I am not too fond of describing the ongoing South Africa World Cup 2010 as Africa’s World Cup. I am not privy to any financial or material contributions by any African country to the organization of the global football festival. And so as far as I am concerned, it is South Africa World Cup and all the credit for the marvelous organization and the first class sports stadia must go to Nelson Mandela’s home country.

The 2006 World Cup in Germany was not tagged Europe’s World Cup and the next tournament in Brazil 2014 will not be South America’s. It will simply be Brazil 2014 that’s all. The fact that the 2010 showpiece is the first on African soil does not mean it is being organized by the whole continent. South Africa has shown that what used to be called the Dark Continent has something good to show after all.

I am not being unnecessarily petty but this habit of massing all African countries for better or for worse must not be encouraged. I don’t have any problem if it comes to continental groupings and it is said that African countries are not doing too well in the tournament.  This is a fact. Out of the six African countries only Ghana and to some extent Cote D’Ivoire, have so far shown some promise. Ghana with their 1-0 win over Serbia stands out as the only African country to win a match and having drawn 1-1 with Australia in their second match, they stand a good chance of sailing into the second round if they can snatch a point from Germany in the last qualifying match on Wednesday.

It took Cote D’Ivoire quite some time before coming into the game against Portugal in their first outing and the Elephants would have to redouble their efforts against Brazil on Sunday if they mean to survive the first round.

I did rightly predict that Africa, being a country of surprises, would provide a lot of surprises in this first World Cup to be staged on the continent. Switzerland’s eclipse of Spain the European champions; Serbia’s dramatic victory over Germany, Mexico’s 2-0 mauling of France and England’s winless two games against the USA and Algeria are just a few of many surprises yet to come.

South Africa may not be World Cup favourites, but as hosts their 3-0 loss to Uruguay could be termed a surprise coupled with the referee’s rather harsh decision in sacking the home team goalkeeper for a highly suspicious foul in the box and awarding a penalty on top. I think it is time such offences by goalkeepers attracted yellow instead of straight red card.

This reminds me of another harsh decision by referee Koman Coulibaly in disallowing the winning goal by the USA against Slovenia. I am sure he would regret his action if he sees the TV footage. It was to me, a perfect match winner.

Spanish referee Alberto Mallermo who supervised Germany’s surprise 1-0 defeat at the hands of Serbia could go into the Guinness Book of Records as one of the greatest apostle of yellow cards in World Cup history with eight yellow cards and one red in a single match.

It is learnt that referees have been told to be extremely strict on dangerous play but it is my considered opinion that some of them are going to the extreme. Well, one is not sure whether the carefree issuance of yellow cards has made any contribution to the exciting placing in the group matches especially in Group D   where Ghana 4pts, Germany 3pts, Serbia 3pts and Australia 1 pt all stand the chance of moving into the qualifying series.

Ghana needs a draw against Germany to move on, and Germany needs victory to make qualification certain. A draw will put Germany in a tight corner if Serbia beat Australia. Australia can sail through if they beat Serbia and Germany loses to Ghana. If Australia draw with Serbia and Germany draw with Ghana, the Germans will make it on account of superior goal difference.

The permutations are many but since football is not an exact science and does not follow any logic your guess is as good as mine  If there were any logic in football one would surmise that since Ghana beat Serbia and Serbia beat Germany then it follows that Ghana will beat Germany. No. It doesn’t work that way which makes football such an entertaining spectator sport.

Cheers everybody and keep loving sports.