With the clock running out and the hopes of securing a goal that may salvage Ivory Coast's World Cup campaign, the look on captain Didier Drogba's face in the dying moments of the game against Holland was very expressive and priceless. It was a mixture of determination and despair, anger and motive as he felt helpless to fulfill his duty towards his country, a burden that the 24 million-pound Chelsea striker had to carry on his shoulders. As sad as it was to see Drogba and his teammates in agony after a brief World Cup spell, the scene was very descriptive of the true nature of the competition and the sport itself. Ivory Coast, Ghana, Trinidad and Tobago, Angola, South Korea, Costa Rica are among the teams that traveled to Germany with an underdog label, but have managed over two rounds to show us what the World Cup is really about. Even though, like its predecessor in 2002, the tournament has failed to live up to the enticement expected of a World Cup, there is one thing it doesn't lack…spirit! The strange thing is that World Cup spirit has sprung to life in relatively weaker teams like the ones mentioned previously. It came from unknown players like Polish goalkeeper Artur Boruc, old man Yorke of T&T, and Angola's Akwa among others. These teams and players have so far demonstrated that attitude can go along way in football, as does self confidence, motive and patriotism in an era where football has become a service and players have to get paid even to represent their country with the least possible effort on their part. We see Brazilian legend Pele doing commercials where he speaks about his glorious past with the Seleção, and even though the man is purely uttering these words for a huge some of money, and even though his stories are meant to make us feel emotional, but I have to say its working. It is working because we've seen what this brilliant magician has done fore his country over the years, how he wooed millions of people with his goals, moves and passes. You can get the same feeling when you watch Maradona cheering for Argentina from the stands and Beckenbauer gazing on to the field with his stern look in a Germany game. These players enjoyed their share of success over the years and continued to do so after winning the ultimate trophy, the World Cup trophy, which earned them the love of football fans worldwide because they did it "for the love of the game". These qualities are long gone on the football field, at least in the Germany finals where Brazil are so stingy they don't want to entertain their anticipating viewers and France can't find the guts or slickness to win a World Cup game and players like Cristiano Ronaldo and Zlatan Ibrahimovic seem to think they are doing a "Nike" commercial. That is not what football or the World Cup is about. It is about doing what you have to do to win, which varies from team to team. For instance you don't expect Ghana to give the display that Brazil en rout to a victory, ooh, in fact they did, the Africans even managed to surpass the world champions in their 2-0 win over Czech Republic, one that saw the Black Stars embarrass the European powerhouse. Anyways, the point is that top teams like Brazil, Germany and England want to win with the least effort possible. Other top-guns like Italy, Sweden and France have even failed to fulfill this requirement for several reasons that include arrogance. Players like Portugal's Ronaldo, Holland's Van Nistelrooy, Italy's Totti and others are more concerned for their well-being and showing off their individual skills even at the expense of their team. Meanwhile, smaller teams have managed to upset frontrunners through persistence, determination and spirit, which is what this tournament should be about. So unless these prerequisites are fulfilled and football regains its true
