06.17
The top 32 footballing countries will covene at the 2010 World Cup finals to play for the right to be world champions of the sport as the tournament draws nearer. Each of the teams that will be flying to South Africa for the competition will be readying themselves for the challenge ahead and fans can watch FIFA World Cup 2010 live using the Internet and broadband technology. With every match at the click of a button for any fan in every location in the world, they will get to enjoy the games involving but not restricted to Spain, Brazil, Italy, Germany, Holland and each of the 32 teams taking part. Even updated news and all the incidents happening behind the scenes can be tracked this way which will be a huge bonanza for fans of football.
Nations who have won the World Cup as well as those who may lift it in the future will be part of the finals. That naturally includes Brazil who are often regarded the best in the sport which their record backs them up superbly while modern day results continue to surpass most teams. But it may not be easy for them in South Africa as the 2010 World Cup finals draw left them in the Group of Death together with Ivory Coast, Portugal and North Korea. There are top players representing each of their group rivals – most notably that of Didier Drogba for the Africans and Ronaldo seeking to cement his status as the best player in the world with Portugal. Even North Korea cannot be underestimated if Brazil are to survive a testing first hurdle and go all the way through the knockout stages to an eventual final.
Whoever hopes to claim the trophy this time will need to first wrest it from the hands of Italy who were crowned world champions in the 2006 finals. The Italians have been ranked lower in recent years due to the paucity of new talent emerging from their ranks. Many of their current crop are also young and unproven at international level despite their ease in qualifying for South Africa. If manager Marcello Lippi can make their passage through look easy against Slovakia and Paraguay, then more will start to take notice of them again. This will apply equally to France who were just champions in the last decade but have since gone into a decline so startling that they needed a controversial goal to qualify from the playoffs.
With the World Cup 2010 finals kicking off in June, there can only be one agenda on many sports fans’ schedule. The tournament will also be staged in Africa for the first time and many eyes will be seeing how the continent prepares for it and how well they will do. If hosts South Africa can put on a show for not just the fans but the whole world to enjoy, then it would be a perfect advertisement for the country and their neighbours. The World Cup finals only come by once every four years and it would be tragic for the tournament to fail under any circumstance.