I'm not going to South Africa. So instead I'm gonna try and watch a bit if not all of every game at work, or at home or in a bar or wherever. On the telly. With a beer. And I'm gonna predict who I think is gonna win. And talk about football stuff. So there.

Saturday 3 July 2010

Q-F: Ghana 1-1 Uruguay (Uruguay win 4-2 on penalties)

How close. How close Africa came to getting their first ever World Cup semi-finalist. And how they deserved to get there. This game will go down in the annals. Not for being a classic in normal time, but for the events in extra time. The Uruguayian number nine stopped a certain winner in the last minute of the extra half hour, deliberately handballing on the line. He received the obligatory red card, but the tears he was shedding turned to joy as he looked over his shoulder on his way down the tunnel to see Gyan blast the resulting penalty against the crossbar, the Uruguayan keeper subsequently tried to make sexy time with.

There was no chance of Ghana winning the penalty shoot out that ensued. Their backs were broken by that miss, their resolve dissipated. When will players learn that a one or two step run up for a penalty just isn't enough. The Ghanian captain's penalty was truly awful, but when the Uruguayian blasted over the bar there seemed a chance of a reprieve. It was not to be. This was not to be Africa's World Cup, merely the World Cup that Africa hosted.