Golden goal: Siphiwe Tshabalala for South Africa v Mexico at the 2010 World Cup

The World Cup did not save South Africa. But for one second, it showed us the country we wanted to be

Before Siphiwe Tshabalala’s rocket from his left foot, before Peter Drury’s iconic commentary, before the wall of noise from thousands of vuvuzelas and before Shakira’s Waka Waka, there was Philip.

From the moment Sepp Blatter pulled out an envelope with the words “South Africa” inside on 15 May 2004, cynics voiced their scepticism. The country was deemed too dangerous to host a World Cup finals tournament. There were concerns about public transport, about power outages and stadiums that weren’t up to scratch. Could South Africa really pull this off?