Over the past few
days (with little sleep to boot), I have been watching the quarterfinal
and semifinal matches of the 2014 FIFA World Cup. As expected, all of
them were slam bang affairs, with no team wanting to give in in their
quest for ultimate glory except for one: host Brazil.
Speaking of A Seleção, I have had this not-so-funny feeling from the very beginning that they were a disaster waiting to happen. The signs were all there even before the start of the tournament, from the incredible pressure on the young players of a home nation expecting nothing more than a victory on home soil, to Marcelo's own goal against Croatia, to a surprising goalless draw with Mexico, to the team's uncharacteristically reckless and aggressive style of play against Chile and Colombia, right up to their tragic 1-7 defeat at the hands of Germany which is particularly interesting for me to discuss about. That defeat left them fighting for nothing more than an "insignificant" third place with the Netherlands in a match that will be held a few hours from now as of this writing.
I had the privilege of being able to watch the now-memorable match on live TV. Brazil, simply put, played badly and lost badly to Germany. The match is so lopsided that it was like watching a seasoned professional football team dismantle an untested grade school intramurals team. It was also like watching an army of soldiers armed with machine guns and bazookas massacre an army of tribesmen armed only with slingshots and arrows. Lastly, it was also like watching a sequel of the 2002 FIFA World Cup qualifying match in 2001 between Australia and American Samoa, which the latter lost by a record score that still stands today, 0-31. Brazil also played so badly that they would've been eliminated as early as the tournament's group stages had they been caught by their opponents playing in such a pitiful state. Even if star player Neymar and suspended team captain Thiago Silva were able to play in that match, they would have made very little to no difference at all in the outcome of the match, what with their team made up mostly of inexperienced young players (which was truly and admittedly Brazil coach Luiz Felipe Scolari's fault, something I would further discuss later) compared to Germany's efficient team of seasoned veterans and bonafide team players.
The German victory was nothing short of a blitzkrieg. If the late great Brazilian playwright Nelson Rodrigues referred to his country's upset loss to Uruguay for the 1950 World Cup title at the Maracana stadium as Brazil's Hiroshima, then their 2014 semifinal loss to Germany could be their Nagasaki. Who knows, if ever they host the World Cup again in the future and (God forbid) lose again, that one could very well be their Tsar Bomba.
I could only imagine the Brazilians who vehemently protested the hosting of this year's World Cup for several reasons, including the amount of public money spent to enable its hosting that could have instead been used for the improvement of the country's education system, law enforcement and infrastructures, are now telling their compatriots who supported its hosting, "See, we've told you so!"
I for one cheered for Germany to win that match and correctly predicted they will. What I failed to predict though was the way they will, to use one of many hackneyed phrases, run up the score. Even I didn't see it that blowout coming. One sports journalist's comment that Die Mannschaft keeps getting better with every match they play materialized through their semifinal match with Brazil more than their previous encounters in the tournament. So much has so far been said and written about this great team, and the Brazilian greenhorns, to use another hackneyed phrase, found them too great an obstacle to hurdle and very soon realized they still have a long, long way to go before they could be a legitimate championship-contending world beater once more.
Germany's record-setting victory, which came exactly 24 years to the day since their last World Cup win in 1990 when they beat Argentina (incidentally also their finals opponent this year) in the final, could also be counted as a form of sweet revenge against Brazil for what the latter did to them in the 2002 World Cup. It could be recalled that the Ronaldo-led Brazil beat the Oliver Khan-led Germany, 2-0, in the final match of that tournament. The Germans, most especially newly-minted all-time World Cup leading scorer Miroslav Klose who played on that 2002 German team, probably had that debacle in my mind when they played their South American arch-nemeses once again 12 years later, eventually leading to that whopping victory that left Brazil shell-shocked and dumbfounded. The late Brazil goalkeeper Moacir Barbosa, pilloried by his own countrymen for the remaining 50 years of his life for surrendering the losing goal to Uruguay in the 1950 finals, could be smiling up there now that he and his teammates have finally been exonerated from further humiliation in their graves and vindicated with the fact that there is now a World Cup defeat even more humiliating than what they experienced 64 years earlier.
To paraphrase what one column in an online article aptly said, the Samba beat was destroyed by a machine with an efficiency that simply defied belief. But Brazil was also the architect of its own downfall, including but not limited to David Luiz's inability (or reluctance) to defend, Luis Gustavo's fumbling midfield moves, Julio Cesar's lack of decisiveness between the posts, Fred's painfully laughable performances, coach Luiz Felipe Scolari's exclusion of legends Kaka, Robinho and Ronaldinho from the team…well, name it, they've had it. Speaking of David Luiz, his mistakes can somewhat be excused given the fact that he's a natural attacking midfielder forced to play defender for reasons only Senhor Scolari himself knows. Kaka, Robinho and Ronaldinho, on the other hand, are bonafide World Cup veterans and proven winners on the international stage who would've served as big brothers and mentors to their national team's young guns on how to play and conduct themselves on the grandest football stage of them all. But Scolari's exclusion of all of them from the team that would've potentially rivalled the Seleção from 1970, arguably the 1992 US basketball Dream Team equivalent of football, made that impossible.
The Germany 7-1 Brazil match set all-time records which are simply too many to mention here. For a list of some of these astonishing records, you can go to this link and this one.
Now speaking of Argentina, their penalty-shootout victory against the Netherlands was anything but convincing at all. With the way they played, they should pose little to no threat at all to the Germans, who I believe will be firmly cheered for by majority of the Brazilians due to the fact that the latter and the Argentines are known to be virtual mortal enemies on the pitch. If I were the coach Alejandro Sabella of Argentina, I will better change drastically my team's game plan, lest Germany will eat them alive and whole in the final match for the title, which could potentially turn out to be a sequel of the Brazil vs. Germany semifinal match. La Albiceleste, to be more straightforward, share essentially the same strengths and weaknesses as their bitter South American rivals. They live and die with just one or two players, and in Argentina's case it happens to be Lionel Messi. As much as I love that guy, his FC Barcelona club and his compatriot Pope Francis, I'm afraid I'll have to go for the Germans here. End of.
Lastly, if the 2010 World Cup had Paul the Octopus (RIP, little buddy), then this year's World Cup has Mick Jagger. There's only one sinister twist, though: If Paul correctly predicted all winners of eight matches (including the final game), all of the teams the Rolling Stones frontman cheered for ended up losing their respective matches, leading sports media to dub him the "World Cup Angel of Doom." I have one nagging question, though: Is he for real? Or is it just coincidence that the teams he cheered for were just plain and simply bad like Brazil? There is but one thing I'm definitely sure of: If the Germans could or would pick up from where they left off against Brazil in the final, then Argentina would find themselves in no man's land, not even if Mr. Jagger cheers for the Germans to win it all.
Also as of this writing, we currently have no World Cup champion since around 6 p.m. of June 18, 2014 Brazilian time, when Spain lost badly to Chile, 2-0. This is all about to end starting at 4:00 p.m. Sunday Brazilian time (3:00 a.m. Monday here in Manila), when Germany takes on Argentina for the 2014 FIFA World Cup title in a first-ever final featuring countries of two living popes, namely Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI from Germany and Pope Francis from Argentina. Go win it all, Die Mannschaft!
Speaking of A Seleção, I have had this not-so-funny feeling from the very beginning that they were a disaster waiting to happen. The signs were all there even before the start of the tournament, from the incredible pressure on the young players of a home nation expecting nothing more than a victory on home soil, to Marcelo's own goal against Croatia, to a surprising goalless draw with Mexico, to the team's uncharacteristically reckless and aggressive style of play against Chile and Colombia, right up to their tragic 1-7 defeat at the hands of Germany which is particularly interesting for me to discuss about. That defeat left them fighting for nothing more than an "insignificant" third place with the Netherlands in a match that will be held a few hours from now as of this writing.
I had the privilege of being able to watch the now-memorable match on live TV. Brazil, simply put, played badly and lost badly to Germany. The match is so lopsided that it was like watching a seasoned professional football team dismantle an untested grade school intramurals team. It was also like watching an army of soldiers armed with machine guns and bazookas massacre an army of tribesmen armed only with slingshots and arrows. Lastly, it was also like watching a sequel of the 2002 FIFA World Cup qualifying match in 2001 between Australia and American Samoa, which the latter lost by a record score that still stands today, 0-31. Brazil also played so badly that they would've been eliminated as early as the tournament's group stages had they been caught by their opponents playing in such a pitiful state. Even if star player Neymar and suspended team captain Thiago Silva were able to play in that match, they would have made very little to no difference at all in the outcome of the match, what with their team made up mostly of inexperienced young players (which was truly and admittedly Brazil coach Luiz Felipe Scolari's fault, something I would further discuss later) compared to Germany's efficient team of seasoned veterans and bonafide team players.
The German victory was nothing short of a blitzkrieg. If the late great Brazilian playwright Nelson Rodrigues referred to his country's upset loss to Uruguay for the 1950 World Cup title at the Maracana stadium as Brazil's Hiroshima, then their 2014 semifinal loss to Germany could be their Nagasaki. Who knows, if ever they host the World Cup again in the future and (God forbid) lose again, that one could very well be their Tsar Bomba.
I could only imagine the Brazilians who vehemently protested the hosting of this year's World Cup for several reasons, including the amount of public money spent to enable its hosting that could have instead been used for the improvement of the country's education system, law enforcement and infrastructures, are now telling their compatriots who supported its hosting, "See, we've told you so!"
I for one cheered for Germany to win that match and correctly predicted they will. What I failed to predict though was the way they will, to use one of many hackneyed phrases, run up the score. Even I didn't see it that blowout coming. One sports journalist's comment that Die Mannschaft keeps getting better with every match they play materialized through their semifinal match with Brazil more than their previous encounters in the tournament. So much has so far been said and written about this great team, and the Brazilian greenhorns, to use another hackneyed phrase, found them too great an obstacle to hurdle and very soon realized they still have a long, long way to go before they could be a legitimate championship-contending world beater once more.
Germany's record-setting victory, which came exactly 24 years to the day since their last World Cup win in 1990 when they beat Argentina (incidentally also their finals opponent this year) in the final, could also be counted as a form of sweet revenge against Brazil for what the latter did to them in the 2002 World Cup. It could be recalled that the Ronaldo-led Brazil beat the Oliver Khan-led Germany, 2-0, in the final match of that tournament. The Germans, most especially newly-minted all-time World Cup leading scorer Miroslav Klose who played on that 2002 German team, probably had that debacle in my mind when they played their South American arch-nemeses once again 12 years later, eventually leading to that whopping victory that left Brazil shell-shocked and dumbfounded. The late Brazil goalkeeper Moacir Barbosa, pilloried by his own countrymen for the remaining 50 years of his life for surrendering the losing goal to Uruguay in the 1950 finals, could be smiling up there now that he and his teammates have finally been exonerated from further humiliation in their graves and vindicated with the fact that there is now a World Cup defeat even more humiliating than what they experienced 64 years earlier.
To paraphrase what one column in an online article aptly said, the Samba beat was destroyed by a machine with an efficiency that simply defied belief. But Brazil was also the architect of its own downfall, including but not limited to David Luiz's inability (or reluctance) to defend, Luis Gustavo's fumbling midfield moves, Julio Cesar's lack of decisiveness between the posts, Fred's painfully laughable performances, coach Luiz Felipe Scolari's exclusion of legends Kaka, Robinho and Ronaldinho from the team…well, name it, they've had it. Speaking of David Luiz, his mistakes can somewhat be excused given the fact that he's a natural attacking midfielder forced to play defender for reasons only Senhor Scolari himself knows. Kaka, Robinho and Ronaldinho, on the other hand, are bonafide World Cup veterans and proven winners on the international stage who would've served as big brothers and mentors to their national team's young guns on how to play and conduct themselves on the grandest football stage of them all. But Scolari's exclusion of all of them from the team that would've potentially rivalled the Seleção from 1970, arguably the 1992 US basketball Dream Team equivalent of football, made that impossible.
The Germany 7-1 Brazil match set all-time records which are simply too many to mention here. For a list of some of these astonishing records, you can go to this link and this one.
Now speaking of Argentina, their penalty-shootout victory against the Netherlands was anything but convincing at all. With the way they played, they should pose little to no threat at all to the Germans, who I believe will be firmly cheered for by majority of the Brazilians due to the fact that the latter and the Argentines are known to be virtual mortal enemies on the pitch. If I were the coach Alejandro Sabella of Argentina, I will better change drastically my team's game plan, lest Germany will eat them alive and whole in the final match for the title, which could potentially turn out to be a sequel of the Brazil vs. Germany semifinal match. La Albiceleste, to be more straightforward, share essentially the same strengths and weaknesses as their bitter South American rivals. They live and die with just one or two players, and in Argentina's case it happens to be Lionel Messi. As much as I love that guy, his FC Barcelona club and his compatriot Pope Francis, I'm afraid I'll have to go for the Germans here. End of.
Lastly, if the 2010 World Cup had Paul the Octopus (RIP, little buddy), then this year's World Cup has Mick Jagger. There's only one sinister twist, though: If Paul correctly predicted all winners of eight matches (including the final game), all of the teams the Rolling Stones frontman cheered for ended up losing their respective matches, leading sports media to dub him the "World Cup Angel of Doom." I have one nagging question, though: Is he for real? Or is it just coincidence that the teams he cheered for were just plain and simply bad like Brazil? There is but one thing I'm definitely sure of: If the Germans could or would pick up from where they left off against Brazil in the final, then Argentina would find themselves in no man's land, not even if Mr. Jagger cheers for the Germans to win it all.
Also as of this writing, we currently have no World Cup champion since around 6 p.m. of June 18, 2014 Brazilian time, when Spain lost badly to Chile, 2-0. This is all about to end starting at 4:00 p.m. Sunday Brazilian time (3:00 a.m. Monday here in Manila), when Germany takes on Argentina for the 2014 FIFA World Cup title in a first-ever final featuring countries of two living popes, namely Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI from Germany and Pope Francis from Argentina. Go win it all, Die Mannschaft!
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