Sunday Sermon: The Cup, the Horn, the Ball and an Octopus

VIVA SPAIN!

The World Cup has come and gone for another four years and despite all of the wonderful football that has graced the pitch, many people will remember South Africa 2010 for different reasons.

There is no doubt that the early stages of the tournament were dominated by the controversy surrounding the Vuvuzela. This so-called musical instrument would more aptly be described as a weapon for cruel and unusual punishment as its monotone noise dominated the eardrums beyond all belief.

Personally I question its cultural value even while many said it was a descendant of the “Kudu Horn” which was blown to summon African villagers to meetings.

It makes me think of eighty thousand people showing up to the MCG with a 1.5mtr length of PVC pipe to blow into during a game claiming it to be a descendant of the didgeridoo.

But that’s just me.

The ball chosen by FIFA for the tournament attracted it own fair share of controversy. The Adidas “Jabulani” was claimed by the manufacturer to be the most technologically advanced ball ever designed.

This may be the case but it now seems possible that some things can be too perfect as the most spherical ball ever produced seemed to play havoc with the skills of the world best players.

It hard to think who was most adversely affected by the obscure path taken by the ball after it left the boot. The world’s greatest ball strikers continuously struggled to keep the ball on track from free kicks and keepers were bamboozled by the track of the ball in flight as it regularly seemed to defy the laws of physics.

But despite the wonderful football that was played, the Vuvuzela’s and the ball that was just too round, for me South Africa 2010 will remembered for……

“PAUL THE PYSCHIC OCTOPUS”

If you polled a million people around the world on day one of the world cup and asked the Question: Who will be the most memorable character from the 2010 World Cup? I somehow doubt you would have got one response referring to an eight legged soothsayer.

Paul owned the second week of the tournament as fans forgot about their eardrums and tuned into the media to see the psychic Octopus predict the result of Germany’s contests with startling accuracy.

Game after game Paul correctly identified the result of all of Germany’s games finishing with a perfect 8/8 record.

Many theories now permeate the web with some claiming the octopus prefers the colour yellow always going to the box containing more of that colour, others claim the ‘fix is in’ and Paul’s owners are the true psychics placing Paul’s preferred food in the box of the expected winner.

Regardless of the reasons why, there is nothing people love more than a wacky animal story and I’m sure patronage at the Sea Life Centre in Oberhausen has made the marketing ploy a worthwhile exercise.

So the door is closed on South Africa 2010 and for part-time football supporters like myself I can stop pretending I know much about the game for another four years and get back to the sports I do know something about.

So bring on Brazil 2014 and “Harry the Goalkeeping Monkey”

Well! You never know.

Surely it makes as much sense as Paul.

Mondays Expert