That’s it! All the tears and joy and glitter and fighting over the remote and slllllow action replays can be put on ice for another four years until we meet again in Russia. But what happened in the last two weeks of the World Cup?!
Brazil collapse and expose a massive weakness in the national side with a 7-1 against Germany
Brazil, that Adonis of footballing nations showed the Achilles’ heel to their game as soon as Neymar was injured. The philosophy “we will score more than you will” works well with one of the worlds best attackers but after a fractured vertebra for Neymar what we then had was a team with no concept of defense, nay no respect for defense, and a David Luiz cutting his financial value in half. Brazil losing 7-1 in Brazil is like the Lakers losing by 300 points in the NBA finals. In LA. Sad. But hopefully a lesson they will learn from.
Messi showed up and didn’t show up. The little genius(word not used lightly) is the victim of his own success. Anytime he gets the ball the footballing world expects miracles. Riding foul after foul and dishing the ball away perfectly at the last second IS miraculous … but the layman wants goals, goals goals. I felt sorry for him after Germany won. He deserves a World Cup medal. We may never see his like again. A wizard. A master. A one off. He will have at least one more cup to shine again. Pray for his ankles!
And so Zee Germans, with the most complete team at the tournament, came through. A masterclass in letting the ball do the work for you. A defensive Berlin Wall at the back. And a group of complete players who can defend pass and shoot. I’d have wanted 3 or 4 goals in he final to show the novices that this is the world’s best game but, hey, that’s football.
What WILL we do now?
Oh that’s right! The Premier League is just around the corner and the new era of Louis van Gaal at Old Trafford is looming.
Football. It just keeps on giving.