With post-mortems already well under way in many of the countries that suffered disappointment in South Africa, thoughts have already turned to Brazil 2014, not least in the nations who failed to qualify this time.
There were many notable absentees in South Africa, none more so than seven-time African champions Egypt, who stuttered badly at the final qualifying hurdle and missed out on the first World Cup to be staged on African soil.
The Pharaohs have consistently failed to qualify for the finals since their last appearance in 1990 but were expected to break that cycle this year given their dominance of the African continental scene, winning the last three Africa Cup of Nations titles.
Sadly, a poor performance in a fiery play-off against bitter rivals Algeria cost them dear.
What rubbed salt into the wounds was witnessing the Algerians perform so badly in South Africa.
“Egyptian disappointment turned to bitterness and grief after the World Cup started,” says Egyptian sports journalist Inas Mazhar.
“Everyone – the fans, the coaches, the players – believed that Egypt’s level of performance would have been much higher than the participating teams, especially the African teams.
“Egyptians believe that they could have given a better image of African football and I think they will live with this bitterness for a long time. They feel they could have progressed to the quarter-finals or even the semis.”
There have been no knee-jerk reactions from the Egyptian Football Association, that has stuck with coach Hassan Shehata, at least until 2012.
What will change is the playing personnel, with a good number of Egypt’s starting XI on the wrong side of the 30.
“Youth is the answer,” says Mazhar, who highlighted the achievements of Ghana, who reached the last eight with one of the youngest squads in the tournament. “But it is going to be difficult because not many players from Egypt’s Under-20 team have been brought into the national team. It is going to be a hard job to find new young players.”
