After Italy and France, would England be next?

IF I was Italian and not African, I would have said my World Cup got over even before it getting into the second gear and so if I were French either. But again as an African, what is there to be proud of after the capitulation of the continent’s best hopes? Nothing, I guess. The ancestors of Africa will never forgive Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Nigeria, South Africa and Algeria for what they did or didn’t do at the first World Cup in Africa. To say, the gods of our land are not happy whatsoever, wouldn’t be an exaggeration after they waited for so long to see this once in a life time spectacle. So, since there is no difference between African fans and their Italian and French counterparts, especially after what transpired in the first two weeks of the 2010 World Cup, the next big question is which set of fans will be next to suffer the disappointment of an early elimination? Did I hear someone say the English? African teams aside, because few if any expected them to go far despite the tournament being played on their continent, France and Italy, the two countries that four years ago were supposedly the best in the world are out of this World Cup – after being humiliated in the first round. Holders Italy suffered the embarrassment of finishing behind New Zealand in Group F after losing 3-2 to Slovakia in the most dramatic game of the tournament so far. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing as the team with a perceived best defensive setting, wobbled under the pressure of the confident overwhelming underdogs of Slovenia. Back to England and them being the most likely big team to leave South Africa. Their fans and of course their media claim that the Three Lions have the world’s best players of all teams at the 2010 Fifa World Cup but I beg to differ because they will need divine intervention to beat four world class teams in a row if they’re ready to prove doubters wrong and go all the way to the whole grail, which they last won in 1966 despite the hype that surrounds their preparation for every tournament since then. England may have the most watched league in the world and some of the most overpaid footballers but they certainly do not have the world’s best footballers. After their narrow and hard fought 1-0 win over Slovenia, which booked them a place in the second round last week, one England fan friend of mine told me “what if they (England) get along and play well like a real team which they can, they can surely and easily win the World Cup ... the only team that could stop them are Brazil”. Well, I listen to his [wishful] thinking but told him that those teams that believe or even think of the so called ‘what if’ will never win the World Cup. The teams which have self belief in themselves and play with commitment and courage will win it. On paper, Fabio Capello’s side would have preferred to face Ghana than Germany this evening in their second round match, but in football or any other sport, you can only beat what’s put in-front of you, so whether England can do that against the Germans, we can only wait and see when the referee blows the first whistle while in Bloemfontein stadium. Somebody rightly said ‘fortune favours the brave’, and so it’s a challenge for teams like England, France and all African teams, which don’t seem to have the aforementioned factors to win a World Cup. On the other hand teams like Brazil, Uruguay, Germany, Spain and to a certain extent Argentina will be hard to stop under the noises of the vuvuzelas Down Under. But personally, the team to watch must be one coached by a certain Diego Maradona. nku78@yahoo.com