So much football in such a short space of time has left us with so many images and memorable moments jumbled up in our collective brains. Now it has ended we are left in a state of ‘cold turkey’ wondering whether it actually happened at all or was just a figment of the imagination. To help you process this overload of information we have distilled some main talking points of the competition so that you can move on with your life. This is the World Cup debrief…
England are unlikely to win a major tournament for at least 20 years: The World Cup quarter-finals reached in the days of Sven-Goran Eriksson's England in 2002 and 2006 now seem like a relatively high-water line in the modern era of English football. Germany’s class of 2008 with the likes of Schweinsteiger, Mertersacker, Podolski and Lahm all gained the vital experience of tournament football in which they reached a final and two semi-finals consecutively.
As we can see from last Sunday’s triumph, these stepping stones must be taken before a team can claim the ultimate prize. At Brazil 2014 England’s new generation trained near the beach, flew to the jungle then came back to the beach again before heading home with two defeats and one goalless draw. To cap it all, the only serious injury experienced by a member of the set-up was when the physio dislocated his ankle when celebrating a Daniel Sturridge goal. You couldn’t make it up.
Team USA all the way: America has finally fallen in love with football or soccer ball as they call it. Jurgen Klinsmann’s USA team won a lot of friends around the world with their brand of ‘strong arm’ tactics and never-say-die attitude, but it was their gallant loss against Belgium in the last 16 tie that embedded the world sport into the Yank psyche. It’s only a matter of time before US-inspired phrases like ‘death strike’ (penalty) and ‘goal-shot’ (shot on goal) enter the football lexicon in the coming years.
Meanwhile, huge crowds flocked to open air screenings in the big US cities and even the President watched a game on Air Force One as football fever took hold of a country that previously thought 0-0 was some kind of abstract Facebook emoticon. Although Tim Howard re-enacted the story of the Alamo with his record-breaking 16 ‘hand denials’ against Belgium the journey ended but the story's just begun..
Brazil is no longer a football superpower: For those brought up on the romance of the brilliance of Brazilian football, the sight of seeing the likes of Fred and David Luiz stumble about in the once noble golden yellow shirts was a sacrilegious experience. A team of players who all ply their trade in Europe had sold their ‘samba’ souls and were cursed by the Gods of football as punishment.
The only time they seemed enthused was when they sang the never-ending national anthem with so much vein-popping passion that they seemed emotionally spent before a ball had been kicked in anger. After stumbling through the tournament like a drunk man trying to walk in a straight line Germany ruthlessly put Brazil out of their misery and killed a legacy stone dead.
Referees need to protect creative players: The FIFA directive that pressured the referees to keep their cards in their pockets as long as possible was ill-advised and could have led to serious consequences. The worst examples were two matches that coincidentally involved Brazil in the knockout stages. Firstly, there was our very own Howard ‘let the game flow’ Webb who lost control of a Brazil/Chile game which was consequently littered with unpunished fouls and a litany of swan-like dives.
It then went to a whole new level for the Brazil/Colombia game in which the ref gave the hosts carte blanche to kick Golden Boot winner James Rodriguez from pillar to post. Ironically, it was the Brazil’s golden boy who ultimately suffered when your man called Zuniga (which must mean ‘foul’ in Spanish) broke a bone in his back with a full-knee smash in a WWE style.
The best team won: Before the tournament all the talk was about which individual was capable of grabbing the tournament by the scruff of the neck and bending it to their will. Argentina’s Lionel Messi, Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo and even England’s very own Wayne Rooney were all touted as modern equivalents to Pele, Maradona and Geoff Hurst but all fell short.
Even though Messi dragged his compatriots through the early rounds, he had faded by the time the final arrived. When FIFA awarded him the Golden Ball as the tournament’s best player it was more a case of marketing over reality. Meanwhile the selfless teamwork demonstrated by Germany and their unflashy but efficient use of space and skilful retention of the ball may not have took the breath away but was enough to win football’s equivalent to the Holy Grail.
