South Americans Give Their All
While there have been many stories throughout the World Cup about players loyalties one thing that was abundantly clear was that the South American players would do anything to win. I've got to admit that like many I was left disappointed when watching Brazil and even Argentina but the real standouts of the tournament for me where Chile and Columbia. Both sets of players played with their hearts on their sleeves (the way all international players should surely play) and gave everything to their team. While this unfortunately did often include diving you could just tell that playing football for their country at the World Cup meant the world to them. If they had not been unluckily been knocked out by Brazil on penalties Chilean players would surely have been very near the top of the most distance covered as whenever the other team had the ball there was always a queue of Chile players fighting their way to get back and defend.
Not All Players Are as Committed
South American football may be on the up but the same cannot be said of African Football. After an impressive showing at the last few World Cups only Nigeria and Algeria made it out of the group stages this time around and neither made it past the round of 16. However the main focus of attention for African Nations was on the completely destructive tournament from Cameroon. Not only were the team eliminated from the group stages but they also had to send home some of their star names early after numerous misconducts. All this after the squad almost didn't travel to the tournament over a pay related dispute. Because of this the countries governing body have announced that for any future tournament they will be introducing contracts for all their playing staff! For me this is a total disgrace, admittedly I may be a bit old fashioned but in my mind players are paid enough to pay for their club sides (and are still paid by them while on international duty) and then play for their national team because of the pride it brings. Unfortunately the Cameroon players seem to have got to big for their boots and as a consequence their fans have suffered by watching their team not only fail on the pitch but become a laughing stock off it.
The Real Luis Saurez is back
Just when it seemed redemption was on the cards for Mr Suarez he goes and does it again. The man who single handily destroyed England left the World Cup in disgrace after biting an opponent for the third time!! Well at least he should have left the tournament in disgrace but instead was treated to a heroes welcome back in his home country who refused to acknowledge that he had done anything wrong. The fact that the country and his club were too scared to upset him by admitting he'd done something wrong that should be punished sums up all that's wrong with modern football. Thankfully Liverpool had the strength to finally decide to sell up and cash in on the player they had stuck by for so long. To sum up how bad Suarez's actions are the fact that FIFA actually came out of this situation having actually acted quickly and correctly by banning Suarez from all football related activity for 4 months. Unfortunately if his reception at the final Sepp Blatter is still as unpopular as ever and looks like he's done too little too late to save any scrap of respect he has in the eyes of the footballing public.
Football is at its Best when Unpredictable
The 2014 World Cup will surely go down as one of the greatest in living memory and that was mainly thanks to the fact that it had enough shocks to fill a World Cups greatest shock show. Where do you start; Costa Rica Quarter finalists, Spain and Italy been knocked out of the group stages, Messi doing nothing in the knockout rounds but still getting the golden ball and of course the incredible Germany Brazil result! Yes many of the games only came to life late on but when they did they where superb and reminded us just how exciting international football can be. It's testament to how good the tournament was that many of us simply forgot that England had even been in it, putting the disappointment aside to watch some simply superb football.
Germany Deserved Victory
Any team that can defeat the host nation of a World Cup 7-1 deserves to go on and lift the trophy, even if their German. For as long as I can remember Germany have been threatening greatness at major tournaments only to slip up in the group stages but this time they weathered their rough patch against Algeria and ended up as the champions and when you look back it's hard to argue against the German's been champions. When you look at their squad as a whole they had easily the strongest squad at the competition and where of course helped by the fact that many have been playing as a team (at club and international level) for the better part of a decade. Watching the final itself I've got to say that without Javier Mascherano Germany would have easily won the game in normal time and it would of been a cruel blow if Messi had decided to turn up in extra time to win the game for the Argentinians. The chance to rule world football is now in Germany's grasp and if they keep their eye on the ball they may even be able repeat and even better Spain's domination of recent years.
The Real Luis Saurez is back
Just when it seemed redemption was on the cards for Mr Suarez he goes and does it again. The man who single handily destroyed England left the World Cup in disgrace after biting an opponent for the third time!! Well at least he should have left the tournament in disgrace but instead was treated to a heroes welcome back in his home country who refused to acknowledge that he had done anything wrong. The fact that the country and his club were too scared to upset him by admitting he'd done something wrong that should be punished sums up all that's wrong with modern football. Thankfully Liverpool had the strength to finally decide to sell up and cash in on the player they had stuck by for so long. To sum up how bad Suarez's actions are the fact that FIFA actually came out of this situation having actually acted quickly and correctly by banning Suarez from all football related activity for 4 months. Unfortunately if his reception at the final Sepp Blatter is still as unpopular as ever and looks like he's done too little too late to save any scrap of respect he has in the eyes of the footballing public.
Football is at its Best when Unpredictable
The 2014 World Cup will surely go down as one of the greatest in living memory and that was mainly thanks to the fact that it had enough shocks to fill a World Cups greatest shock show. Where do you start; Costa Rica Quarter finalists, Spain and Italy been knocked out of the group stages, Messi doing nothing in the knockout rounds but still getting the golden ball and of course the incredible Germany Brazil result! Yes many of the games only came to life late on but when they did they where superb and reminded us just how exciting international football can be. It's testament to how good the tournament was that many of us simply forgot that England had even been in it, putting the disappointment aside to watch some simply superb football.
Germany Deserved Victory
Any team that can defeat the host nation of a World Cup 7-1 deserves to go on and lift the trophy, even if their German. For as long as I can remember Germany have been threatening greatness at major tournaments only to slip up in the group stages but this time they weathered their rough patch against Algeria and ended up as the champions and when you look back it's hard to argue against the German's been champions. When you look at their squad as a whole they had easily the strongest squad at the competition and where of course helped by the fact that many have been playing as a team (at club and international level) for the better part of a decade. Watching the final itself I've got to say that without Javier Mascherano Germany would have easily won the game in normal time and it would of been a cruel blow if Messi had decided to turn up in extra time to win the game for the Argentinians. The chance to rule world football is now in Germany's grasp and if they keep their eye on the ball they may even be able repeat and even better Spain's domination of recent years.
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