2010 FIFA World Cup: First time occurrences in South Africa 2010
The Little Texas’s (TLT) debut studio album has a track named, “There’s a first time for everything”. The 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa gives us a perfect example of that sentiment. This time, the World Cup in South Africa 2010 marks several first timers for the tournament. Here is a quick look at a few of these instances.
First African World Cup:
For the first time in World Cup history, the competition is being held in the African continent. The next World Cup of 2014 will be held in Brazil and therefore it would be a first time the World Cup has been consecutively been held in the Southern Hemisphere. The World Cup will also be held in the winters for a second time running.
Host Nation Fails To Advance:
It sadly also marks the first time that a host nation has ever failed to advance even to the knockout stages of the tournament. But to give them credit, they triumphed against France who were the 2006 World Cup finalist.
Slovenia’s Victory over Algeria:
This was the first time that the Slovenians won a match in this tournament and the second time that Slovenia has qualified for the World Cup finals. The Slovenians lost all three matches in 2002, failing to earn even a single point before being knocked out.
They were almost knocked out this time round as well but they managed to proceed to the last 16 stage. Secondly, if the United States had not scored against Algeria, that match would have ended in a draw and Slovenia would have advanced.
New Zealand Draws With The Slovakians:
This year, New Zealand made it to the World Cup Finals for the first time since 1982, their only other appearance in the tournament, where they failed to win even a single match and were outscored by their opponents by a steep score of 12-2.
They scored a dramatic equalizer against Slovakia in injury time which gave them their first ever point in the World Cup tournament. The ‘All Whites’ earned the second one in a draw against Italy while over all, making quite an improvement in comparison to their performance in the previous World Cup and qualification stages.
Slovakia’s Three Firsts:
Slovakia had three firsts in South Africa 2010, it was the first time ever that they have qualified to play in the World Cup Finals; the first time ever that the Slovakians have received points in the group plays and the first time ever that the Slovakians have advanced to the knockout stages of the tournament.
Both France And Italy Eliminated In The Group Stages:
Going into the tournament, many experts described Italy as “the worst team to ever defend a World Cup”, and they proved to be right. The Azzurri lost to Slovakia which resulted in the knockout. Though they made a superb comeback and were denied two controversial goals. But in essence, their performance was too little and too late.
Moreover, Italy is not the first defending champion to exit the tournament during the group stages. Brazil also accomplished that task in 1966 while France achieved that in 2002. This would be another interesting fact to know that this is the first time that both the teams from previous World Cup championship matches were knocked out in the group stages.
The Americans Defeat the Algerians:
This was also the first time that USA has ever earned a point in their third group match in South Africa 2010. Landon Donovan’s spectacular injury time goal took the Americans from the point of elimination to the group winners. Another fascinating fact is that this happens to be the first time that the Americans have won their group since the first World Cup in 1930. In the World Cup of 1930, USA defeated both Paraguay and Belgium by a 3-0 score line.
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