FIFA World Cup 2014

Life was indeed becoming dull. Not a great many

awesome movies in the recent past, cricket is like a
monotonous pain in the soul being so frequent and so
abundant. Indeed a great repetition of anything renders
its value low and so low that one seeks a time off from
even them.
It was in this monotonous life that one fine day the sun
of interest and excitement shown. It was the second
week of June 2014 and its football world cup time.
Every four years it comes once and fills my life with
excitement and thrill for almost 5 weeks. I just love it.
This is not just a tournament, its life. Like our life, it has
moments of despair, excitement, laughter, enjoyment,
gloom, monotony, disgrace, virtue, defeat and victory.
The game is what dreams are made of and what life is
built with.
Like other earlier world cups, this world cup had a great
many interesting, thrilling as well as disappointing
moments. Through my blog entry Im just sharing a few
remarkable and favourite moments which I feel, shall
long last in my memory.

An outstanding moment was in the first match itself

when brazil saw the face of victory by virtue of amazing
football skills exhibited by Neymar and Oscar against

Croatia. Neymar scored 2 and Oscar scored 1. It was a

brilliant game from the outstanding duo.

The match of Italy Vs England was pretty one sided

and my favourite team was victorious, so it was indeed
special. Italy played like the boss and the match
exhibited one of the best goals which actually resulted
from a false attempt deliberately faked by the master
play-maker Andre Pirlo.

Fantastic hat-trick from the previous world cups

golden boot owner Thomas Mueller against Portugal. It
was an amazing match with an amazing outcome.
Brilliance and aggression defined by the Germans. Even
the great Christiano Ronaldo appeared so miserably
helpless.

Spain Vs Netherlands, the arch rivals from 2010

WC finals. An amazing match to witness and what a
payback by Netherlands. The amazing header from Van
Persie is nothing less than a wonder produced in this
incredible tournament. Even the great Casillas couldnt
but witness the ball enters his goal helplessly.

Messi got his first World Cup goal ever against

Bosnia and Herzegovina and so did Rooney against
Uruguay. Their ecstasy cannot be expressed in words.
The images below say it all.

Former world champions Spain were already out of

the tournament having lost 2 in a row. But the ageing

tiger wasnt any less ferocious. David Villas amazing

game against Australia was indeed a fitting farewell
performance from the legend.

Italy exits world cup in the very 1st round. The first
major disappointment for me this time. It was a shock.
Perhaps the last time ever we are to see the likes of the
great Buffon and Pirlo. The match against Uruguay was
pretty square throughout with few fantastic saves by
Buffon and excellent passes from Pirlo. But the later half
witnessed blasphemy. Italy got red card for a nominal
foul in the second half which resulted in a Uruguay goal
soon afterwards. In the counter attach Suarez bit the
Italian Chiellini on his shoulders and escaping a red card
despite this severe foul. Bottom line: Italy out. Sigh!

Brazil Vs Chile, in round of 16, was a match that

literally exposed all the weaknesses of Brazil. The game
was a tie till extra time end with one same side goal from
Chile, and eventually carried on up to the Penalty
Shootout. Julio Cesar, however, saw to it that Brazil got
through to the quarter finals by virtue of few amazing
penalty saves, but weakness of Brazil has been
exposed nevertheless.

In round of 16, Columbia Vs Uruguay, James

Rodriguez produced a goal from thin air that shall be
remembered as one of the best goals ever. It was
indeed a pleasure to witness the goal. It was sheer
brilliance.

Quarter final provided the audience with the best

match of Brazil in 2014. It wasnt one of the highest
scoring match this time but certainly the only match
where Brazil looked totally under control of whats

happening. But the match eventually was a tragedy.

Thiago Silva saw a yellow card for the second time and
was thus suspended from the next match. Neymar (the
only Brazilian who played with full rhythm throughout the
tournament) was injured severely and left the match as
well as the tournament with two broken vertebrae, a loss
that will eventually prove expensive to Brazilians both in
football as well as their moral.

Semi Final of Netherlands Vs Argentina was one of

the most boring matches ever. It produced no goals in
the total 90+30 minutes of the game. Despite few good
attempts from Robben the match was goalless.
Eventually Argentina got through to the semis due to
some exceptional penalty saves from Romero.
Netherlands World Cup Dreams were shattered again.

Devastation for the Hosts finally. Brazil humbled by

the mighty Germans. The match was a nightmare which
no Brazilian will ever forget. 4 goals conceded in 6
minutes, eventually 7-0 till 90 minutes and just to save
the face of Brazil, 1 goal was scored by Oscar in the last
minute to make the final score 7-1. Klose breaking the
record of Ronaldo for the maximum number of world cup
goals. This match certainly broke Brazil's backbone, just

like quarter finals had broken Neymars. The devastation

was so huge that even in 3rd position final match
between Brazil and Netherlands, Brazil lost to the dutch
by 3-0.

Finally the big day. The grand WC Final. Argentina

Vs Germany. Historic rivalry raised stakes sky high. The
match was brilliant with few fantastic attempts, few
miserable misses, few brilliant saves by Neur as well as
Romero. It was getting more and more thrilling as the
match continued. Eventually, first time in history,
Argentina conceded a goal in the extra 30 minutes and
the match ended in Germanys grand victory.
Schweinsteiger was brilliant in this match, although not
the goal scorer himself, but his efforts were untiring and
have indeed been the best performance of the day. I
supported Germany in this match but I was indeed heart
Broken to see the face of Messi at the end of the match.

And Finally All Well that Ends Well. A month and a

half, well spent to satisfaction.
WELL DONE GERMANY; CONGRATULATIONS.