South Africa's remarkable championship - from the 'instrument of hell' to the prognostications of Paul the octopus 1 The vuvuzela For many 2010 will always be synonymous with the plastic horn. Fifa rejected calls for the horn – described by a South African journalist as "the instrument of hell" – to be banned. The fact that the collective noise sounded like a swarm of mosquitoes did not stop the vuvuzela from being sold in the UK ‑ and even becoming an 2 The Jabulani Barely a World Cup goes by without criticism of the official ball, but the Jabulani – meaning "be happy" or "rejoice" in Zulu – came in for particular flak. The "roundest ball ever" was criticised by players and coaches alike in the runup to the tournament. A series of high-profile and costly blunders by players, including one from England's Robert Green, meant the condemnation continued, although, as usual, by the end of the tournament the ball had been accepted. 3 Managers on trend Before the World Cup, Joachim Low was perhaps best known sartorially for his array of skinny scarves. But once the competition began the German coach and his assistant were dazzling in blue knitwear. "I'm not driven by superstition but the coaching staff want me to wear the blue sweater because we always score four goals when I do," he told the Sun. The sweater's luck ran out in the semi final, when Germany were beaten by Spain. 4 North Korea score against Brazil Not many people backed the Democratic Republic of Korea – 5 Lampard's goal that never was After England struggled through the qualifiers, the nation found itself in the next round facing the old enemy. England deserved to lose to Germany, but Lampard's shot crossed the line and would have made the score 2-2 at half-time, if the officials had spotted it. The one positive was Sepp Blatter promising Fifa would reopen the discussion on goal-line 6 Ghana's run The first World Cup to be held in Africa proved a poor one for African teams. South Africa, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Cameroon and Algeria failed to get through their groups. Ghana's Black Stars beat the USA in the last 16, earning pan-African enthusiasm along the way. It looked as if the world's second 7 Hand of God mark II Luis Suarez executed a textbook, point-blank save in the last minute of extra time, preventing Ghana from scoring a winner. The problem was Suarez is a 8 Maradona's fifth World Cup Many were prepared for the Argentina manager to embarrass himself or his country after an iffy qualifying campaign. While some aspects of his coaching style remained unorthodox, for example ending each day's session by forcing some players and coaches to offer up their backsides for the rest of the 9 Robbie Earle's fans When 36 women clad in orange mini dresses were ejected from the Holland v Denmark match for being part of an ambush marketing effort by a Dutch beer company, the incident wasn't a huge story. Then it emerged that the women had apparently all used tickets allocated to ITV pundit Robbie Earle for the use of his friends and family. Earle was sacked. Two of the 36 were arrested, but charges later dropped. 10 Paul the psychic octopus The Weymouth-born, German-bred octopus correctly guessed the winner in all of Germany's matches. His psychic abilities came at a price however: Argentinian fans threatened to put Paul in a paella. "There are always people who want to eat our octopus," his keeper,
