Spain out, Brazil struggling, two draws, three own goals, eight penalties and four red cards already — where exactly is the 20th World Cup going in football’s most exotic and passionate home? MEENAKSHI RAO tries
to make some sense of all the upheaval and the chant for Brazil hitting the Hexa by lifting the Cup the sixth timeOn a day that Stuart Binny recorded one of the most handsome statistics in Indian cricket by hauling six Bangladeshi scalps, giving away only four runs in the process, it was rather ironical that sports editors, otherwise married to cricket, were struggling to find pride of place for this achiever, that too in expanded editions.
Blame this on the great Brazilian wave that has captured the world sporting arena for the next month or so. All thanks to football taking centrestage and the tectonic shifts that the 20th FIFA World Cup has been witnessing at the event’s most nascent stage.
Really! Think about it. Would even the now-late Paul have imagined that Spain would not only get knocked out of the tournament in just two matches but also show up as the sorriest fumbler of World Cup? Seven goals conceded in just 135 minutes of play, only one scored that too through a controversial penalty, and the team behind even rookies Australia in their own group!
Hammered, humiliated and humbled by much lesser teams like Holland and Chile, their legendary sentinel Iker Casillas pinned with the tag of a bumbling fool and their much touted short pass total possession tactic torn to shreds — these were not the tenets that the Spanish armada was defined by on football battlegrounds all around the world. This was not why it was as feared for its ruthless brand of play as it was revered for its legendary consistency and possessive winnability.
Defeated at the doorstep of the world’s biggest sporting event, Spain may be in the biblical bind of “so the first will be last”, fielding elegies on the death of its fabled golden era, but fact remains that the team came into the tournament on aged legs and unworked permutations, relying more on its past laurels than on the realities of a real South American challenge.
That coach Vincent Del Bosque, propagator of “controlled anxiety” and a stickler of “what wins, stays” propelled the tiki-taka technique without the presence of the format’s set piece man Xavi, and when most other teams are said to have worked out the formula’s intricacies, can only be called the folly of an old man’s stubbornness against change, the insertion of a callow Diego Costa notwithstanding.
More practically, Spain might have come to the tournament on too full a belly of achievements (three major world titles on their CV), making hunger low and complacence high. Add to this, the fact that all good runs have to end sometime and all highs are mandated by Nature to recede, and you could perhaps get over the implosive Spanish story of this World Cup.
With Spain gone, and more second rung teams salivating over the prospect of going through to the knockout stages, this World Cup has become pregnant with delectable ifs. Which, for Brazilian fans, means the elements are getting together to give A Selecao — and Jogo Bonito (The Beautiful Game) — the maximum chances, unless, of course, the boys get together to defeat them too with their inept handling of the game and its pressures.
The expectations are more than huge, a 54-year case of honouring the homeland in homeland by lifting the prized Cup, the leap from the long-ago Penta to the much-anticipated Hexa (fifth title to the sixth one) and, of course, the duty of not making their icon of icons Pele cry in defeat, like his father did when Brazil lost the World Cup Final to Uruguay in 1950 at the Maracana Stadium in Rio.
The loss was considered a national calamity, bigger than Brazil’s decadent poverty and alarming crime rate. Named Maracanazos, it unfolded in the 79th minute of the game when Uruguay scored the winning goal and 200,000 people watching went into collective gloom. So big was the defeat in the minds of the Brazilian players that, in mourning, they gave up wearing their traditional white shirts.
The Cup has returned to Brazil after that catastrophic moment more than five decades ago so the hopes and aspirations around the team are expectedly insane.
No wonder then that the social protests which had so violently marred Brazil’s Confederations Cup win over Spain 3-0 just the other day, and which had so voraciously preceded the World Cup preps of a nation seized by economic downslide, corruption stigma and infrastructural concerns, faded into nothingness, once the real games began on June 12.
And now, the performance of Brazil has inexorably been woven into its necessity to win the Cup or face the protesters with reasserted charges of having wasted public money in the face of rising inflation, dwindling GDP and increasing joblessness. Such is the power of the game in Brazil that its beleaguered Head of State’s fate in office hangs desperately to her team lifting the Cup this time round.
Football came to Brazil 120 years ago in 1894, introduced by a Brit Railways employee Charles Miller. From then to now, the beautiful game has flowered and acquired the status of being the samba nation’s most prized national asset, loved by all and worshipped by many. Brazilian footballers share museum podiums with poets, writers and legendary politicians. When Pele scored his 1,000th international goal in his 1,000 number shirt, church bells tolled all over Brazil to honour his and the nation’s big moment.
Like everyone has manic opinions on cricket in India, in Brazil, they have on everything football — be it Brazil’s downslide after its golden run from 1958 to 1970, or its choice of coaches or, for that matter, the team’s shift from total enjoyment football to a more balanced offend-but-defend approach which gives up on its magical forward flair to make room for practicality and preservation.
For a nation where dribbling enshrines a way of life, a protest against wrong-doing at the political level and an upbringing that is must for every home-born child, giving it up in the midfield for any reason whatsoever is a crime considered bigger than cold-blooded murder.
Perhaps, that’s the reason why coach Dunga, who insisted on defensive football as a measure to revive Brazil’s falling world status, was nationally vilified all through his term beginning 2006.
He came in after the quarterfinal loss of Brazil in the 2006 World Cup and gave the forward flair of Brazil a dash of dogged defence. He may have presided over the team’s win of the 2007 Copa America and 2009 Confederations Cup and CONMEBOL, but for the rest of the enraged nation, he was the inexcusable killer of samba football.
As celebrated football author Betty Milan famously explained: “Football in Brazil is not only a sport. It is a creative pursuit and dribbling an art of outfoxing opponents with malicious feints. In a match, it can so happen that Brazilians forget to shoot at the goal, convinced that success without enjoyment is a contradiction in terms.”
She, and Dunga may explain away, but Brazil’s transformation from making magic gently on the field to getting on the back foot as part of strategy has been painful and, at times, even confusing and chaotic. When Luis Felipe Scholari took over the reins in 1998, he studied how the South American ways of soccer were not really getting to be result-oriented. So, he introduced to the team what is now called the “bully boy soccer” approach. In simple terms, it means, go get the goals, play the magic, enjoy your game but don’t forget the other team — so, defend as much as you attack. This gave them the 2002 World Cup trophy but they were no longer the Brazilians you loved to watch.
Scholari is back again, this time with added issues of the frenzy around his boys, the changed era of football and the injuries that have taken away a whole lot of winner players like Ganso, who could have been the perfect midfield Man Friday for the young prodigy Neymar Junior.
Going by the team’s showing thus far (one win and a goalless draw in the group stage), these are not the Brazilians you so loved — samba football taking a beach break, magical flair preferring to watch from the stands rather than unfold in the box, and the on-field enjoyment often becoming a hapless prisoner to inordinate struggle.
Scholari must be thinking hard, especially after the Mexican cordon so easily drew all the lines around his boys to record Brazil’s first ever World Cup goalless draw in history.
For a team that has thrown up big players like an ATM machine throws up currency on pressing the right buttons, and for a team that has survived the worst flameouts in soccer history, it has been a convulsive run-up to the 2014 home World Cup.
From here on, bet on the level-minded squad which is effective enough to orchestrate the Final win. For being with the incorrigible romantics of the game that they used to be, there are always the online video archives you could go to for nostalgia.
So much for the hosts and their journey through the Pele, Rivaldo-Ronaldo-Ronaldinho-Carlos eras, to the Neymar-Hulk-Fred trilogy dominating Brazilian attacks now. The fact remains that despite the recent flaws, Brazil is still the maximum nation of five World Cup trophies to its name and Ronaldo still reigns as the maximum boy with 14 World Cup goals to his name.
The clinical Germans have made good note of that and are playing to take away at least one of the two above mentioned laurels from the hosts — Miroslav Klose being fielded to outrun Ronaldo’s feat with just two goals needed. Not that the Germans are known to show or succumb to any kind of emotionality around football, but Klose who has downplayed this issue all through would secretly be eyeing the slot as his swan song of the World Cup.
So far, the Germans have looked fearsome, ruthlessly crushing Portugal, with consummate ease at that (4-0). With Spain out of contention, Germany which is in the relatively easier Group G (with Ghana, US and Portugal) is the team to watch out for.
As has been the wont of the FIFA super shows since the first World Cup was played in 1934, it’s been only a handful at the top of affairs. So, it is not surprising that out of the 209 football-playing nations under FIFA’s wings, only eight have lifted the World Cup trophies, and that includes five by Brazil and three by Germany.
Others, like Greece most recently, have been splashes in the pan. The now beleaguered FIFA boss Sep Blatter, fighting for another stint at the helm despite the discontent of member nations against him, has been an avid votary of football development and conservation. The football body is ready with a $900 million investment to develop the game into newer territories, which is a $100 million jump over the current budget. It expects a $5 billion revenue dividend in the 2015-2018 cycle in which period it will invest $4.9 billion. In economically traumatic times, this is a huge figure to splash, something that no other sporting federation on globe has managed.
The response has been phenomenal, high calibre and unforgettable thus far, both on and off the arena. Just the beginning, you would say. The online activity hasn’t even peaked and traffic in Brazil is virtually stuck in the box. After all, it’s Jogo Bonito being played out on home ground and with the promise of a jump from Penta to Hexa on a rich goal fest.
Short takes
GOAL OF TOURNAMENT: Dutchman Robin van Persie’s header which foxed Spain goal-keeper Ikar Casillas in the 44th minute of the match on June 13. Van Persie’s dazzling noggin-first shot helped The Netherlands secure a 5-1 win and a place for the striker in Internet Photoshop history. Van Persie called it “unreal and the best goal of my career”.
HYPER CYBER: A record 12.2 million tweets were posted for the inaugural match between the hosts and Croatia, which is just one milestone. There were 112,432 tweets per minute when Guillermo Ochoa of Mexico saved a shot by Brazil’s Neymar and 243,379 tweets per minute when the Mexican goalkeeper kept a shot by Thiago Silva from reaching the back of the net. A total of 202,418 people voiced their opinion on the social networking site in the last minute of the match, which ended in a draw.
MOST ABUSED: A hapless British model who inadvertently carries the handle @Marcello for his Twitter account, got a deluge of 84,796 abuses from football fans who mistook him for the Brazilian defender Marcelo who scored the World Cup’s first own goal against Croatia. Fed up with the negative traffic for no fault of his, he finally posted on his account: “For all those hurling abuse at me for scoring an own goal, please redirect your anger to @12MarceloV. Thank you.” This in itself got 13,692 re-tweets.
OWN BLUNDERS: Brazilian Marcelo Vieira scored the first own goal in the 11th minute of the opening match against Croatia. When the home player turned the ball into his own net, he achieved the dubious distinction of becoming the first Brazilian in history to score a World Cup own goal.
Three days later, the dreaded own goal was back, with a double shot of calamity. In the second game last Sunday, a shot by French forward Karim Benzema cannoned off the post and to virtual safety when Honduras goalkeeper Noel Valladares inadvertently clawed the ball over his own goal line. The goal was confirmed after the first use of goal line technology at the World Cup.Sead Kolasinac of Bosnia claimed the fastest own goal in World Cup history when he kicked the ball past his goalkeeper in the third minute of the Group F game against Argentina.
Source: Sunday Pioneer, 22 jUNE, 2014
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