Die Kleine und Die Africana

Group stage was strange. May seem like a stupid rhyme, however, it really did. Masterpieces and weirdness, FIFA ref directives and some filthy action by a few refs making the discussion ‘bout them so actual that early. What’s funny, the vast majority of football fans or those who call themselves that cool (damn scarfers!) would just tell you they really liked:

-a few really well-driven and well-placed shots (a-la Lahm and Frings in the opening)

-fucking brilliant whistlers!

-those straightforward but so nice African teams

Postponing the discussion of the latter two parts for the future, we could already say a few words about Trinidad and Tobago, Gana, Cote d’Ivoire and other nationals with little names, poor skills, and a lot of pride for their countries that helped them outgun some of the least (as it seemed at first) outgunnable.

Those teams really packed what you call ‘Small but gorgeus’. We may actually outline three of them. The first and only African team that entered the playoffs in Germany is Gana. It is really interesting to spot a typical characteristic of Die Africana – all of them has a leader or two that really excels in skills. Gana had Michael Essien, and who knows – maybe lack of CFC mid prevented them from edging horny canarini in 1/8. Nobody except for him was really well-known in European football. Cote d’Ivoire is a bit different: Drogba, Toure, Eboue – those are the names that familiar to any football fan (or the one who calls himself a football fan); again, the group for Elephants was a bit different as well. Finally, the team of T&T. They had nobody except 35(!) year old Yorke, who just walked down the field. But the kept whole England nervous, the made Swedish bite their nails. And they really proved there are no weak teams left in world football.

To sum up, the group stage got on the way it was expected to go on. Beautiful from time to time, insane from time to time but football was always out there. What else? :)