With World Cup 2010 in the books, I’m going to spend the next few days (those of which that feature a dearth of current sporting news) analysing the performance of the teams in the reverse order of their final tournament standings. Who did well? Who underperformed? Who set the world stage alight and can expect to be rewarded come the start of next season?
Well, the first group up for analysis (places 32-29) might not have much to crow about, but there were flashes of optimism despite a thoroughly poor showing on all their parts.
32. Korea DPR
The North Koreans were not expected to do well at all. By that token, they lived up to expectations. Their first game saw them take away a fantastic 2-1 loss from Brazil. Losing is never great, but for this team of relative amateurs shipping a meagre brace to the No.1 team in the world and denying them a clean sheet was cause for optimism. They then followed up this invigorating start by having their asses handed to them by Portugal, who put an embarrassing 6 goals past them in the second half to run-out 7-0 winners – woeful. A 3-0 loss to the Ivory Coast left them bottom of the pile with a startling goal difference of -11. What’s next for these athletic, but unskilful players? Not much – their country’s policy on internalisation means few of these players will ever get the chance to hone their ‘talents’ in a better league. Don’t expect to see them back here in a hurry – they were outclassed on all fronts.
31. Cameroon
Expectations were high for the Indomitable Lions, but their wastefulness in front of goal let them down. They did find themselves in an awfully tricky group with Holland, Denmark and Japan, but they should have done better with a team that perennially performs well in their domestic cup of nations. Eto’o may not play another World Cup and there aren’t many young superstars coming through. Cameroon might not feature in the World Cup for a while now, thanks to the increasing competitively of the African teams.
30. Honduras
These guys did well to finish so highly. They too were in a tight group with Spain, Switzerland and Chile. By virtue of holding Spain’s fellers to a 0-0 draw, they not only denied the Europeans qualification, but proved they aren’t the jokes many thought they were. They only lost narrowly to the Chileans (1 goal) and even the Spanish (2 goals) – really not bad for a team almost guaranteed to lose three of three. They might struggle to get back to the WC finals due to the wealth of talent in their qualification zone and the sheer number of games that need to be navigated to assure progression. But the Hondurans can go home feeling okay about how they performed.
29. France
Almost undoubtedly the biggest disappointment of the finals. France were shit. With a host of talented players and a world class captain they failed to capitalise on a favourable group. One goal; one point; one ticket home. Domenech needed a single win to – amazingly – become France’s all-time winningest coach and he couldn’t even manage it in a group that contained three inferiror teams. Uruguay’s run to the Semis – by virtue of an easy draw and England’s failure to win their group – made them look better than they deserved, but nothing can paste over their poor form. Biggest post-WC transfer? Hand of Frog legend, Thierry Henry has signed for the New York Red Bulls. Wow. Sers.
Pick up THE HARE newspaper at Night and Day; Bar Centro; or Tiger Lounge in Manchester town centre, or the Oakwood in Glossop.
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