Finally the final is over and Germany has won the Cup.
Congratulations to Germany though Argentina played much better. With this
victory Germany created a history by being the first non-South American country
to win the World Cup in South America.
To my knowledge, this is the first time since 1986 the W. Cup final has
reached to such an interesting and thrilling zenith where every minute till the
end was exciting. No doubt the
disciplined and well organized Germans played well but in Argentinians we
noticed more beauty and more hard work. Their passing was more accurate,
defense was rocky and midfield was perfect in attack as well as in
defense. The current footballers from
Goa have to learn a lot from this game and improve themselves even without the
guidance of the coach. By watching this W. Cup our footballers can learn so much especially from South Americans who have shown tremendous improvement.
Brazil deserved highest compliments for successfully organizing
this event without any untoward incident inspite of the commotion and
chaos preceding the W. Cup. The way chaotic
situation going on in Brazil demanding to stop the holding of the W. Cup
tournament, it looked Brazil would have to scrap this event altogether and FIFA
would have to shift it somewhere to a safer place just as it did earlier in
1986 when that year’s edition was shifted to Mexico. However, by the grace of God situation calmed
down and the tournament ended peacefully in Brazil itself.
Golden Gloves award should have gone to Argentinian keeper
and not to the German. So also Messi’s
award was not deserving for him. Messi in this tournament contrary to his pre tournament billing turned out to be a
mere spectator and more so in the final proving that he is best only at Club
level tournaments. The real worth of a best player can be noticed only when he proves
himself as best for his national team in stiff competition. His compatriot Maradona earlier proved
himself in his national Jersey to be the best. Hence, to equate Messi with the
great Maradona is wrong. Not only
Argentina failed to produce another Maradona after his retirement but
even the World has failed. The greatness of a footballer is noticed when he
rises to the occasion to produce great game to achieve great result. Maradona
did this while Messi failed.
After the end of the final one could easily notice the love
of Germans and Argentinians for their respective countries thru the joy
expressed by the Germans and thru the tears the Argentinians shed for their loss. This shows the patriotism and immense love
they have for their countries.
The goal that Germany’s Mario Goetze scored was a fantastic
one that totally fooled the keeper under the Argentinian bar. Nicely halting
the ball on his chest and lowering it down, he beautifully left footed it to a match winner. Mario Goetze who a few minutes earlier came
from the Bench where he was Benched as unwanted finally turned out to be the savior
just as “rejected stone turned out be the corner stone".
In this edition lot of things happened for the first time in the history,
namely introduction of goal line technology, use of evaporative spray, additional
interval for serving of cold drinks and allowing the friends and family members
of the players on the ground after the final.
The VIP stand looked majestic
with the presence of Germany’s Merkel, Russia’s Putin in addition to the
presidents of Argentina and FIFA. I
still remember how in 1982 edition of W. Cup in Spain the President of Italy
Sandro Pertini and Chancellor of Germany
Helmut Smidt attended the final played between the winners Italy and Germany. During that final I can still recollect how
Sandro Pertini was jumping from his VIP Seat after every goal scored by Paolo Rossi’s
squad. This shows how the leadership of European nations support their
and teams.
It would have been nice if our Premier Modi has accepted the
invitation given to him by the Argentinian president and attended the Final
where he would have been exposed to the entire world as our premier.
It is surprising that the record created by Just Fontaine of France in 1958 by scoring 13 goals is still not shattered by any one even though when Fontaine created this record the number of participating teams was only 16 while currently it reached to 32 and yet no player earning millions could shatter this record.Once again congratulations to Germany for winning the Cup and to Brazil for hosting the tournament successfully.
A. Veronica Fernandes,
Candolim,
Goa.
