The referee needs glasses and other forgotten cliches by Matt John
The ball is quite literally rolling and it looks as if Brazil will do away with the image of samba football and instead dive and cheat their way to World Cup glory, so long as the referees continue to show home team bias.
It must be tough for them in that cauldron of pressure, particularly after an impromptu acapella national anthem. This could be Brazil’s answer to the Hakka. Those harmonies were pretty frightening.
To give credit, when considered alongside decisions in the following games the referees appear less reluctant in shying away from the big decisions, something the boys in black are all too guilty of in our domestic leagues. In view of the bigger picture, if the consequences are a few dodgy decisions, ultimately this can only result in a cleaner and more engaging world cup. The litmus test will be how often we hear: “if the same incident happens outside the box, it would be a free kick.”
Onto the football. Spain, the con artists of the century, they have duped us all into thinking they were a team that could deliver on the big stage. We all profile and segregate teams into categories. England: Burnt out from a busy domestic calendar and can’t take penalties. Germany: Never count them out at major tournaments, well organised. Netherlands: Could go far but will they be torn apart by in-fighting.
But what about Spain? Up until four years ago Spain had their double stamped signed sealed delivered cliche: “Great team, could do well with the potential to maybe even win it, but always choke come a major championship.” Whenever anyone hinted they fancied the Spanish you would inevitably hear in response: “You shouldn’t back Spain at the World Cup.”
How quickly this has been forgotten as Spain’s world cup history is abysmal for a ‘major footballing nation’. Before 2010 they could boast being 4 times quarter finalists, and a 4th place finish in 1950, when the final was contested by a round robin of 4 teams.
Watching Spain reminded me of when I was first learning the controls to FIFA. Or that time when you needed to pause mid game to get a bite to eat, only your return to find your younger sibling at the helm. Can Spain wrestle back the controls in time to steady the ship and repeat their performance of 2010, or is a capitulation akin to France’s abject title defence in 2002 on the cards? To their credit, at least Spain have already scored.
For years we have been told how many football ‘sized’ pitches worth of rainforest have been cleared to demonstrate how man is hurting mother nature. Well mother nature got her own back with a football sized pitch in the middle of the rainforest and she chose to take redemption on the English.
The night of the match, England were immediately dealt a massive blow as Danny welbeck was declared fit to play, and the English manager, Roy Hodgson, then named the team he hoped could win the 2014 world cup. Brazil was not the answer we were expecting, but the man does know his stuff. Pre match concerns about the state of the pitch were laid to rest as the Italians will soon flattened out any divots with their diving.
Despite the loss, I couldn’t be more optimistic about the performance, a few mistakes here and there but I think on the whole it was the kind of display fans want to see from their national side. Its just a shame they were outdone on the night.
Given the shock result in Group D’s earlier game, much talk is about how the group currently stands and which team will do what where and how if maybe this event goes as planned it’ll result in something else that may possibly inevitably happen at some point or another, perhaps. The media will over play it but the permutations are simple, the knockout stages have been brought forward. Two wins and England are through. If you cant beat Uruguay and Costa Rica back to back then you don’t deserve to win the World Cup. Despite the optimism, the statistics show an uphill struggle, since 1998 only 4 of 46 sides who have lost their opening group game have gone on to qualify for the knockout stages.
England will have to do it without the services of a significant team member. Physio Gary Lewin will miss the rest of the World Cup after dislocating his ankle while celebrating Daniel Sturridge’s equaliser against Italy. You can’t help but think he clearly isn’t that good of physio anyway!
Over to you America. Show us how its done.
Matt John is a British based blogger, former athlete and regular contributor to this blog on Mondays, visit him here.
Brit In Bethesda 