Time Heals, Holland Fans, and All That

They say that time heals most things. By the end of Saturday 14 August 2010 England will have played in a friendly, and the Premier League will be up and running for the 2010/2011 season. A disastrous summer for England fans, although never to be entirely forgotten, will be comfortably far enough away in the past.

German fans will also want to throw themselves into the domestic season following yet another failure despite a never tiring German optimism. Twenty-eight other sets of fans are beginning to heal now too. There can only be one winner of the World Title of course!!

But you say, "That's only 31 teams. There were 32 in South Africa!"
Yes, and the one team we omit is Holland. Holland showed so much promise. The team rather let themselves down in the Final. And the Dutch still feel that their team was robbed!? They lost of course in the Final and their healing process will take a little longer yet. Perhaps after three, yes 3!, World Cup Final defeats, the healing will never come. No team has come so close so often and still not become World Champions.

Some teams were never expected to win the World Cup. For many, it was a good tournament. But South Africa, United States, Chile, Mexico, and Ghana all could have gone further.

Congratulations though go to Spain. Its team went all the way. Interestingly the team only scored 8 goals, conceding only 2, but no one in Spain is worrying about that. For Spain, the World Cup under-achievers, time has finally healed, and Spain are the World Champions.