A Final Look Back at the 2010 FIFA World Cup

Well, the calendar year of 2010 is finally over and it turned out to be a fantastic year for football throughout the globe.

However, despite the heroics of Inter Milan, and Russia and Qatar each getting a chance to host a World Cup, there was easily one event in football that dominated the globe.

That event is none other than the 2010 FIFA World Cup that lasted a month in beautiful South Africa.

At the end of the tournament, Spain were able to claim their first ever World Cup title by beating the Netherlands 1-0 on an Andres Iniesta goal in extra time.

However, there was much more to this World Cup than just the Spanish claiming the trophy.

In the months leading into the tournament, many people wondered if South Africa was going to be capable of hosting such a huge event in terms of infrastructure and safety.

There were talks that the stadiums were not going to be fully operational and that many practice fields were not going to be finished by time the nations arrived in South Africa.

However, once South Africa and Mexico kicked off the World Cup in Soccer City on June 11 in front of a capacity crowd of 84,490, attention diverted away from South Africa's ability to host the World Cup to addressing the problems with the games that were taking place.

First, there was the Jabulani ball that was extremely unpopular with footballers (especially the ones who couldn't score).

However, the Jabulani made goalkeepers look foolish as well, with England's Robert Green allowing a miserable goal to American midfielder Clint Dempsey and Algeria's Faouzi Chaouchi allowing Slovenia's Robert Koren's easy shot to go in being two notable examples of how the Jabulani affected the World Cup.

However, the Jabulani became a side issue compared to the buzzing noise of the Vuvuzelas that annoyed fans, players and the media alike.

Even though the Vuvuzela's were used in the Confederations Cup the year before, the worldwide media apparently did not know about this, and tried to push FIFA to ban the horn.

However, FIFA was against banning the horns, and viewers went through the remainder of the World Cup wondering if a swarm of bees were behind them.

In the actual tournament, we saw some surprising developments take form.

In Group A, the French squad decided to strike on June 20 following the expulsion of striker Nicolas Anelka for voicing his mind at manager Raymond Domenech at halftime of France's 2-0 loss to Mexico.

France then went on to lose their final group stage match to host South Africa to finish last in Group A. South Africa also were eliminated on goal differential, making it the first time that a host nation failed to advance from the group stage in World Cup history.

In Group C, England barely advanced after a 1-0 win over Slovenia in their final group stage match.

However, England did not win their group, thanks in large part to a stoppage time winner from Landon Donovan against Algeria to allow the United States to win their group for the first time since 1930.

In Group D, Germany looked like the best team of the tournament after a decisive win over Australia. And Ghana ended up being the only African nation to reach the knockout stage.

In Group F, defending World Cup champion Italy found themselves at the bottom of the table in what was considered to be the easiest World Cup group.

Meanwhile, Group F minnow New Zealand ended up being the only unbeaten team in the World Cup, but were eliminated alongside Italy due in large part to achieving three straight draws.

In Group G, we saw North Korea play the match of their lives in a loss against Brazil before they were humiliated by Portugal and the Ivory Coast.

And in Group H, World Cup favorite Spain were able to top their group on goal differential after a humbling 1-0 loss to Switzerland.

But once the round of 16 started, a match between Germany and England in Bloemfontein on June 27 gave birth to the biggest controversy of the World Cup.

In the 38th minute with Germany up 2-1, England's Frank Lampard took a shot that bounced several feet into the goal before it bounced out to German goalkeeper Manuel Neuer, who cleared the ball.

Germany went on to win 4-1, but the match certainly would have been different if Lampard's goal had counted.

Later on that day, Argentina's Carlos Tevez had a goal counted in which he was several yards offside.

To make matters worse, the entire stadium saw that he was offside on the video screen inside of Soccer City, causing the entire Mexican squad to argue with the referee.

Argentina went on to win the match 3-1.

In the days following the matches, people throughout the world wanted to have FIFA implement some form of goal-line technology, but it has come to no avail.

Outside of the issues with goal-line technology, we saw Luis Suarez and Diego Forlan continue to put together a fantastic performance with Uruguay reaching the quarterfinal, and Asamoah Gyan lead Ghana into their first quarterfinal.

The quarterfinal match between Uruguay and Ghana turned into an instant classic with great goals from Sulley Muntari and Forlan in regular time before one of the craziest endings in football history transpired.

In the final minute of extra time, Suarez handled a header from Dominic Adiyiah with his hands off the goal line, causing Suarez to get sent off.

What happened next turned out to be one of the most infamous moments of the World Cup. Gyan, who had already converted two penalties, hit his penalty off the crossbar and out of play, forcing spot kicks and an entire continent to feel heartbroken.

In the penalty shootout, Uruguay won 4-2 to reach the semifinals, while Ghana's World Cup run ended in Soccer City.

In other quarterfinal action, a brace from Dutchman Wesley Sneijder allowed the Netherlands to shock Brazil 2-1, while Germany crushed Diego Maradona's Argentina 4-0 in Cape Town.

And Spain beat Paraguay 1-0 on a late goal from David Villa.

The Germany win helped to give more prominence to Paul the Octopus, who was correct on all eight of his World Cup picks.

In the semifinal, the Dutch beat Uruguay 3-2 while Spain beat a German squad without arguably their best player (Thomas Mueller) to suspension.

This caused one of the least entertaining World Cup finals ever between the Dutch and Spanish that saw some ferocious play and no goals.

In extra time, Iniesta scored the winner for Spain in the 116th minute to claim the World Cup for Spain to close out the biggest party on Earth.

But this World Cup was truly more than just Spain winning.

We got to see that South Africa was truly ready for the world stage, and can host any major tournament.

Crime rate went down tremendously during the World Cup, with only 994 reported incidents within a 1.5-kilometer distance in and around the stadiums on match days.

Altogether, 447 people were arrested in that 1.5-kilometer radius during the World Cup, and no supporters were killed at the World Cup.

And, 92 percent of foreigners that were polled in South Africa did suggest that they would recommend South Africa as a holiday destination.

However, South Africa does have some major problems to face following this World Cup.

The first deals with the use of the stadiums following the World Cup.

Currently, some of the stadiums that were used in the World Cup do not have full-time tenants.

Along with that, the neighborhoods that surround the stadium have not been able to escape poverty, much like the one's surrounding the Mbombela Stadium.

Also, unemployment is still pretty much the same as it was before the World Cup, with the current unemployment rate at 25.3 percent, up .1 percent from second quarter rate that was 25.2 percent.

Despite all of this, South Africa is still only a developing nation and will always have problems just like these that they will face.

And this World Cup truly was a sign to show us that South Africa was truly ready to become a major player on the world's stage in the near future.

This wouldn't be possible without a unifying figure, and that figure is none other than the first president of South Africa after the end of apartheid, Nelson Mandela.

Even though he was 91 years old during the tournament, Mandela's legacy was extremely apparent throughout the World Cup, even though he missed the opening match due to the death of his granddaughter.

There was a stadium that held his name (the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Port Elizabeth), and there was an advertisement on the electronic advertising boards that reminded all viewers that July 18 was Mandela Day.

Mandela Day is a global call to action that celebrates the idea that each individual has the power to transform the world, the ability to make an imprint.

But, the image that one could see that both blacks and whites can be unified together in a country that saw a major separation through apartheid for a long time.

And it was only fitting that during the closing ceremony that Mandela and his wife Graça Machel went across the field on a cart to wave to the fans and show their support of South Africa.

Without Nelson Mandela, this World Cup never would have been possible, but thanks in large part for what he did, we now have a unified and free South Africa.

And that was what this World Cup was truly about; a celebration of freedom for South Africa that the entire world got to be a part of.