South Africa's Cup glory

Take a bow South Africa; you did yourself and your continent proud.

From the blare of the first vuvuzela on June 11 until?Monday morning's final whistle, the first World Cup in Africa was a resounding success on and off the pitch.

Sure, there were obvious glitches but a lot of them were out of the hands of the organizing committee.

The transportation system was roundly criticized and an unfortunate flight delay caused a number of Spanish fans to miss their team's semifinal against Germany in Durban.

Fans, media and teams alike also fell victim to a spate of robberies but, fortunately, nobody was seriously hurt.

Then there was the now infamous but widely-dispersed vuvuzela which managed to annoy the hell out of everyone not blowing one and made each Cup game seem like a swarm of bees had descended on the stadium.

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Still, outside of missing a crucial game through a delayed flight, the unexpected withdrawal of your cash and the odd burst eardrum, the major problems occurred on the pitch.

FIFA, for some reason best known only to itself, consistently turns a deaf eye, or should that be blind ear, to calls for goal-line technology and who knows how the Germany-England second-round clash would have panned out if Frank Lampard's goal had been awarded and the scores were locked at 2-2 going into halftime.

Sticking with the African theme, FIFA continues to bury its head in the sand like an ostrich and even managed to proclaim how great the officiating had been before the final.

The stance is either blind arrogance or stupidity there's nothing wrong with getting things right.

Then there was an alarming amount of cynical play which spilled all the way into the Spain-Netherlands final and saw the referee dish out cards like a Las Vegas croupier.

Also, Robert DeNiro and Dustin Hoffman would have been proud of some of the performances put on by players when challenged. Not only must you now tumble like an acrobat but also contort your face in such a way as to make it appear you have been shot through the heart by a Robin Hood arrow.

However, all in all, it was a fascinating tournament and now we look forward to Brazil four years from now.

At the end of the day, Spain deservedly walked away with its first Cup but South Africa should be the ultimate winner.

Let's wait and see now how it utilizes its new infrastructure and stadia and how this still relatively newly-redefined nation advances after putting on such a wonderful show.

Tym Glaser is a sports copy editor who, thanks to the World Cup, has not slept for 31 days. He can be contacted at tymglaser@hotmail.com