FIFA World Cup 2014 Football Week 1

The last time I wrote covering an event in Sport was the  Cricket World Cup in 2011 that  India won again after 28 years. The FIFA world cup is an event that is followed and watched by so many in different countries.

In comparison --- food for thought  --I was looking at the attendance at the World Cup Hockey event last Sunday and the attendance at the finals was something that  a league cricket game attendance in India woild put to a shame. For a World Cup event , that was held in  Hague, there was little crowd. Sad indeed.

But Football is different .. I see everyone talking about , posting about it in FB and sometimes I am amazed that they have picked bits and pieces to be knowledgeable and be able  to comment on a post in FB. So it is the in thing till the event ends ! Augurs well for the game. 

My thoughts were to watch some selected matches that had my interest and where I expect sparks to fly. But I quickly realized that watching matches Live  was  a big time zone challenge( Brazil being host ). One could watch the 9.30PM IST match through but then to sit through for the next one at 1.30 AM and then the 3.30 AM would be a challenge to be active at work the next day.

So , some snippets from the first week and I intend to cover through weekly updates to  the final .

Brazil , Dutch and the Germans look very strong in their first matches of their respective groups. Croatia may complain about the referee in their match against Brazil but I do not think they had any chance of beating Brazil. Brazil is still vulnerable and although they may be home favorites , I see upset in the air. (  Mexico held them to a goalless draw last night )

The Dutch were outstanding in their smashing defeat of the Defending Champions Spain. Dutch team looked fitter , stronger and hungry. Spain’s  winning team of 2010 has aged and needs young legs. It was so visible that they need this as we saw Arjen Robben could outpace Ramos , round up Pique and play around and still find the net.  Spain  held most of the possession but what is the point in holding possession when you cannot score goals ? Spain needs a big rebounce with their other set of group matches if they have any chance of retaining the title.  The Good news for a Manchester United fan is for Louis Vaan  Gall ( Dutch coach ) to do well at the World Cup so that he comes in with that mind set to Manchester United. Van Persie should continue his goal scoring as well – All positives for the  English Club  from the Dutch side doing well.

England is a team that has only hype and failed to deliver .. They keep talking with pride on what a good team they are but the results do not reflect the hope of the Country. So, it was not a surprise that Italy put it past them . English will say that the match was close but it  is winning that matters. Costa Rica in the same group kind of upset Uruguay so this group is still open is my assessment although Italy will go through.

France was unconvincing in their win …  They have lots to do in this edition if they need to wipe out the poor performance of 2010.

Germany - Portugal match was supposed to be a close one. It was not .  With  Portugal defender Pepe being red carded ( they were down by two goals already by this time ). and   with a pale Ronaldo ,  they were outpaced and outsmarted by the German team. Muller was the star ( I wrote about him in the 2010 edition—may be this is his time  and he can win it for the Germans ) . Their performance was strong and they could grow stronger from here.

So in summary , first round had no major surprises for me ( I expected Spain to lose )—yet to see any dark horses put their case up against the fancied ones ( Remember the Cameroon –  Roger Milla dream run in 1990).
Two Technology Improvements :
Goal Line Camera that will confirm if the football crossed the line and will send in signals to the referee ( referee has a watch that displays ) that it is a goal. One of the matches was able to see this happen
Magic Foam -- used to draw the line or the place at which the free kick has to be taken. Nice one this is for most times , the teams always push the place forward to suit them

Icing on the cake was the news of Michael Schumacher coming out of his coma . What a great news this was  and this should be great inspiration for the German Football team. Schumacher has been a fighter all along. For a person who was in to induced coma on Dec 29 2013, most of us would have just given up on any recovery as for the past five months , reports on his progress was limited. And then out of nowhere , he is out of coma. I am sure Schumacher will make progress  and who knows  may end up driving  in an F1 race. That is Schumi for you. Do not for a moment , think this is wishful thinking. The man is certainly capable and we all wish he would  do that.

Wait for the next week  on Round 2 matches