They came to Russia
last month as nobody without the celebrities like Platini – Tigana – Guiresse
- Zidane and others but while going they
gone not like nobody but as somebody, as heroes of the World’s greatest single sporting
event that is as Champions of the current Foot-ball World Cup, held in Russia
where records were equaled. For example
the Team Manager of France Didier became one more person in the history of
this tournament winning two Gold Medals both as captain of the French
team in 1998 that won the World Cup FOR France and also as Manager of this World
Cup 18. Earlier Mario Zagallo of Brazil and Franz Backenbeur of Germany held
this record though Mario Zallo won as a player twice in 1958 and 1962 and not
as a captain and as a Manager in 1970.
The second record to
equal in this tournament was by the Baby Boy of the tournament Mbappe when he
scored a goal for his winning team that is
the current French Team just as the
great Brazilian Pele did for his World Champion Brazil squad in 1958 when Pele who was just 17 then while Mbappe was 19. The
goal the French Baby Boy scored in this tournament was a powerful shot scored
from the edge of the box while the goal
the Brazilian Baby Boy Pele scored was very classical from inside the box when
he halted the ball on his chest and from there he lowered it to his foot and hit
the ball into the opponent net from close range.
Yet another new record
was created by the agile forward of Croatia Mario Mandzukic when he scored a
own goal the first of its kind in the history of World Cup.
I have been watching
thru TV the World Cup-ball Tournaments regularly since 1978 but never I found the level of this tournament
as high as it was this time. Every team
played a very high standard soccer, the so called minnows became the giant
killers sending the so called giants back home prematurely, some of the so
called giants were consigned to the dustbins even closing them the entry into
this tournament by denying them qualifying in the final 32. Where did the mighty Italy gone? Why another
powerhouse Holland failed to qualify?
The days of taking
things for granted are over, football is gaining more and more importance all
around the globe where every nation is making progress and they will go on making
more and more progress except our bloody India where soccer is run by most of the
bloody administrators. Because of this the exorbitant talent existing in
India is simply washed out and worst still is that nobody is bothered about it, leave aside
government lethargy.
In this World Cup
tournament not only France won but more than that THE TEAM WORK has won. The days of over depending
upon one or two individual heroes by their teams are over, even in Brasil after their humiliating exit from the 1966
W.Cup in England they refused to depend too much on the individual genius of Pele. Thus one soccer expert Saldanha by name took
charge of post 1966 Brazil squad vowing to produce not one Pele but a number of
them for the 1970 squad and finally succeeded in doing so by creating a galaxy of
Peles in Dr. Tostao, Zairzinho, Rivelino, Clodoaldo, Gerson and Carlos Alberto.
It was these great players who were responsible for Brasil to win them for the 3rd
time the Jules Rimet Trophy and permanently.
While concluding I
congratulate France for winning this World Cup tournament where they played
well but the runners-up also played extremely well dominating the proceeding
very beautifully especially after France scored their 3rd goal. Their
positive attitude kept the tempo of the final very high even at the last minute
that made the final very entertaining and interesting.
Kudos to Russia for organizing
this tournament so well.
A.Veronica Fernandes.
