We were there

The 2010 FIFA World Cup has come and gone. We silenced our critics who said we could never meet the deadlines in order to host the biggest sporting event in the world. When when met these deadlines, these same critics then said we would be plagued by crime and poor management. In the wake of the first African Soccer World Cup, Sepp Blatter congratulated us on hosting a highly successful event that he personally would give us 9 out of 10.  I am proud to say that even though we did have one or two speed bumps (namely the chaos at the King Shaka Airport in Durban) we managed to pull off one of the best Soccer World Cup event's in history.

The South African population is now faced with a new challenge. For the past 4 years we have been focused on this event and now with it all over, many predict a depression that will plague the rest of 2010 for South Africans. I feel that firstly we should ignore these utterances as they most likely come from the same sources that predicted absolute failure in our ability to host the World Cup, secondly I feel that we should take the temporary unity that was felt during the past month and should aim to instill it into the culture of this country. South African's are accustomed to adversity and the next 6 months will be no different. We have once again proven that once united we can achieve anything.

Like the advertisements aired on local and private television, we can proudly say "We were there". Like many things in life, we will only realize the true significance of what happened once it has passed us by. We will look back at June/July of 2010 and we will always remember the events that look place. From the brilliant atmosphere of the opening game, the new and rejuvenated international attitude towards our motherland, Paul the Octopus, the love that some of us found in the foreign visitors that graced our shores or simply the honor that came with hosting the greatest football players in the world. We will never forget what has happened over the past month

I for one was greatly impressed in the change of international attitude towards South Africa after this prestigious event. From international news coverage that praised us for the manner in which we conducted ourselves towards the tourists, the impressive state of our roads, the hospitality that was experienced across the country or just the fact that the international community had a distorted view of our country. In an encounter with Mexican tourists I was startled to see the amount of praise we received. We are unaware of how lucky we are to be South African, the diversity of cultures and the diversity of our landscape is found in no other country in the world.

My biggest hope for the future is that by hosting this event we will be able to inspire future players, we have been exposed first hand to the best in the world and hopefully from this we will be able to generate a few new Super Star players of our own. Coaching clinics have been established by FIFA and Company's like Nike and Adidas, these will aid us in the grooming of future talent. If South Africa could nurture it's Football team to a level that is similar to that of it's Rugby or Cricket, we will be one of the most powerful sporting nations in the world.

It was in the July 11th edition of Time magazine that I found inspiration for this post. A writer by the name of Alex Perry who moved to South Africa in 2006 wrote the Essay Column on the last page. He talks about how he was at first fearful of the country's reputation of crime and violence and how he has since settled in and already is starting to fall in love with this great land. He talks about the future benefits of hosting the 2010 World Cup and how Africa is on the rise. As the beacon of Africa we will be the first to feel the effects of the growth of the Mother Continent. I would like to congratulate Spain on their first World Cup crown, I felt that even with a few dodgy decisions in the final match that they were the better team and in the last few games have certainly looked the bearers of the rightful title of "World Champions".  We did it, we did it with style. As South African's we can be proud