BRAZIL 2014 WORLD CUP: A LOOK INTO THE TOURNAMENT After about 29 days of exciting football action, the Brazil 2014 World Cup has gone beyond the semi – final stage. Presently Germany and Argentina are making preparations for a repeat of the Mexico ’86 and Italy ’90 World Cup final matches, having won their semi - final matches. There have been lots of surprises in this tournament as lots of predictions have been turned upside down (including my prediction that the winner, runner up and bronze medalist winner will come from among the trio of Brazil, Argentina and Italy). At least Brazil and Argentina made – up the final four after Italy went out in the second round, I don’t know but I strongly believe that Brazil will win the third place play – off. Let us now look back at how it has been so far. Of all the 13 European teams that came to the World Cup, only 6 reached the second round, 4 to the quarter finals and then 2 to the Semis while 1 will be playing in the final on come tomorrow Sunday 13th July at the magnificent Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro. As for Asia, none of the four participating teams made it to the second round, what a pity! All of them finished bottom of their group. What can we say of our dear Africa? Five teams strong in the continent went to the completion but three went past the group stages but finally bowed out in the round of 16. Till now, no African team has equaled the quarter final records set by Cameroon, Senegal and Ghana. Africa’s performance has shown that a lot need to be done about football in the African continent before this jinx could be broken. If home or regional advantage is anything to go by, it then seems to be working for all the teams from the Americas as 8 out of the 10 participating teams progressed to the second round and four teams were among the quarter – finalists. In the semi – finals, the host Brazil and their rival the Albiceleste of Argentina made it to the Final as Brazil were crushed 7 – 1 by the German machine in the semi – final. We are waiting to see if this regional advantage will make it possible for Argentina to win the World Cup tomorrow. Looking at the various teams, we can say that a lot of teams surprised people in this tournament. Take Costa – Rica for example, nobody gave them chance in a group made up of other three teams who had in between them won 7 World Cups. What did we see at the end of the second round? They topped their group after winning two matches and drawing one, in the round of 16 they followed up with another victory over Greece via penalty shootout after they were tied at one goal apiece after regulation and extra time. Netherlands was lucky to escape them in the quarter finals in another penalty shoot – out. Colombia for the first time went beyond the round of sixteen after winning all their three group matches and finishing off Uruguay in the second round. They however lost to Brazil in the Quarter – Final. Spain the defending champion went out in the first round but in a very poor performance as they made history being the first defending champion to lose their first match by conceding as much as five goals. Netherlands took their pound of flesh in avenging their 2010 final match defeat with a five – nil win over the Spaniards. After 16 years, Nigeria again qualified for the round of sixteen but lost to France after holding out for 77 minutes. Algeria also showed a lot of promise including being the first African side to score as much as four goals in a World Cup match. They could not however re – enact their Spain ’82 performance as they lost 1 – 2 to Germany. It will be recalled that in the 1982 Mundial, they defeated then West Germany by the same margin at the Spain 82 World Cup. Brazil and Argentina are also a surprise team as they have to struggle a lot in both their group games and the second round before they could make it to the quarter finals. Brazil narrowly defeated Colombia in the quarter – final but the host country were handed down their worst defeat in history via a 1 – 7 loss to the German machine. This semi – final match went down in World Cup history as a semi – final where a team was defeated with such number of goals, a team like Brazil playing at home for that matter. Argentina also defeated Belgium in the quarter – final, in a repeat of their Mexico ’86 Semi – final tie where Argentina also won. We can go on and on but let us look at individual performance. Both Messi and Neymar have not lived up to expectations despite being among the top scorers so far. Neymar went out of the World Cup in the quarter – final as a result of an injury he sustained. Brazillian player Marcello made history as the first player to score in the Brazil 2014 World Cup even though he scored an own goal. Another player, Joseph Yobo Captain of the Nigerian National Team, the Super Eagles finished his last international game by scoring a goal against his country in the 0 – 2 defeat to France in the second round. The experience of Cristiano Ronaldo the present World Footballer of the year has shown that no matter how good you are, football is not a one man affair. If other players are not doing well you cannot shine as such. Other players made name for bad attitude, remember the biting Suarez and Alexander Songs ungentlemanly conduct on the pitch. Nigeria need to thank Vincent Enyeama a lot as they owe their advance to the second round, to his great efforts in saving a lot of goals. Miroslav Klose of Germany has made history as the all time highest goal scorer in World Cup history with 16 goals, 1 goal more than Ronaldo of Brazil. Klose still has one match to play (the final against Argentina). May be he will increase his tally in that match. Now the mundial is going to the third place play off and finals today and tomorrow respectively. I feel that Brazil will defeat Netherlands in the third place play off, having been handed their worst defeat in World Cup history they will like to show that they are still a force to be reckoned with. Moreover, they would not like to disappoint their compatriots by not winning a medal as they host the World Cup at home for the second time in the history of the World Cup. The last time they hosted it 64 years ago (in 1950); they lost in the final to Uruguay. They however face an uphill task in playing a Dutch team also determined not to end without a medal after narrowly losing to Argentina in the semi - final Now to the final match between Germany and Argentina, there is no doubt that this will be an epic match. The two teams have met each other in two successive World Cup final matches. That was at the Mexico ’86 and the Italy ’90 editions. While Argentina won the 1986 fixtures 3 – 2 at the Aztec Stadium Mexico City, the Germans won the 1990 edition 1 – 0 at the Olympic Stadium Rome, thanks to a penalty goal. Apart from that they have played at the quarter – finals of the last two editions with Germany winning each of them. In this competition while Germany has been displaying good performance leading to the final, Argentina has been struggling along the way only to improve at the semi – final. Can the Argentines improve more at the on final on July 13th or will they fall to a rampaging German machine? If history can be considered, then I make bold to say that Argentina will lift the trophy come tomorrow July 13th. This is because in the history of the World Cup, no European team, this is enough to spur the Argentines to victory coupled with the fact that as was said elsewhere, they will be playing in their rivals territory and they will like to prove a point. But can all these count when the Albiceleste of Argentina file out against the German Machines at the magnificent Maracana Stadium on tomorrow? We are waiting to see how this final will play out.
Posted on: Sat, 12 Jul 2014 10:22:03 +0000
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