Runners-up welcomed
Buenos Aires: Argentina’s national team was welcomed home Monday by thousands of fans celebrating its gutsy performance in the World Cup final. The team arrived in Buenos Aires on a plane painted with images of the players and a large sign reading: “Thank you Argentina.” A river of emotional fans wearing the white and sky-blue striped jerseys of the national team, among them a group of Argentine gauchos on horses, flooded the road leading from the airport to the football association complex. “You showed that through courage, passion and bringing everything you have and more to the field you can triumph,” President Cristina Fernandez said after greeting all members of the team at the complex with a hug and a pat on the back. “You’ve given us values that Argentines, surrounded by so much triumphalism, thought were lost. Not only does the one in first place win; you also win when you show quality and manage to unite with others to go forward,” Fernandez said. “That’s why I wanted to greet you today and thank you on behalf of 40 million proud Argentines.” “I’m thankful to everyone. I would have liked to bring you back the Cup and to be able to enjoy it. We tried, we gave it our all but we couldn’t achieve it,” said Messi, who won the trophy for the tournament’s best player. “Despite that, I think we gave a great joy to the country by reaching this final and facing our rivals without giving anything away.”
It’s official, Scolari out
Sao Paulo: Brazil coach luiz Felipe Scolari resigned after the team failed to win the World Cup, the Brazilian Football Confederation said Monday. Scolari promised to win the tournament at home, but Brazil was eliminated in the semifinals by a disastrous 7-1 loss to eventual champion Germany that matched the national team’s worst defeat in its 100-year history. Brazil also lost 3-0 to the Netherlands in the third-place match. Scolari’s contract ended after the World Cup and he handed over the command of the team after Saturday’s match, saying it would be up to the confederation to decide whether he would remain at the helm of the five-time world champions. In a statement, the confederation said President Jose Maria Marin accepted what it called “Scolari’s resignation.” “Scolari and his staff deserve our respect and our gratitude,” the statement said. “They were responsible for making the Brazilian people regain their love for the Selecao even though we did not reach our greater goal (of winning the title).” Scolari’s replacement was not immediately announced. Assistant Carlos Alberto Parreira, the coach who led Brazil to the 1994 World Cup title, was also leaving. The confederation said Marin would give further explanations in a news conference on Thursday. Scolari, who led Brazil to the 2002 World Cup title, had said after Brazil’s loss to the Netherlands that he would turn in a report of his work with the national team and Marin would then analyze what he would like to do.
Blatter’s 9.25/10 to wc
Rio De Janeiro: FIFA president Sepp Blatter lavished praise on the World Cup in Brazil, saying it had been a “very special” event. “What makes the World Cup so very special this time is the quality of the football, the intensity of the games,” said Blatter on Monday, adding FIFA gave the tournament 9.25 out of ten. “This World Cup on the field of play was exceptional,” he added. Blatter saluted the passion and intensity of the 32 teams in the event which culminated in Germany beating Argentina in the final on Sunday to win their fourth title. “There was not one single match which didn’t have this intensity,” Blatter told reporters, while conceding that no tournament could ever be perfect. “It’s more than emotion and passion -- it is a drama,” said Blatter, who was presiding over his fifth World Cup as the head of football’s world governing body.
Final for the record
Rio de Janeiro: The hard-fought thrilling World Cup final between Germany and Argentina set new Twitter and Facebook records as the encounter was trending on all social media platforms. The final set a new Twitter record of 618,725 tweets per minute discussing the match, according to a data. Facebook also said the game hit record numbers, prompting 280 million interactions, with 88 million people engaged globally, CBS News reported. For comparison, 66 million people had more than 200 million posts, comments and likes during the Brazil-Germany semifinal match. Germany wrote a new chapter in the history of international football as they became the first European team to lift the World Cup in South America, clinching a 1-0 win over Argentina in the final. Fans and athletes all chimed in on Twitter during and after the match. Pele, the host nation’s most iconic player congratulated the victors, saying, “Congratulations to Germany on today’s victory!” Jurgen Klinsmann, the coach of the US men’s soccer team, could not help but cheer his native Germany. “YES YES YES !!! JOGI YOU DID IT !!! HUGE COMPlIMENT TO ARGENTINA, BUT THE BEST TEAM WON THE 2014 WORlD CUP!” he said. Former Tennis ace Boris Becker, tweeted, “We did it !!! #2014WorldCupFinal wir sind Weltmeister !!!” Minutes after his team climbed to the top of the football world, German striker lukas Podolski made sure to tweet a selfie with teammate Bastian Schweinsteiger. The social media boom was at its height throughout the tournament as tweets, posts and selfies ruled the digital space
Tale of two markets
london: It’s not just Argentine soccer fans who woke up depressed following their nation’s 1-0 defeat to Germany in the World Cup final. Traders in Buenos Aires were also feeling blue. Argentina’s main Merval index was down 0.6 percent in early afternoon trading Monday after the team succumbed to a late goal Sunday from German striker Mario Goetze in Rio de Janeiro. That may not sound too bad, but when compared with other indexes in the region — and the world — Argentine shares were clearly underperforming. In a sharp contrast to the Merval’s performance, Germany’s DAX closed 1.2 percent higher — the biggest gain Monday among the major European stock indexes. The stock market responses were widely anticipated. Alex Edmans, a professor at london Business School and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, has analyzed stock market responses to World Cup defeats and found that those from losing nations have underperformed. “Over the course of the World Cup, there have been 39 losses by countries with an active stock market,” he said. “In two-thirds of these cases, the national market has underperformed the world market on the next day.” According to Goldman Sachs, the depressed mood may weigh on Argentine shares for a while to come.