South Africa 2010 World Cup- Week 1

June 15, 2010

After all the excitement and anticipation I can’t help but feel the 2010 World Cup has so far been somewhat of an anti- climax. I am not just referring to England (to be honest I predicted that England would slip up in their opening game). I base this article on some of the football which has been displayed. As I write this there has only been 23 goals in 14 games, there was 30 at the same time in 2006, 40 in 2002, 32 in 1998, 29 in 1994. I think you get the point, this years World Cup (predicted to have the most viewers then ever before) is so far falling short compared to previous tournaments.

ITV and BBC to their credit have not bothered trying to hide how poor some of the matches have been. Forty five minutes into Match Of The Day’s opener and Garry Lineker was practically apologising for the fist half France and Uruguay had served up. To be fair the like of Slovenia vs Algeria, New Zealand vs Slovakia and Japan vs Cameroon were never going to be classics but there is enough in these finals to expect more then only 4 teams to of scored more then 1 goal in their opening group games.

Even Portugal vs Ivory Coast (what many considered to be the best of the first day games when the draw was made) finished goalless. ITV explained it as two countries too scared to lose.

I thought It was all going to change when the Brazilians came out to play but even they seemed to have forgotten to pack their goalscoring boots, looking solid against North Korea but not their special selves. It’s to easy for everyone to blame the new football the truth is the quality has not been up to scratch yet.

Spain start their campaign tomorrow and so far the favourites, apart from the Germans, would of not seen anything that would have worried them. It may be up to the Spanish to show the rest how it’s done.

After tomorrows fixtures the second games in the group stages begin which should improve the action. Teams, especially those who did not win their openers will have to be more positive which should hopefully lead to an increase in goals and more exciting moments. South Aficas opening day draw and Ghana earning Afica’s first win aside exciting moments have so far been in the minority.

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