Though Germany snatched a last-gasp winner to grab the World Cup for the fourth time, the 2014 football extravaganza will be remembered more for the decimation of the Brazilian soccer.
When the tournament started, stars like lionel Messi, Neymar, Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo were talked about. But it was the unheralded Mario Goetze who stole the show in the final, scoring the all-important goal for Germany.
The Africans did show their talent as also Mexico and Australia who were not prepared to play second fiddle to the big guns. But this World Cup was a battle between European competence and South American flair. The final kept many of us in India without a blink till 3 am but as a supporter of South American football only because of the magical soccer artistry many of them, Pele, Garinchha, Maradona, displayed. They virtually toyed with the spherical and made it talk.
More than the sight of a fierce shot nestling in the corner of the net, the dancing feet, turns and twists of these magicians, the unbelievable runs with the ball glued to their feet and the amazing through-passes took one’s breath away. It hardly mattered who won, but it mattered as to who gave you the maximum enjoyment.
It was a ghastly sight when Brazil was routed 7-1 in the semifinal by the rampaging Germans; it was unbelievable. They certainly were not a team to lose so badly, but it happened! Questions will logically be asked now as to whether the supply lines that bolstered Brazilian football was drying up.
This reminded me of the hockey final between India and Pakistan in the 1982 Asian Games in New Delhi. India scored first as a capacity crowd waited for the team to win the gold. But Pakistan swooped down the home citadel time and again to pump in seven goals to win 7-1. The score line was the same.
It was a declaration that came loud and clear seven years after the national team had won the World Cup in Kuala lumpur, that Indian hockey, which once ruled the world and was full of wizards who were as crafty and artistic as the South American football stars, had lost its moorings. Indian hockey hasn’t recovered for several decades now where the Europeans and Australians were ruling the roost today. Hockey in Pakistan has hit rock bottom as well.
The Indian hockey team does not have anyone, not to mention Dhyan Chand, like Balbir Singh, Harbinder Singh, Ashok Kumar or even Merwyn Fernandes or Mohammed Shahid in the 1980s who could slice through any tight defence. The team now finds it difficult to penetrate into the rival D.
Coming back to football, Argentina, on the other hand, fought much better than Brazil and could have taken the lead in the final had striker Gonzalo Higuain had not shot wide when presented with a clear opportunity in the first session. lionel Messi, a touch artist who actually showcases South American wizardry today, had his chances but was not successful. The set piece offered to him; that was Argentina’s last chance, could not be utiliszed as he was far from the mark.
Brazil’s cause was greatly dented when their main striker Neymar was chopped down by a Columbian in the quarterfinal and was carried off with a ruptured vertebra. It actually broke Brazil’s back. But defender Thiago Silva did his team’s cause a huge disfavour when he picked up a second yellow card to sit out the semifinal. The team squared up against Germany without two of their vital cogs. The collapse was, however, unexplainable.
Even Neymar had this to say, “We didn’t play the kind of football that the Brazilian national team plays. It was just regular, and that’s why we still reached the semifinals, but it wasn’t Brazilian football, not the kind of football that enchants everybody.”
Germany might have become the world champions in soccer, but the mechanical football they played to win the trophy can never match the touch artistry of those from the land of Pele and Maradona. It is only to be hoped that the artistry does not evaporate as it has happened in the case of Indian hockey.
(The writer is a senior journalist now based in Bhubaneswar)