AFRICA "BEGETS" A NEW CHAMPION

The football World Cup, which had monopolised the world's attention for a month, is now over. It was full of surprises and sensations and was closely followed by young and old alike.

We spent four years waiting to see the most interesting matches. The 19th World Cup, which took place in South Africa, is now a thing of the past. Let's now review the novelties, surprises, victories and failures of the championship which was held on the continent for the first time.

Scandal in the French team

In the recent past, it was common for Azerbaijani players who did not get on well with the coach to refuse to play for the national team. Before the World Cup, it was the same story in the French team, former World and European champions. Leading players opposed the chief coach Raymond Domenech. On their way to South Africa, Nicolas Anelka and Franck Ribery grappled on the plane. Immediately following the first matches, Anelka criticized chief coach Raymond Domenech sharply in an interview with journalists, questioning his competence as a coach. As a result, the French Football Federation expelled Anelka from the national team, at Domenech's request.

However, Domenech's problems did not end here. On the contrary, team captain Patrice Evra persuaded the whole team to stop practising in protest at Anelka's expulsion and even came to blows with an assistant coach.

The result of the lack of discipline is known - the team suffered a complete collapse, failing to get into the playoffs.

The national team's botched performance even prompted French President Nicolas Sarkozy to intervene.

Now the federation is looking for culprits. In any case, there is no doubt that the 2010 World Cup will be a blot in the copybook of French football.

"The hand of God"

Goals scored with the hand are now a regular occurrence in football. Previously, when speaking about this, we referred only to Maradona's famous goal in 1986 (which he claimed was by the hand of God). Now the number of "handball players" has grown…

During the Brazil-Ivory Coast match, the Brazilian forward Luis Fabiano handled twice and managed to hide it from the vigilant eyes of the referee, scoring a longed-for goal. It is notable that Fabiano repeated Maradona's words after the match, saying that he was helped by "God's hand".

Maradona's reaction to such plagiarism was quite sharp: "No, it wasn't God's hand, it was Fabiano's hand."

A genius footballer never became a genius coach

The very name of Diego Maradona made Argentina one of the most popular teams in the world. Just imagine, although the team had such stellar players as Messi, Tevez and others, it was the coach at the centre of attention in South Africa. Only Maradona's press conferences lasted longer than expected. Only at events attended by Maradona, did journalists become ordinary fans, taking autographs from the genius footballer and having their photos taken with him.

Of all the coaches, he was the only one to practise with his players for 15 minutes before games. He also took a shower with them and then put on his coach's suit and went onto the pitch.

During the World Cup, Maradona was remembered for numerous sensational statements. Before the championship, he compared the Argentina national team to a Rolls Royce "driven" by Messi. Jeering at his eternal rival Pele, he said that he should have long ago been sent to a museum.

Speaking of Platini, Maradona said that he would never become a coach. Of course, it is axiomatic that Maradona was a great footballer. However, for all his desire, he failed to assert himself as a coach. Before the quarterfinals, Argentina showed no sign of coaching ideas or pre-planned tactics against individual opponents, and even a star like Messi failed to stand out.

Maradona failed to demonstrate his abilities as a coach in the quarterfinals against Germany. As we said, Argentina had no coach as such, and the 0-4 defeat seems quite natural. Maradona proved once again that all he can do is to create scandals. Coaching is none of his business. Despite all this, he was welcomed as a hero in Argentina and the Football Federation asked him to stay on with the national team.

Of course, we would like to see Maradona as Argentina's chief coach again in four years' time. In 2014, the World Cup will be hosted by Argentina's eternal rival - Brazil.

However, unfortunately, Diego has already made his decision - he is leaving…

Brazil's sixth victory to come next time

One of the favourites for the World Cup - Brazil - also failed to delight their fans with sparkling performances. Fans have always seen Brazil putting on impressive displays, rich in beautiful combinations and inimitable goals. The national team also played attacking football, taking applause and all kinds of support.

However, this time Dunga's team broke with their traditions and played only for the result. In Africa, Dunga changed the style of his team beyond all recognition. Refusing to employ Adriano, Ronaldinho or Pato, the coach fell victim to his own tactics - after losing to Holland, the "footballing wizards " left the championship.

Of course, leaving without medals was a tragedy for Brazil. But be sure that the five-time world champions will have their say at the next World Cup.

Paul turns out to be a real soothsayer

That the already ex-coach of France Raymond Domenech believes in horoscopes is a well-known fact. If we believe the French press, he consulted horoscopes even when picking the national team.

In Germany, everyone believes in octopus Paul, who lives in Oberhausen. Predicting winners in matches played by the Bundesteam, Paul has made only one mistake in recent years - two years ago, he "predicted" a German victory in the European Championship final. But the match was won by Spain.  In this World Cup, Paul accurately predicted the results of all Germany's matches. Incidentally, after his "prediction" that Germany would lose their semi-final, the octopus became an enemy of the Bundesteam. Some fans even suggested frying and eating him. Fortunately, Spain, who beat Germany, are ready to give Paul "asylum" at any time (I wonder if Paul could predict the results of matches in the Azerbaijani football championship).

Loew's blue shirt

Everyone believed in this team. They scored goals and fought every team to the very end. Of course, I am talking about Germany, who brought England and Argentina to their knees by scoring four goals against both of them. In both matches, chief coach Joachim Loew wore a blue shirt, and the coaching staff asked him not to change his clothes for the next games. In this way, Loew's shirt became the team's talisman.

Now it will be sold at an auction.

On the whole, Germany brought some originality to the World Cup. Not only did they deliver striking performances, they also proved to be a real headache for all their opponents. It is no accident that they knocked out such great world footballing teams as England and Argentina.

Loew led the youngest German team in the history of the World Cup. Despite this, he managed to prove that the Bundesteam is a superteam! Even without Michael Ballack, the team had leaders like Thomas Mueller and Mesut Oezil. The latter should be particularly noted. The way this footballer of Turkish origin saw the game, controlled the ball and understood the play shows that he has wonderful prospects for the future.

It would be wrong to say that Germany were unlucky. They won bronze medals in the World Cup. In the match for the third place, Germany beat Uruguay 3-2, even though they played without their main stars. Having scored 14 goals in World Cups, one of Germany's key players Miroslaw Klose came close to Ronaldo's record of 15 goals in World Cup matches.

Who knows? If Klose had not gone down with flu, he might have improved his record in the match with Uruguay.

Even Capello did not help…

England had no equal at the qualifying stage. But at the World Cup, they did not display high quality football. And the result was that Germany sent the English home from the last 16. Of course, fans could say that one of the main reasons for England's failure was Lampard's goal which was disallowed by the referee. But we should not forget that even after that, the English had enough time to secure a U-turn in the match. A really fighting team could have done so. But England failed. In the end, Germany scored four goals, proving that they deserved to struggle on. There were a number of problems to be seen in the English national team. Along with gaps in the defence, they also had problems in the forward line - the team spent the whole championship with one striker, which caused additional problems.

Appalling refereeing

The Uzbek referee, Rovshan Irmatov, was certainly the main discovery of the tournament in terms of refereeing. Although he looked a little bit excitable in the opening game of the tournament, Irmatov's appointment as the main referee for the Germany-Spain match in the semi-finals implies recognition of his high professional level. No matter what Azerbaijani referees, who are not favourably disposed towards him, say, Irmatov wrote his name in the history of the 2010 World Cup.

And this happened against a backdrop of gross mistakes made by other referees - numerous goals scored from offside. The culmination was the Germany-England match. With the score at 2-1 in Germany's favour, the ball hit the ground behind the goal line after Frank Lampard's powerful shot and bounced back into play. However, the referee told the teams to play on. When this episode was replayed on the screen, Lampard and his friends were shocked - the referee had disallowed a clear goal! It is quite possible that if the referee had allowed this goal, England could have played quite differently… Although Germany were much stronger on the day.

At a FIFA meeting after the match, the culprits were suspended from refereeing. At the same time, a proposal was made to adopt a five-referee system. Two referees would stand near the goals. The use of video recordings is out of the question - world football's governing body is categorically against using video cameras to help referees, supporting this argument by claiming such a step would make matches less spectacular.

In bright memory of Tofiq Bahramov

This outrageous blunder by the referees during the Germany-England match reminded fans of an incident of 40 years ago. In the 1966 World Cup final which brought together the same teams, the same kind of goal was scored by England's Geoff Hurst (although it is still disputed whether that was a goal or not). While the referee appeared undecided, the linesman Tofiq Bahramov, our compatriot, confidently pointed to the centre. Scoring another goal later, England won 4-2 and became world champions for the only time in their history.

After this year's match between the two teams, the whole English press recalled Tofiq Bahramov with flashy headlines: "If Bahramov was alive…", "Where is Tofiq?", "If Bahramov was here…" etc.

Italian fiasco

South Africa's failure to get into the playoffs shocked the whole country. After all, the host country's team usually makes it to at least the last 16. The biggest sensation of the World Cup was the performance by Italy, who did not even make it into the playoffs. The first shock for their fans was a goalless draw with New Zealand, after which Marcello Lippi's team failed to get a grip on themselves, becoming outsiders in an obviously weak group.

There are several reasons for this - ageing footballers, the lack of a leader in the team, disorganized football and, of course, self-confidence. The situation was aggravated by an injury to their first-choice goalkeeper - the experienced Buffon. Lippi, who led his team to victory four years ago, took the blame for Italy's unprecedented failure.

This time, even fortune turned its back on the team, and Italy left the contest early and quite deservedly.

I think that by the next World Cup, the team will have undergone drastic changes.

Another World Cup fiasco

Regardless of their performances, Greece also failed to live up to expectations. We would not be wrong in saying that Otto Rehhagel's ageing team disgraced themselves by failing to put up a decent performance. Rehhagel himself, who was almost a national hero in Greece after the team's victory at Euro 2004, finally quit his job. But this is not enough - it is necessary to change the whole team and pick new players for almost every position. The main point is that Greece should restore their previous image.

World Cup discovery

Uruguay deserve this title as they fought every game to the very end and were not lacking by any measure. They deserved to take fourth place. Uruguay's games brought some originality to the World Cup. Oscar Tabares had formed a really fighting squad of strong players - a team that played attacking football and created numerous goal-scoring chances in every game. We should highlight the Uruguay captain Diego Forlan. As the scorer of five goals, this striker, the real leader of his team, became a nightmare for opponents. After such a wonderful performance at the World Cup, Forlan can count on a transfer to a stronger team than Madrid's Atletico, where he is playing right now.

The final two: Holland-Spain

In the final, both teams played open football. The goal Iniesta scored in extra time gave the European champions the further title of 19th World Cup winners.

Although Holland also deserve all kinds of praise, Spain's victory was inevitable, because Spain's national team is also Barcelona's, eight of whose players donned the national team's shirts, feeling in their element. It was they who brought victory to Spain in the decisive game.

The final was remembered for its beauty and… violence - referee Howard Webb showed 14 yellow cards and even expelled Holland's Heiting, establishing some kind of record.

Spain's chief coach Vicente del Bosque is the second coach, after Marcello Lippi, to win the Champions League and the World Cup final.

Spain are the first team in the history of football to become world champions after losing their first match.

World Cup prize winners

Uruguay's Diego Forlan was recognized as the best footballer of the World Cup.

Germany's Thomas Mueller won the title of "Best Young Player" and was the discovery of the championship. This Bavarian player also received another prestigious award - the Golden Boot.

Iker Casillas managed to beat his counterparts in the struggle for the Lev Yashin Prize.

The death of spectacular football

During this World Cup, a number of teams who previously played spectacular football betrayed their reputations. Forgetting about their fans, they started playing for the result. The most surprising of these were Brazil and Holland, who both went for these tactics. It turned out that the new European fashion of playing for the result has affected the performances of national teams as well.

Africa is no place to travel?

Some teams and fans were too frightened to go to South Africa. Many even said that the crime rate was too high on the continent and that it was impossible to wander the streets of South African cities. However, the World Cup showed that, with its exotic scenery, Africa is also a very interesting continent.

Maybe it is true that football "unites everyone".

So, the 19th football World Cup is now history. The football fest is over.

But another footballing festival will come soon. After all, little time is left before the next, 20th, championship, which will take place in Brazil - just four years.