Germany produced a display that enthralled and infuriated in equal measure, and were still far too strong for their lowly ranked visitors from the furthest reaches of the European football map. On another day Germany could easily have doubled their tally of goals, but a mixture of wasteful finishing and a desire to walk the ball into the net let Kazakhstan off the hook of an absolute trouncing While there is apparently no such thing as...More

The 2010 World Cup was highlighted for the emergence of young talent from across the globe. Among the nations sporting their finest flair were Uruguay with Luis Suarez, Netherlands’ Elerjo Elia, Angel Di Maria from Argentina and Slovakia’s Marek Hamsik. But it was Germany that stood tall and proud as Mesut Özil and Thomas Müller came away from South Africa with major plaudits. Bayern Munich’s Müller was awarded Young Player of the Tourn...More

It is hard to believe and indeed accept that FIFA’s showpiece tournament is over, and that it will be another four years before the World Cup descends on Brazil for its 20th edition. What we can say is that despite a slow start to proceedings, the final weekend has served up some fantastic entertainment, proving a fitting end to a competition that will live long in the memory, and the last month will have done wonders for the brand of S...More

So ends Germany’s World Cup, and with a medal too - just not the one Joachim Low and his players were hoping for, and arguably not the one their play over the course of the tournament deserves. But Sami Khedira’s header gave the three-times winners a second consecutive third place, finally overcoming a resilient Uruguay side who had surpassed all expectations to even reach the third-place playoff, even if they needed a helping hand fro...More

URUGUAY 2Cavani 28, Forlan 51 GERMANY 3Muller 19, Jansen 56, Khedira 82 Germany claimed third place at the World Cup with victory over Uruguay in an entertaining Bronze Medal match. Goals from Thomas Muller, Marcell Jansen and Sami Khedira were enough to eclipse Uruguayan strikes from Edinson Cavani and Diego Forlan. Dennis Aogo was lucky not to be sent off after four minutes, going over the ball with his tackle and crunching in...More

Saturday 10 July 2010 As Uruguay and Germany prepare to conclude their impressive 2010 World Cup campaigns with the now customary but perhaps rather superfluous third place play-off, South Africa, and in fact Africa as a whole, is able to ponder its footballing and social future, some of the things that transcend the results of this World Cup, with great optimism. Despite much scepticism regarding the positive impact of the World Cup...More