It's goodbye 2010 South Africa!

Tonight it comes to an end. The month-long tournament, 32 teams, two left standing and fighting for the prized scalp --- lifting the coveted World Cup trophy.

The spectacle had me hooked --- line and sinker. I was enthralled. I watched every single match, tried not to miss a single minute. It was new and refreshing, and yet in a way, it was déjà vu all over again.

South Africa 2010 had it all, plenty of it. Goals, spectacular and bloopers; saves, magnificent and taken on chance; attacks, incisive or slow --- there was everything. There was a forward making a last-gasp save akin to a goalkeeper, which prevented the team from crashing out in the quarterfinals. There was a missed penalty and heartbreak for an entire continent. There were two missed penalties on the either side of the pitch, in the same game. There was an intruder who ran on in the middle of a game.

There was a pair of butter fingers and a soft equaliser. There was a superstar who never shone. There were smaller stars that eclipsed them. There was that run down the right flank by an overlapping winger, which gave us one of the best goals of the tournament, leaving a hapless North Korean goalkeeper stranded in quicksand. There were complaints about Jabulani. There was Sara Carbanero (Iker Casillas’ partner) reporting from behind the net as he practiced. And there were Spain being beaten in their opening match, and then the bouquets swiftly turned into huge brickbats.

There was a shambolic England team, the French embroiled in their internecine Gallic war. There was a prodigious German side, with fresh faces and legs, ready to take on any opponent, although slightly careless. There was an old, old Italian team --- brilliantly antiquated and obsolete, like a wound-up grandfather clock. There was Portugal with a player who insisted on taking every single free kick --- 25 yards, 35 yards, even from within their own goal – if only to score a screamer, standing dramatically over the ball and squaring his shoulders. And then pout and sulk when the opponent’s net did not bulge.

There was a team from New Zealand -- that won hearts and put in performances way above their quality. There were African teams that flattered to deceive. There were the Sky Blues (Uruguay), led by one indefatigable Diego Forlan, the scorer of five wonderful goals off free kicks and volleys.

And then there was Diego Maradona. Rosary in hand, silver gray suit sitting awkwardly on his plump frame, the black and white beard, punching the air and hugging his players like an eight-year-old. There was his booty dance and propensity to dribble the ball when it ran out of play. You could see the muscles in his limbs twitch. I could almost imagine him as Batman or Supeman --- ripping off his formal attire to reveal a pair of shorts adorned with a huge M, and then jumping onto the field and “punching” in some goals to save Argentina.

Off the pitch, there were more things that caught the eye. There was the crazy sound of the vuvuzelas and the vibrant colours of the makarapas. There was Kai Wayne Rooney’s Twitter account that panned everyone from his father to Roger Federer during Wimbledon. There were porn stars from every country (Madagascar to St Lucia) promising all sorts of sex if their respective countries won/lost/crashed out without a single win/failed to score a single goal. There was a coach who promised to run naked through the streets (luckily Argentina were booted out). There was Paul the psychic octopus, applauded at first, and then fans started calling for his head (and eight slippery limbs) when he turned traitor and predicted a German loss. And then animal oracles crept out from under every stone and hole, from every burrow and nest. There was a psychic parakeet from Singapore, another octopus from Holland. We await psychic snakes and komodo dragons as well soon.

The list is long, too long. And it will have to end tonight. When a new champion is crowned and the show comes to an end. And from then on, it will be four long years to Brazil 2014, and then another list of happenings and mishaps will be drawn.