After completing the second phase of the World
Cup tournament in Russia, from today the third phase of second knock-out stage
is going to start where 8 teams will be vying for the penultimate spot in the
cluster of 4 teams. In the first
phase where all the 32 qualified teams
participated, who ever thought that the
giants of foot-balling nations like Argentina, Germany and Spain will
collapse like a pack of cards in the first round itself while Portugal in the second round? Other than Portugal the
remaining teams are previous World Cup winners not only once but more than once
like Germany and Argentina.
That in this tournament
organized by Russia, giants will collapse came to be known when another giant
Italy was thrown out in the qualifying stage only thereby giving an impression
that some “Surprise Teams” will unexpectedly come to the fore and rule the
world. In fact, almost in every World Cup tournament there is bound to be a Surprise Team
which may reach to the penultimate stage
or not but these teams create surprises especially for the giants as North
Korea created in 1966 World Cup, good that the Mozambican born Black Panther,
Eusebio D’Silva of Portugal produced a class of a
hat-trick when they were down by 3 goals and went on giving a magnificent victory of 5-3 to our former masters. Earlier North Korea ousted
Italian giants from that tournament.
The 2 of the giants
knocked out of this tournament in the first stage Argentina and in the second stage Portugal were under the impression that their 2 World best heroes namely Messi
and Ronaldo respectively will win them the Championship for their countries. But I pity their soccer wisdom because foot-ball
is not an individual sport where one relies on individual but foot-ball is a
TEAM Sport where every individual is as important as the other, where every
team member plays his individual role in co-operation with the other. What Messi and Ronaldo with all their individual brilliance can
do without the excellent support of their other colleagues? In 1986 W.Cup, Maradona though excellent as an individual player yet he attained the success only because of the presence of his other colleagues like Valdano in his team. Even during Pele’s time from 1958 when he
first time played for Brazil in the World Cup at the baby age of 16, Pele was
not the only player responsible for Brazil to win them the World Cup though he
was highly skillful and important member of the Brazilian squads in both the winning
World Cups in 1958 and 1962.
In fact along with Pele
there were other giants in their squad namely Garrincha, Zagallo, Vava and
others who could change the outlook of their game at the spur of the moment and put their opponents into total disarray. In fact according to some soccer experts during
that period, it was commented that Garrincha could be much better than Pele if he was
not after Drinks. With his bended legs
he was scoring goals directly from the corner kicks. Poor guy at the time of his death he died a
very miserable death as unsung and forgotten hero deserted by his wife and others,
even Pele did not attend to his funeral where his Funeral Cortege was brought
to the Maracana Stadium in order to respect him for his excellent display of
artistic soccer he played at the Maracana Stadium where thousands of his fans
and spectators and well wishers too thronged to have his final glimpses. He
played his last World Cup in 1966 in England where he even scored one of his
trademark magnificent goals. HE spoiled his life at the early age itself by
going after excessive women and Drinks.
From 1978 I am watching
the live coverage of every World Cup, thanks to Kuwait that afforded me so many
opportunities to see and to enjoy so many things, of course without missing a
single match. Only this time I missed a few encounters in the first round because
of my hospitalization. Besides, to
supplement my thirst for more information on these World Cup tournaments I was
regularly reading some of the World renowned soccer Magazines either as a subscriber
or as a member of British Council Library.
In fact when I got myself registered as a subscriber of World Best Soccer Magazine
“WORLD SOCCER” from England in 1975 the year I landed in Kuwait, I was told
that I was the only subscriber of this magazine in whole of Kuwait. From my first
meager salary in Kuwait I purchased the most expensive and the MOST Best book
on soccer written by Pele, the title of that Book was “PLAY FOOT-BALL WITH
PELE” where Pele gives 11 different lessons to the 11 different players on 11 different positions.
When I saw this Book in
one of the Showcases in the topmost Book Shop in Kuwait, I asked the price of
that Book with the Palestinian Counter
Salesman there who not only in his traditional prideful discipline downgraded
my capacity and willingness to purchase it but more than that he scorned at me
by posing a counter question,” you will buy such world renown books? And what is your foot-ball quality to buy
such books? You are an Indian who does not know to play the game of soccer" and
concluded by saying insultingly of course, “please get lost from here and don’t waste my
time”. I remained cool and removed my
purse from my pocket”. Surprised he
became told me in a defeated tone that this is the only book we received for
Sales Promotion and it is still lying in our Showcase for over a year. But you
being an Indian you surprised me, said he, but I did not utter a single word
because I wanted that book to come in my hand first before somebody a crazy person like me, after foot-ball, could purchase it.
After watching so many
World Cup Tournaments, I feel this is so far one of the best tournaments where
in every aspect of the game all the teams rose up and displayed the same type
of soccer standard as displayed by the best in the World though some of them
may be losers. The attacks were initiated
from both the flanks keeping the space in the middle for both the outers and
inners to mount pressure on their
opponents near the goalmouth of their opponents thus creating goal scoring
opportunites.
The other most important aspect I noticed in this tournament
was the accurate passing, pushing the
ball even thru the small gaps and openings and these passes were very hard
hitting. Erratic long distance shooting was avoided and most important
improvement was the physical fitness where every player runs like a sprinter
and exchanges his position without anybody’s notice.
The other major improvement
was the skill of goalkeeping where the goalkeepers use not only their hands but
their entire bodies from heads to the toes for stopping the ball from entering into
the nets.
Regarding the one and
the only remaining super footballer in this tournament, the Brazilian Neymar, I
feel it is our luck that we got an opportunity to see more of his excellence
which is really fantastic especially running with the ball even thru the wall
made by the defenders and feeding his colleagues who are really exceptional and
whom I can rate much higher than those of magnificent Brazilan squad of 1982.
Especial mention must be made for the rocky defense Brazilian are creating with
sure footed goal line clearances. It is
going to be a thriller to watch the Brazilians entertaining the spectators and
viewers all around the globe.
Meantime, watch out
Uruguay and Croatia for producing Surprises in this tournament.
Good Luck to all the
Quarter finalists.
A.Veronica Fernandes.
