And then there were two...

After almost one month of late nights, cancelled appointments, morning blues and numerous live matches at the FIFA World Cup in South Africa, we are finally down to two teams. Favorites teams; France, Italy, England, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Germany, all past winners of the World Cup have gone. The final will be between Spain and The Netherlands. La Furia Roja (The Red Fury) vs the Oranje, whichever team that wins on Sunday July 11, 2020, a new name will be added to the illustrious list of World Cup winners and the winner will also have the honour of being the first European team to win outside Europe.

The World Cup has been won only by teams from South America (Brazil-5x, Argentina-2x and Uruguay-2x) and Europe (Italy-4x, Germany-3x, England-1x, and France-1x). This World Cup will be seen as a breakthrough for the underdogs, a first of many perhaps...the one that breaks the cycle with two teams that never won the World Cup in the final. Both teams, in fact all four semifinalist displayed one similar trait, all teams played as a team, it was teamwork that won the day...it is after all a team game. England, Brazil, France, Italy, Portugal and Argentina have great world class highly-paid individual players. Some players make RM100k per day more than some people make in a year but they all failed against an efficient team playing with teamwork, courage, confidence and self-belief. England and Argentina lost to Germany by 4 goals, Germany then lost to Spain in the semis while Brazil lost to The Netherlands in the quarters.

What about the teams from Africa and Asia? While Japan, South Korea and Ghana perform respectfully by reaching the round of 16, it remains to be seen who will be the 1st African or Asian winners of the World Cup. Maybe this World Cup will pave the way to show that any team can win. Here's to a great final, may the best team wins the FIFA World Cup Trophy plus bragging rights till Brazil 2014.

Dreaming of Team Malaysia in 2014