Since the kick-off fans and analysts have been complaining about the poor level of this World Cup. Ahmed Morsy reports Fifty-seven games into the World Cup, the quarter-finals of which begin tomorrow, Egyptians by and large agree that the matches, especially in the group stage, were rather disappointing and not a few number were shockingly poor. It could be tired legs, the cold, the altitude, the dancing Jabulani, injuries, nerves. Whatever the explanation, this World Cup is below par. The opening match between South Africa and Mexico aside, which many described as one of the rare good matches, along with Germany's 4-0 whitewash of Australia, many people felt the games were not up to the standard of past tournaments. After the French team's miserable showing both on and off the pitch, France crashed out of the tournament with just one point and a lone goal. Italy and England soon followed suit. "The poor performance of the key players is due to the short period of the warm-up camps prior the tournament," Ahmed Marzouk, 34, an avid football fan, explained. "For teams like France, Italy and England, it was not a matter of suddenly becoming bad. Their curve was going down ever since the last World Cup." Egypt's goalkeeping coach Ahmed Suleiman expressed his dissatisfaction with the World Cup. "It's not worth anything without the African champions Egypt," Suleiman told the daily Al-Shorouk. "We deserve to be in the tournament because we beat all the African teams which qualified for the World Cup in the Africa Cup of Nations," he added. On the elimination of heavyweight teams from the first round, Suleiman said: "Nowadays, there are no big or small teams. Every team strives to win. And it's not a matter of skill but also fitness and strength are involved." Suleiman said that while watching the games "we noticed that there was something missing." Many Egyptian football fans lost their enthusiasm after watching the group stage matches, especially after what was in their view the poor performance of teams like Germany, Argentina, The Netherlands and Brazil. "I think the real challenge began from the round of 16," Tamer Abdel-Aziz, a 36-year-old football fan, said. "Although I didn't watch all the matches in the first round, I'm eager not to miss any in the next rounds. However, it's awful that the best four teams will meet in the quarter-finals," Abdel-Aziz said. "After the African teams failed to convince, it's too bad the Egyptian team is not there because I believe we would have done better." Former Egyptian star Hazem Emam praised Ghana for their "great achievement" of progressing into the quarter-finals. "Ghana restored Africa's football reputation following the elimination of all the other African representatives," Emam said. Chelsea ace Salomon Kalou admits that Cameroon, for one, failed to live up to its reputation at the World Cup. "Expectations were huge and we owed it to ourselves to perform well. But the pressure has caused us more stress than anything and even inhibited our talents," Kalou confessed. "All of us put lots of pressure on ourselves because this World Cup is being played on our continent." As for the next round, Egyptian football critic Taha Ismail finds it difficult to predict the eventual winner. "After the first round surprises and the elimination of the title holder and runner-up, it's difficult to predict the 2010 World Cup champion," Ismail wrote in the daily Al-Wafd. "I think the next round will see surprises from the less experienced teams." Al-Gaish coach Farouk Gaafar believes that the players' performance was affected by long, exhausting seasons without enough time to rest. "The elimination of Italy and France as well as England was enough for most critics to stop forecasting and simply wait for more upsets." It's been unanimous that former world champions have not been giving their fans the skills or the scores they have travelled for thousands of miles to watch. Teams such as France and Italy were the first to disappoint their fans when they were humbled by lesser lights. "The teams were playing badly. The big teams are not up to the standard and the number of goals for World Cup matches is quite humble," said Fatma Haggag, a physics student. Agreeing was Mohamed Helmi, an AUC student who found most of what he calls the strong Africans being knocked out, while other supposedly weaker Asian teams qualifying. The poor standard of the matches was not to blame on the players alone. Many of the viewers and sports analysts found other factors to be involved. "The major factor is the playing itself. Major teams defended more, not wanting to concede goals, obeying their couches. Hence they put themselves at the mercy of counter-attacks which proved to be working," said Karim Moussa, a petroleum engineering student. Focusing on the French team many agreed with the ex-star of the French national team Zinedine Zidane who stated in one of his recent interviews that the team was not up to standard because there was no leader. "France lost because there was no discipline inside the squad and the throwing out of Anelka after an argument with the team's technical trainer," said Moussa. Another factor would be bad weather conditions during some of the games. The weather was too cold for some of the teams used to a warmer climate. Further was the unbearable sound of the vuvuzela, the South African horn which sounds like a swarm of bees. Since the beginning of the tournament players and coaches have been complaining that the collective noise of the vuvuzelas prevents them from hearing each other on the pitch, which might have an affect on the matches. The refereeing was another venue of criticism from some of the viewers and specially football analyses in Egyptian media. The most obvious gaffe was the English goal against Germany that was not allowed even though Frank Lampard's shot clearly crossed the goal line by a good metre, and the first Argentine goal against Mexico which was clearly offside. Several pundits also pointed to matches that failed due to the weak character of the referee, leading to the match getting out of hand. Football fans around the world were further disappointed when two of the strongest teams in the tournament did not deliver in the group stage. Brazil and Portugal failed their followers and many others who were hoping to see some life in what was shaping up as a boring World Cup. Some suspected that both teams were not motivated to score, knowing that ending the match a draw would guarantee them both qualification to the next round "It seemed that both teams had agreed beforehand that the match should end in a draw because this will allow them both to move on to the second round, and get Ivory Coast out of the World Cup," said Karim Ezzat, an engineering freshman. Italy's loss was viewed as a big surprise and was also another disappointment for the Azzuri supporters. However, many found the end result justified as the team was not in form. "Italy finished with the least number of points in the group and did not do a great job although it is the holder of the 2006 World Cup," Ezzat added. "The players did not play well because of the injuries they had and because many of the players were getting old." On the other hand, a few people have shown their appreciation of the matches, or at least understood that the first round might be weak and unimpressive. "Personally I only start watching the matches from the second round because then they start getting much more interesting and better. This level is normal for the first round except maybe for France which was a big surprise," said Amir Agami, a waiter. When the quarter-finals begin 2 July, fans will be expecting that the eight teams remaining are truly the best and will perform as such. Additional reporting by Mennatallah Youssef
