I’m not a sports fan or a patriot. This is why when I was wrapped in a Bafana Bafana scarf, seated in front of the television and saw Tshabalala score the first goal of the World Cup, I was surprised to find myself filled with a sense of great pride. I hold this feeling directly responsible for what happened next.

Suddenly I was proudly South African in the way that the television propaganda would have been proud of. In my defense, I had a right to be. Although I admit that South Africa is a beautiful country, we have our problems and I believe that blind patriotism is ignorant. I am a realist, and realistically speaking, we pulled off a fantastic world cup. Bafana Bafana may have failed to make it through the group stages, but their sportsmanship was in high esteem and like many of their African counterparts, they played the game with their pride intact as opposed to rolling around on the field like Uruguay’s Suarez, who based on the skill set shown would be better suited to a career as a lawn ornament.

We also proved to be the better team in our final game against France where not only did we beat the much higher-ranked team, we also sent them home having to apologise to South Africa for bad sportsmanship. As I am already biased towards France due to the hand ball that denied Ireland entry to the World cup, Bafana provided a sweet sense of revenge on all levels.

The most prominent aspect of the World Cup was the unity we felt as a country. For once cynicism took a back seat and there seemed to be a halt on some of the ridiculous politics that usually plague the news. While I have my suspicions that Julius Malema was strategically "stuck" in a broom closet in Parliament for the duration of the Cup, whatever the reason it provided a nice break.

As for the aftermath: I will never be a soccer fan and would like to see those glorified supermodels survive five minutes in a rugby game. As for patriotism, I am on the fence and have made a point of being less cynical and giving our country a little more credit. Mostly I’m hoping that the world has seen how civilized and established South Africa is and that I will never again have to hear another foreign exchange student announce loudly, "Oh My God! I’ve been in Africa for, like, three weeks already and I still haven’t seen a lion! I heard they were, like, in the streets!" True story.