Who won, and who lost at 2010 World Cup?

By Yoon Chul, Kim Hyun-cheol
Staff reporters

Strictly speaking, there are no losers at the final stages of the World Cup as it is the ultimate football festival. All participants, who went through tough regional qualifying competitions, are well worth praise.

Some of those involved will still be remembered more as winners, for a variety of reasons, while others will not be remembered so fondly.

Looking back on the 2010 World Cup, it did not necessarily provide the best quality games overall, but was still one of the most dramatic tournaments football fans may wish to reminisce on.

These categories are just for fun _ well, most of them.

Winners

1. New Zealand

The All Whites, who were not even in the limelight at home, betrayed everyone's expectation of ending up an easy Group F's whipping boys by surprising all and posting the sole unbeaten record among the 32 participants.

The squad, which had four amateur players including a banker who flew to South Africa on leave, might have made a miraculous passage to the round of 16 without a dramatic penalty-winning dive by Daniele de Rossi in the 1-1 draw with the defending champion Italy.

2. Vuvuzela (and China)

On the first appearance, the plastic horns, replicating traditional African instruments, have become an icon of the tournament. Once struck as intolerably vexing, their loud bumblebee rasp has sort of hypnotized viewers worldwide, and even an iPhone application eventually became a hit.

Its popularity made for another winner at the World Cup - China. Even though its national team didn't make it to the South African finals, the Asian giant made up for the shortcoming by exporting nearly 90 percent of the vuvuzelas. China expects the market to exceed $20 million this year.

3. Paul the Octopus

Perhaps the two-and-a-half-year-old animal is the only cephalopod in history that has enjoyed rock star status. Based in an aquarium in western Germany, Paul boasted 100-percent accuracy in his predictions on eight World Cup games.

The celebrity oracle, tracing back to the 2008 European Championship, opened the door for a number of hidden animal prophets from all over the world, from Singapore's Mani the Parrot to chimpanzee Pino in Estonia. And God knows who will inherit the throne from the pioneering oracle now that Paul has announced his retirement.

4. Luiz Suarez

Teammate Diego Forlan shone to win the Golden Ball, but if there is such a thing as a god of football, he must have been standing by this Uruguayan striker.

The Dutch league's top scorer saw off South Korea with a beautifully-bent winning goal in the round of 16. His last-minute goal line handball in the quarterfinal match against Ghana led to arguably the most dramatic moments in the tournament's history that lifted the South American country to its first-ever semifinals in 40 years.

5. Alex Ferguson

An atrocious performance by the English squad may well be causing pain to most football fans there, but maybe not to the Manchester United manager. As most of his squad returned home early, he now has his players in time to prepare for the new season, like most major Premier League clubs.

Players from the big U.K. clubs were virtual non-entities during the World Cup. Manchester City and Chelsea players scored just three goals each, with none of them coming from an Englishman.

But it wouldn't really matter in the end once the league starts, because questions on how much fizz is left in there will vanish accordingly.

Losers

1. Seoul Broadcasting System (SBS)

Following the Vancouver Winter Olympics, SBS again monopolized the broadcasting for the 2010 World Cup. But then again, the station is strongly criticized by local fans due to the overall low quality of its broadcast footage.

It hired Cha Bum-kun, the most popular and experienced Korean commentator, and he ended up continuously explaining basic facts about the sport instead of detailed analysis due to less experienced co-commentators.

Its plan to be labeled as the No. 1 sports broadcaster is now facing sizzling public censure that it deprived local fans of the right to choose sports coverage.

2. France, Italy

Technically all countries other than the champion Spain can be referred to as losers, but Italy and France stood out in a fairly negative way. Italy was the first defending champion to be ousted in the first round, with a shocking 0-2-1 record in Group F.

Things were much worse for the 2002 champion and 2006 runner-up France, marred by disharmony. Manager Raymond Domenech sent Nicolas Anelka home following a serious conflict, and the whole squad refused a training session before its last group match against South Africa.

3. Hyundai Motor Company

As the sole Korean official FIFA partner, Hyundai introduced an ambitious corporate image ad campaign with the catchphrase "Shouting Korea" during the World Cup, but few here seem to take it seriously.

Among a lot of Internet communities it was named as one of the worst advertisements on TV, pointing out the illogic of meaningless high-toned shouts of "Shout!" working for Korea and against its opponents.

4. Howard Webb

FIFA said that the accuracy of referees' calls stood at 96 percent. And the final match's referee Howard Webb agreed that their judgment was appropriate. But a string of wrong calls by referees made that comment a joke.

They robbed Frank Lampard of England of a goal against Germany, failed to judge an offside by Carlos Tevez, nullified a possible U.S. win over Slovenia and overlooked a handball foul by Luis Fabiano in his goal against Ivory Coast. You are free to name a lot more.

5. Dunga

Just before the World Cup, Dunga retook Brazil's world No. 1 spot in the FIFA rankings from Spain as a pragmatic head coach with growing expectations of winning the trophy at the World Cup. But this ended in a failure with a stunning 3-2 quarterfinal loss to the Netherlands.

Dunga tried to tame the brilliant techniques of his footballers, but he only proved that for the Brazilian team its older attack-oriented approach works better.