Belgium played well yesterday
and deservingly they merit the victory. It is not an easy task for any team leave aside Brazil, to
recover from such a lead especially when Belgium is not a minnow. No doubt it
may not have the fabulous grandeur and rich tradition as a foot-balling nation
in Europe and in the World but from what soccer they dished out yesterday, it
really makes them the deserving winners. Brazil basking on its past glories
though their team was very good yet they failed themselves and also to their
supporters miserably.
The team that concedes
two goals one after the other in the first session itself especially the mighty
foot-balling powerhouse like Brazil has got no right to move further. The first goal was a self goal, I agree, but
instead of bringing an equalizer, Brazil conceded yet one more goal which was so
beautiful. It was one of the best goals scored so far in this tourney. It all happened because yesterday Brazil defense
was in total disarray leaving big space empty especially from their left
side.
Another main reason
behind their defeat was that when they entered the field in the first session
they look as if they are come to play a friendly game for the Carnival without
indicating much of the seriousness normally they indicate. Marcelo was the main culprit in holding the
ball in his possession for the longer period thereby alerting his opponents to
fortify their citadel even though he played a leading role yesterday.
Neymar is also another
culprit who failed miserably by conceding the ball to his opponents after unnecessarily
trying to dribble past number of opponents when he could easily pass the
ball to his colleague. Once he loses the
ball to his opponents he is incapable to regain it whence he totally surrenders. He now looks to me immature to rise up to the
occasion. Though Brazil lost to a better side yet with their exit much of the
interest and charm existed in this tournament is gone. After all Brazil is Brazil
with the fabulous tradition of rich soccer.
The second match
between Uruguay and France was very nice
where France to my astonishment played extremely well and rightly carried the day by
demolishing not only the game plan of Uruguay but also their traditional roughness which is ingrained
in the blood of South Americans. Earlier
we saw how Columbia behaved on the field using rough tactics even using their
heads to hit their opponents.
When I saw France
yesterday it reminded me of their earlier foot-ballers like Platini, Guiress, Tigana and others who belonged to
that golden era of French soccer. They
will do very well in the next encounter because every time they take up the
field they come up with improved performance and now they are already in that groove
just like Italy was in 1982. That time the Italians came
up like slaves when they started their campaign but while going home back they
went like masters taking the World Cup along with them where Paolo Rossi was
the hero not only of their team but of the entire tournament though just before the beginning of their journey he was discarded. Their national President
Sandro Pertini gave them the Presidential
welcome in his special Plane back to Italy.
I think something similar will happen to France this time. They have a well balanced team in all the
segments but not a single hero to turn into a zero ultimately. Their finishers mainly the trio of Rafael,
Criezmann and youngster Mbappe are in devastating form that will make them
unstoppable.
All the best for the
above semi-finalists.
A.Veronica Fernandes.
