FIFA World Cup 2010: Firsts at the tournament
The FIFA World Cup 2010 has finally come to a close, but along the way of the tournament there were a series of firsts that took place.
To start things off, this was the first time in the history of the tournament that it took place in the African continent. None of the previous eighteen tournaments had taken place in an African continent before.
This was also the first time in the history of the World Cup that the host nation failed to qualify out of the group stage. South Africa had a number of good performances specially the one against France but this doesn’t compensate for the fact that they were the first host team to never make it out of the group stages.
This was the second time that Slovenia managed to qualify for the finals, but it was the first time that they won a match during the course of the tournament. They were also almost progressing to the round of sixteen but a late goal scored by the United States against Algeria denied them that honor.
Slovakia qualified for the World cup finals for the first time ever. This was the first time they scored any points in the group stage of the tournament and this was the first time they managed to advance to the knock out stages of the finals. In total Slovakia managed to have three firsts during the FIFA World Cup 2010.
New Zealand qualified for the World Cup for the first time since 1982. They scored their first ever point in the World Cup in a draw against Slovakia. They even drew against reigning champions Italy. They were the only team to go out of the tournament without suffering a single defeat.
In the match between Greece and Nigeria, Sani Kaita, kicked Greek player, Torosidis and earned a red card for his actions. This was the first time a Nigerian player had been sent off during the World Cup. The Nigerians lost the match and every one blamed the defeat on Keita, who received a series of death threats after the game.
The win over Nigeria was the first time the Greek’s had managed to win at the World Cup finals. They did so by scoring the first ever World Cup goal scored by the country.
Italy and France were never strong favorites heading into the World Cup, but the fact that both the teams that had appeared in the final game of the previous World Cup, ended up getting eliminated in the group stages was a first. Defending champions have been eliminated in the past as Brazil did it in the 1966 edition and France in the 2002 one. But this was the first time that two team that featured in the final in the previous tournament saw themselves going home at the end of the group stage.
Spain won the World Cup for the first time in the country’s history, in doing so they were the first European team to life the trophy outside Europe. Their opening day defeat to Switzerland also made them the first team ever to lose the opening game and then go on to win the tournament.
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