CONMEBOL's World Cup

So... The first round of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa is now complete, and all the teams that qualified from South America are through to the next round!!!This is only to prove the rise of football level from our vast lands.

But is it really a surprise?? South American teams have a history of being very strong football nations (9 World Cups in total, anyone??) and even though Brazil and Argentina are the most recent -and more famous- successes from this area, you can only be fooled by believing that the other National teams are all but finished. 2 of those World Cups belong to Uruguay, a team that, yes, they won it back in the 30s and 50s, but it's one of those nice 'surprises' in this tournament. And it shouldn't be... they have the same amount of Cups as Argentina!!

Surely with the next World Cup being in Brazil, it is almost guaranteed that they'll win it... they have the team, and now finally the home advantage... But someone else can give them another Maracanazo... and I could bet it won't come from a European country...

Coming to South Africa, it was rumoured that FIFA were considering taking away a qualifying spot to the South American group, CONMEBOL, because of the World Cup being celebrated there and had already one team automatically qualified -Brazil. But I ask... did they do that to Africa??? No, they didn't. They have 5 spots PLUS the host, in this case South Africa... so I wonder, why not South America? Haven't we shown enough to prove we deserve that place? How many Europeans made it to the second round? How many Africans, with their extra spot??? And playing beautiful football!!!!

All I can say is that I asked for a great tournament full of excitement and sublime football... and I think we can agree that has been provided by the South Americans... the ones you usually follow, and the ones you're quite surprised how they got there.

Thank you Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay for putting our race up there where it belongs!!!