The best and worst moments of 2014 ~ Best~ Germany’s 7-1 victory over Brazil. There was a morally complex issue in deriving pleasure here owing to the similarity of the event to watching a chap get beaten up in front of his girlfriend, but Germany were playing excellent football and if this result went any way towards a decrease in the number of British blokes wearing Brazil shirts in beer gardens in the five hot days in August, talking about The Beautiful Game and how they support any team that plays good football, then this was a result that must be good for the planet. Worst~ The hounding of David Moyes at Manchester United. The spectacle of a man drained of his mojo, week by week, becoming gradually greyer and stiller until he finally resembled a pink-eyed elderly cove who had just stopped on the touchline to stare for a bit on his way to the allotment, was not pleasant for anyone. I got a big kick out of Manchester United’s failure of course but the suppressed glee with which commentators speculated on Moyes’s future from early October until his dismissal, was strictly unedifying.Cameron Carter Best~ St Johnstone winning the Scottish Cup. After 130 years of trying, including eight exits at the semi-final stage, the victory in the final against Dundee United at Celtic Park on May 17 was truly wonderful. Goodness knows how much time I used to wile away looking at the list of previous winners and on seeing the likes of Airdrieonians, East Fife and even St Bernard’s among them find myself asking why the hell can’t we do it? While the joy has been all ours, I hope we have just maybe inspired fans of other unfashionable Scottish clubs. Worst~ I have to be parochial again if only to emphasise that in following a muddling, middling club through thick and thin, sometimes the darkest hour really is right before the dawn. Barely two months before our greatest moment, Saints were comprehensively thrashed to the point of humiliation in a League Cup semi-final against Aberdeen. It was rock bottom. It rained a lot. And we vowed we would never go back.Archie MacGregor Best~ The news that SV Hamburg had wasted €8.5 million on Pierre-Michel Lasogga, thus ensuring that their entertainingly incomprehensible financial policy - imagine a child destroying somebody elses piggy bank with a hammer and then spending it all on chocolate toothpaste – will continue for another year. Although he had a good run last season, Lasogga is basically a 2014 version of HSV idols Uwe Seeler and Horst Hrubesch – and by that, I mean if they were to play now rather than in their prime. Worst~ Mario Götzes winner in the World Cup final. My season-long glee at Götzes mediocre first year at Bayern; confirmation of the Reus can function without Götze, but Götze cant function without Reus theory, the endless rows in the pub, which usually ended with my declaring that Mario Götze is the Samantha Fox of German football, even though that doesnt mean anything – it all came crashing down round my ears the moment the little runt scored what was admittedly a cracker of a goal.Matt Nation Best~ Germanys destruction of Brazil in the World Cup semi. Mainly because of all the weeping at the shrine of Neymar ahead of the match. It was important that such disturbing behaviour shouldnt be seen to bring rewards. Worst~ I think it was just a couple of days ago, when I read Paul Wilsons ten memorable moments [of 2014] Included among them was MK Dons 4-0 League Cup defeat of Manchester United. Here was a [giantkilling] the whole country enjoyed.
Posted on: Fri, 26 Dec 2014 12:28:26 +0000
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