World Cup Wafflings
Not the most star spangled opening lap of the World Cup in living memory; it speaks volumes when the conclusion of the BBC highlights hour is padded out with montages of the tournament’s worst haircuts- BAE already a strong contender- even more so when there’s a genuine struggle to remember anything that preceded it being any more entertaining. Ivory Coast-Portugal? Pfft. Let’s have a look at Gervinho’s balding, dreadlocked, middle-parted sucker. Devastating piece of wig, that.
There’s a hope that we’re all waiting for some flash of virtuosity to set the thing cooking again. Messi didn’t really do it against Nigeria, Rooney certainly didn’t against our transatlantic cousins. Ronaldo had his moments yesterday, but never really rose above intermittent spark. For every beguiling flick there was a tumble which wouldn’t have looked out of place amidst a gymnast’s floor routine. All that was missing were green and white ribbons.
Plenty of faith anchored towards the Brazilians last night- commentators, pundits, armchair fans alike, all pinning their colours to the South Americans as the team who’d kick the World Cup into to something resembling life. Instead, North Korea, for large periods, held firm- turning away wave after wave of attack like boarder control along the 38th parallel.
Things are looking up, though. Spain pull the cord on their campaign later today; Switzerland the unfortunate adversary in what should be a walk in the game-park for Villa, Xavi and the like. And, as we speak, there’s a hum-dinger going down at Mbombela. Honduras and Chile have, between them, injected more energy into forty-five minutes than you might have seen throughout yesterday’s entire roster. High-tempo, kamikaze defending, a slap-stick Honduran goalkeeper; all played in a stadium which required two schools to be bulldozed to make way for its construction, while being festooned with zebra patterned seats and giraffe shaped outer-stanchions.
At the very least, you can’t say South Africa haven’t been committed to this World Cup Just a shame he hasn’t quite yet lived up to its billing.
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