World Cup 9/7/10 - Day 29

And so a whole month has passed since I last saw Blighty, but it won't be long until Sydney the driver arrives at the talkSPORT Lodge to once more send me hurtling through the early evening traffic without sparing the horses until we reach Tambo Airport for my 'red eye' flight home.

Now, I've loved every second of being out here representing national commercial radio as a lead commentator on the world's biggest sporting tournament, but it seems the reflections from back home are that this has been as poor a World Cup as Italia '90 was. Granted, certain established nations simply didn't turn up (England, France, Italy) some didn't break sweat to try and win a corner (Greece, Switzerland, most teams ending in "guay") and some were as hopeless as we'd imagined they'd be through lack of preparation (Sven's Ivory Coast and Lagerback's Nigeria) but there was so much more to South Africa 2010 than that.

You had Chile's remarkable 3-1-3-3 formation, a staggeringly effective attacking structure that scared the willies out of everybody early on, only for them to run out of defenders and succumb to Brazil; you had Ghana's young stars casting off their supposed naivety at this level and come within a lick of paint of a World Cup semi-final appearance; you had Germany cocking a snook at all who thought they'd promoted a raft of Under 21 players too soon; and you had the Dutch finally realising that if you're going to argue with someone you might as well make it the ref rather than your own midfielder...or yourself for that matter.

Yes, some pointless and hopeless games were played out, especially early on, but drama like USA late on against Slovenia, Holland's comeback against Brazil, Nigeria gamely taking Argentina on after half time in Ellis Park, Chile worrying supposedly unflappable Spain, Germany systematically dismantling Maradona's mob after they'd done the same to us and Australia and Slovakia plonking Italy firmly at the bottom of their group wasn't exactly dull was it?

I accept the vuvuzelas/Zuberbuhler's were a huge annoyance and that more should have been done for the youngsters to get into see games and thus fill 3/4 full stadia, but South Africa can be justly proud of the way they've organised this World Cup - and we do have a potential classic to look forward to on Sunday.

Here's a few unauthorised awards I'd like to hand out as the festivities are all but over:-

THE CHRIS IWELUMO 'BOOT SHAPED LIKE A 50P AWARD FOR SERVICES TO GOAL KICKS' - Yakubu of Everton and Nigeria in the group stages

THE STEVE MARRIOT 'HUMBLE PIE' AWARD FOR A MASSIVE CLIMBDOWN OVER A PLAYERS ABILITY - Ian Danter over Thomas Muller of Germany - sorry Tom, mate, you were quite useful really...

THE AXL ROSE 'GET IN THE RING' AWARD FOR SPOILING FOR A FIGHT - Patrice Evra and anyone within earshot

THE DEAN WINDASS 'RABBIT IN HEADLIGHTS' AWARD FOR MOST STARTLED EXPRESSION - Mark Saggers as we walked approximately 200 yards from Ellis Park stadium in downtown Jo'burg to our waiting cab.

THE IAN ABRAHAMS 'I'M NOT BEING FUNNY RIGHT, BUT WEST HAM BLAH BLAH BLAH' AWARD FOR MOST OVERUSED WORD OR PHRASE AT THE TOURNAMENT - Ray Parlour and others "He's had a Weston Super there" or "He's had a shocker there"

THE IAIN DOWIE 'BOUCEBACKABILITY' AWARD FOR NEW LANGUAGE ADDED TO THE VERNACULAR - Ray Parlour with "Lacksydaisy" as in "He's been a bit lacksydaisy all through this half"

THE KENNY EVERETT 'FAMILY LORD' POINTY HANDS AWARD FOR OVER-ENTHUSIATIC USE OF HANDS DURING BROADCAST - Mark Saggers

THE DENNIS PENNIS 'MICROPHONE STRAIGHT UNDER NOSE AWARD FOLLOWED BY ALL TOO BRIEF EXCHANGE - Moose with Pele

THE 'WESTON SUPER' AWARD FOR MOST OUT THERE COCKNEY RHYMING SLANG USED BY RAY PARLOUR -
"Beans on" = post

THE JAN TOMASZEWSKI 'GREAT SAVES BUT STILL A CLOWN' AWARD FOR BEING ONE SECOND AWAY FROM A MAJOR RICK THROUGHOUT - Richard Kingson of Ghana - he wasn't 3rd choice at Blues & Wigan for nowt.

THE RICHARD KINGSON 'ARE YOU JOKING? IS HE A PREM PLAYER? I DON'T REMEMBER HIM.' AWARD FOR TOTAL TRANSFORMATION IN HIS COUNTRY'S SHIRT - Kevin Prince Boateng of Pompey

And that'll do you - thanks for reading this wee blog. It won't stop just because the World Cup is stopping...far from it. Keep popping back won't you? :o))