FIFA 2010 – South Africa: SUM UP

At last a new winner!!! Congrats to Spain for the magnificent performance.

Fifa 2010 was a real sumptuous feast for the soccer fans World over with 30 days of exciting fixtures, 64 matches, 736 players and 32 teams compete for the World cup Trophy held in 10 stadiums across the beautiful South Africa. Total prize money on stake was about $420 million and the Winner, the Spain got around $ 30 million. We have to wait for another 4 years to witness the mega event to happen again in Brazil in 2014.

Here is sum up of the true life lessons learnt from FIFA 2010:

1.      First the obvious. This is the first world cup final in recent history without Argentina, Italy, Brazil or Germany. True overconfidence is the secret to failure.

2.      Spain lost their opening game to Switzerland, while the Dutch didn’t lose a match, except the finals. Despite starting on the wrong foot or failing once in a while, you can still be the champion.

3.      Infighting and egos never win matches. Ask England, France and Italy. Sports like our business are about team dynamics. Great teamwork is imperative for the win.

4.      On the other hand, heroics matter. While process and methods among others are essential, it does take individuals (highly talented ones) to finally win.

5.      Wayne Rooney, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi were World Cup flops. Between the three, they managed to score just one goal! Sometimes, the finest players fail miserably. Everyone has bad days. The need is to reflect, realize and reorganize for the next event.

6.      Andrés Iniesta from Spain scored the winning goal. He had scored only one goal in the previous matches. Yet, he is a hero. To be the right man at the right time at the right place requires a little luck and a lot of hard work.

7.      Diego Forlan, Wesley Sneijder and Thomas Mueller, previously unrecognizable beyond their country boundaries are international superstars today. New stars replace the old and fading ones. It’s way of life.

8.      Small things matter. Sometimes the distance between you and victory is just an inch. That’s all that Ghana needed to pull through. Unfortunately, they missed it.

9.      All strategies need constant tweaks to achieve targets. Always have a Plan. England didn’t have one and suffered the worst-ever defeat. 

10. This is more than a game; it’s about pride – for the nation and personally.

11. Regardless of who you are cheering for, you need to have a blast. So, go crazy, blow on the trumpet, paint your bodies and sport some colorful wigs.

12. Finally, it’s amazing and faintly frustrating that an eight-legged oracle understands the game better than the most passionate of us. I guess life’s like that.

These 12 life lessons are not my own but taken from an internet corporate message group.

I wish I was in South Africa to watch the finals to take action snaps. I love photography and miss such events. But I made collage of my TV grabs and presented here. FIFA 2010 World cup Special images and art work creations are my own except for the JABULANI football and FIFA 2010 official logo image were taken from Internet Google web search.
View my original images here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/vijaysudar/FIFA2010Special#