying while the game was still being played, after the goal was scored. He had his big keeper gloves over his face to try to hide and try to get it together for 4 more minutes. It was his third world cup, and as goalie, he has to maintain such focus back there all alone, when the rest of his team is down attacking. He can go for a long time without any action at all, so that was his trait I thought made him really stand out--his focus and concentration. (he also knows how to fly)

Congrats to Spain.

Hi John25! 'Eljay's Soccer Club' is actually were I always write my own stuff about mostly English & European soccer. It's a 'Member room' that ADHD was so kind to open for me! Then Sabrina saw I started writing about World Cup 2010 there and she gave me the idea to write about it on 'Social' where more people will see it! So the thanks actually goes to Sabrina!

Hi Sunrise, yes I also saw how Iker Casillas was crying in his gloves when Iniesta scored! First I thought it was 'cos of him being amazed at the great goal, but then I saw the tears. It's very good that you bring this up, 'cos I forgot to mention before that the 'Golden Gloves' award for best goalkeeper of the World Cup 2010 went to Iker Casillas. What a hero!

You know, I think I should mention the following. A lot of South African citizens, me included, are suffering from the 'Post World Cup Blues' at the moment. Sunday everything just ended. This is the 'AS' week. The 'After Soccer' week. For a whole month the World Cup was almost everything and it was everywhere: on TV, on radio and in newspapers etc. We,soccer lovers, felt excitement everyday and our country was a whole different place. We looked forward to matches. The tourists wre everywhere. We felt proud of being South African. Now, everything seems so dull. Everything is back to 'normal' again. And it takes a real mind shift to get used to it.