Our long international nightmare is over. The World Cup resumes today with two quarterfinals matches that are certain to pique the interest of viewers, and especially of Africans.
Tonight is the Ghana-Uruguay match. Uruguay is, as I’ve been saying since early in the group stages, for real. But so is Ghana. Ghana just lost to a German team that even with a big assist from the referee crushed England 4-1. They beat a quite good Serbia team. They will have de facto home pitch advantage — usually home field is worth about half a goal in soccer, but estimates I have read have African teams at this World Cup (excluding South Africa, of course) being able to expect an extra half a goal. Ghana can win this. And my hope is that Ghana will win this.
The narrative is that African teams have been a disappointment in this World Cup — I could dispute that to some degree. Cameroon and Nigeria certainly came up short. Algeria played well, especially on defense, and would have been worthy to advance. Bafana Bafana only disappointed by the standards of World Cup hosts — coming in with the ranking that they did, missing the knockout stages on points seems to me a great result for them, especially as they closed with a win over France. Cote d’Ivoire drew the group of death for the second World Cup in a row. That’s not exactly an excuse, but it’s not exactly not an excuse either.
And then there is Ghana, a squad that is fast reaching the point in its development where it is no longer happy just to make the knockout stages. And they are doing all of this without Michael Essien, one of the elite players in the world. Uruguay has a deadly frontline. There is no doubting that. But Ghana has depth and quality across the board and has shown a stinginess on defense that I think can counter the Uruguayans. hana wine 2-1.
As for this afternoon’s game, it is a finals quality matchup in a quarterfinals frame. The Netherlands are arguably the greatest national team never to have won a World championship. The 1974 and 1978 squads are among the greatest of all time — the 1974 team falling in line only behind the 1954 Hungary squad as the best non-winner in Cup history. The Dutch perfected Total Football in the 1970s, the idea that every guy on the pitch should be able to do a bit of everything, thus allowing for a dynamic attacking style that did not of necessity believe it thus had to concede a lot of goals.
Under most conditions the Dutch would be favorites among the South African crowd, as the orange horde has a great deal of support in South Africa. But they are playing the Brazilians. And South Africans, like just about everyone else, love the Brazilians. And what’s not to love? When discussing world football all conversations start with the men in the canary yellow jerseys. There are all of the obvious facts — the sheer number of championships, the cliched samba flair, the individuals who have captivated the world’s imagination, and so forth. But in South Africa and across the continent I think there is another unspoken, maybe even unrecognized affinity: The Brazilian team racially looks quite a bit like an African team, and that of course ties into Brazil’s own long history of colonialism and slavery and racism and ethnic division. In many real ways, the Brazilians are an African side, and that’s before taking into account various developing world affinities beyond the racial.
For a while as I tried to buck the tide of those pushing Brazil and Spain as the favorites I looked to the Netherlands as dark horse conquerors — or as dark horse as the Dutch can be given their standing among soccer’s global elite. But having watched the two sides coming in, even as someone who does not believe form carries forward as much as many people tend to believe, I still have to go with Brazil in a 3-2 thriller.
Today is my last full day in Botswana. My friend and his family have been wonderful hosts. After our Gabarone Nature Reserve adventure last night (lots of types of antelope, warthogs, ostriches, monkeys, birds, and a lone zebra — we allegedly missed a score more as we made our way around the park) heir kids told me they want me to stay another week. If I did I think I’d gain ten kilograms. I am off to Durban tomorrow, and I hope the sea air will be good for my struggling sinuses. I’ll miss my friends. And my great World Cup adventure is slowly approaching its end. But there are still many great games to be played, and increasingly it will be time to assess the big question, the one I am here trying to figure out: What has it all meant?
