Thoughts on the World Cup

June 12

Just wanted to write down some thoughts on the 2014 edition of the World Cup:

1. Location in Brazil.  I think it has been quite a success in Brazil so far.  The naysayers were out in force before the tournament, but it appears that thinks are working out nicely (knock on wood) as I write this before the last game.  Sure, there are some negatives, I mean who builds a 50,000 seat stadium in the middle of the jungle for a city that doesn't have a major airport, nor a major soccer team.  I don't see the stadium in Manaus turning out to be anything but the white elephant that it is.  On the flip side, it has been wonderful to see the celebrations on the beach at Copacabana.  Karla and I spend wonderful bookends to our South American vacation in Rio and loved the place.  We are glad the rest of the world is seeing it in all its glory.  Whether it will be able to host the Olympics on its own in a few years remains to be seen, but as a soccer host, it's been great and we can't wait to see the final at Maracana (where Karla and I got to see Flamengo vs Fluminense).  Should be great.

2. Overall quality of the soccer. I have one word...brutal.  I had no idea that soccer had come to this point in development where tackles are late, studs are up, full body checks are legal and referees have decided that yellow cards are unnecessary.  Don't get me wrong, I have enjoyed a lot of the play, and watching Neymar, James, Messi and Muller has been a joy to see such skill displayed on the field. But watching Neymar go out on an obvious, and unpenalized, tackle by Zuniga (keep wanting to call him Daphne for some reason...) as well as the excessively late tackles from behind committed by all teams has disgusted me.  I know the refs have been instructed by FiFA to lay off on the cards so the good players aren't suspended, but come on, it was getting ridiculous. 

3. The play of the Brazilian team.  Very disappointing.  You can lump England in there too, but Brazil stands out above the rest.  They are at home, and coming of a major championship last year.  I expected to see offensive flair and finesse from them, and while Neymar provided some of that flair in the opening rounds, where were Fred, Oscar, Jo and others of whom I've heard so much about.  Fred also loses big time in choice of nickname.  "Fred"?  I know that Brazilians have excessively long names and choose nicknames to make thing simpler (did you know that Brazilian great Pele was really Edson Arantes do Nascimento? - quite a name on the back of the shirt! But Fred???  How about Barney, or Nigel (or just Nige for short).  Even Kaka was better at a previous cup.  But enough on the names, their play has been brutal.  Did you see the Colombia game where Neymar got hurt?  The Brazilians were worse.  There were six fouls on James (Colombia's star) alone, something that should have garnered several cards.  But what did Brazil get a card for??  Something as infantile as Thiago Silva knocking the ball out of the goalie's hands as he was about to kick it.  Just dumb.  Instead of being impressed with their playmaking, I was disgusted by their style.  And don't get me started on Hulk...

4. The play of the CONCACAF teams.  Three of our group got to the final 16.  Great accomplishment and hope for Canada down the road.  And the Ticos getting to the quarters.  Awesome stuff.  Sure I would have like to see the US progress, but a fine showing from a young team who will be better in four years in Russia.

5. Finally, can't complain about the final.  Germany Argentina should be a great game (Germany Netherlands would have been great too).  I'm hoping we see an all out match, rather than what we saw in the Argentina Netherlands semi, and I predict a German win.  Not sure what Brazilian team will show up today in the third place match.

Andrew