Group A:
Mexico – A fantastic match with France. Enjoyable Giovanni Dos Santos.
France – A team in disrepair. How can you announce the new coach even before the World Cup?
Uruguay – The magic of Forlan. Best player & his last was aptly the best goal of the tournament. Overall, the team was very strategic, very tactical.
South Africa – Proud hosts, good hosts. No corruption, “mild” refereeing, or match fixing. A huge difference from South Korea/Japan 2002.
Group B:
Argentina – When coaching starts to matter… but that’s another story.
South Korea – They had the best se… never mind, look up Japan. Also, the World Cup 8 years ago was a powerful boost to this less footballing country.
Nigeria – A foolish mistake in form of a deliberate foul play has cost them (most likely) a Round of 16 berth.
Greece – Hadn’t it been for the red card, they probably wouldn’t have scored their first World Cup and point ever.
Group C:
England – Was it because Beckham was missing?
USA – To be a developed footballing country you need to… be a developed footballing country. Still, a huge improvement over the past couple decades.
Slovenia – The most eye-catching were their goal celebrations.
Algeria – The most eye-catching were their awful hair styles.
Group D:
Germany – Klose: 14 goals. Need I say more? In case I need, here’s why I believe Germany was the best team of 2010: Amazing team play with all players not going-for-glory even yards in front of the goal, but always looking for their teammates. The collective-style thrashing defeats of England and Argentina is the best news for world football from South Africa – you can succeed without outright stars; in fact, you can fare far better than any other team, if you commit yourselves to relentless discipline in terms of passing play. As coaches say, Pass is the quickest player. Also it pays out to play attack-minded game; Germany had virtually 5 strikers on the field. However, it seems that this German team works exactly as clockwork. One cogwheel (player Thomas Muller in the semi-final) is missing and the whole concept falls apart.
Ghana – The best African team, but very low scoring percentage, with key (non-)goals from penalty kicks. Third time (handball in the penalty area) was lucky charm… but for Uruguay.
Australia – Haven’t seen most of their matches, but against Ghana they were inspiring. With ten players they almost outplayed the best African team.
Serbia – I expected their win against Germany, but not their poor play, even having a man advantage. I didn’t expect their loss to Australia.
Group E:
The Netherlands – Very good goalie, amazing Robben (but a bit too selfish for the team’s good) and heaps of luck against undisciplined Brazil.
Denmark – The match against Cameroon was celebration of (not only Danish-style) football.
Cameroon – The match against Denm… OK, they had a tough group and less-than-stellar goalkeeping.
Japan – The World Cup 8 years ag… never mind, look up South Korea. Also, they had the best set-pieces of the tournament.
Group F:
Paraguay – Uruguay squared as for tactics and strategy. Perfect defense. Otherwise, very boring.
Slovakia – Paraguay squared, as for boredom. Very tactical and good defense, but what does it help against far superior footballing countries? Zabavnik should be getting hundreds of offers by now.
Italy – Oh, Lippi, Lippi, why didn’t you send eleven Quagliarellas on the pitch?
New Zealand – If somebody had told me before the World Cup that, a. New Zealand won’t lose a single match, and, b. New Zealand will finish before Italy, I would have sent him (or more likely, her 🙂 to psychiatrist.
Group G:
Brazil – The second most beautiful goal of the tournament came against Chile from Luis Fabiano’s foot, after beautiful Robinho’s run alongside the left flank and an effortless little magic touch by Kaka. Felipe Melo, don’t despair, you set up the first goal against the Dutch. But was it a lack of discipline and fair play, or overload of flair and complacency that sent the Pentacampeons packing? I don’t know, I only despair I didn’t see Elano in live action.
Portugal – Thanks for the seven! Hope it will help demolish Kim Jong Il’s regime…
North Korea – Yay, we scored against famous Brazil!
Ivory Coast – With your sort of bad luck (on both World Cup appearences being consecutively drawn into the groups of death) I would fire the foreign headcoach and set out to look for a local… shaman.
Group H:
Switzerland – they played like Czechs at the Euro 2008 – a promising start, followed by some lack of luck and a terrible performance at the very end.
Spain – OK, I knew you were the best, but did you have to break your bad luck just THIS time? Honors to Pique and Iniesta who were the best defenseman and the best midfielder, respectively. It’s easy to play well together when seven of you guys is from FC Barcelona and the rest from Real Madrid… all right, all right, Capdevila… but that’s not the point!
Chile – finishing second in South American qualification is impressive, so why did you have to play Brazil in Round of 16?
Honduras – I’ll never forget their… flag.
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