Today is semifinal of world cup 2014. Second semi final. Yesterday, we saw the first semi final. Brazil vs Germany. It was unbelievable match. Brazil lost to Germany. Score 7-1.
I can remember 1982 Asian Games. India lost hockey gold to Pakistan. The score board was same 7-1. Other than that, I do not remember anything like this.
This is my first world cup when I am living out side India. I saw the first match Brazil - Croatia. On that day, I was in China . Brazil did not play well. Brazil was lucky, they were beneficiary of at least two blatant wrong decisions. Japanese referee got it all wrong.
All though the tournament Brazil played poorly. Still Brazil was playing semi final. Possibly that is also a statement on the poor quality football played in this world cup. While we have seen plenty of goals in this world cup, overall quality of football was very ordinary. Italy went out from group stage. Against Uruguay they lost while playing with ten men. Again that match was marked with poor decisions made by officials. Neither Italy nor Uruguay was deserved to go out of the group stage. Italy's best player was Pirlo. I am huge Pirlo-fan. But his best days are behind him. He is slow, very slow and he finds it difficult to dribble. However, still he is Italy's number one player. This shows quality of football we have seen in this world cup.
Going back to yesterday's match, it started at 4am Singapore time. I woke up and I started watching. At least in my mind Brazil was favorite. Brazil started well but after 12 min Germany scored first goal almost against run of the play. Brazil defense was absolutely non existence. Then there was second goal , then thrid, then fourth and then fifth.
You need to be to 1954 to find another example when a team has scored five goals in five minutes. Switzerland was hosting 1954 world cup and they were leading 3-0. Austria scored consecutive 5 goals in five minutes to make it 5-3. The match ended as 7-5 for Austria.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzAjA_k53_c
However, in modern football you are not expected to see this. Coming back from 5 goal deficit, winning was impossible. No miracle had happened. Brazil had to take two more goals before they could score their only goal. What will happen today? Argentina vs Holland. I think Argentina will win but my friend says Holland. Possibly he is correct. I am not able to make a sense. Unlike Brazil, Argentina faced one European team France and won convincingly.
I can remember 1982 Asian Games. India lost hockey gold to Pakistan. The score board was same 7-1. Other than that, I do not remember anything like this.
This is my first world cup when I am living out side India. I saw the first match Brazil - Croatia. On that day, I was in China . Brazil did not play well. Brazil was lucky, they were beneficiary of at least two blatant wrong decisions. Japanese referee got it all wrong.
All though the tournament Brazil played poorly. Still Brazil was playing semi final. Possibly that is also a statement on the poor quality football played in this world cup. While we have seen plenty of goals in this world cup, overall quality of football was very ordinary. Italy went out from group stage. Against Uruguay they lost while playing with ten men. Again that match was marked with poor decisions made by officials. Neither Italy nor Uruguay was deserved to go out of the group stage. Italy's best player was Pirlo. I am huge Pirlo-fan. But his best days are behind him. He is slow, very slow and he finds it difficult to dribble. However, still he is Italy's number one player. This shows quality of football we have seen in this world cup.
Going back to yesterday's match, it started at 4am Singapore time. I woke up and I started watching. At least in my mind Brazil was favorite. Brazil started well but after 12 min Germany scored first goal almost against run of the play. Brazil defense was absolutely non existence. Then there was second goal , then thrid, then fourth and then fifth.
You need to be to 1954 to find another example when a team has scored five goals in five minutes. Switzerland was hosting 1954 world cup and they were leading 3-0. Austria scored consecutive 5 goals in five minutes to make it 5-3. The match ended as 7-5 for Austria.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzAjA_k53_c
However, in modern football you are not expected to see this. Coming back from 5 goal deficit, winning was impossible. No miracle had happened. Brazil had to take two more goals before they could score their only goal. What will happen today? Argentina vs Holland. I think Argentina will win but my friend says Holland. Possibly he is correct. I am not able to make a sense. Unlike Brazil, Argentina faced one European team France and won convincingly.
Yesterday Argentina won. Through penalty. Now final is between Argentina vs Germany. it reminds me about 1990. Argentina lost to Germany - it was wrong penalty decision. But Argentina was not deserved to win even in 1990 final. I remember vividly. Till quarterfinal argentina was playing poorly. no one in calcutta thought they had any chance against italy. italy scored through a header in first half. we all thought argentina would not be able to come back. anyway, surprisingly argentina gave a spirited reply. you possibly need to watch entire youtube replay :-) Late in second half they scored the goal. was it a header? I guess but i can not remember. resulting tie breaker argentina won thanks to Goycochea. Sergio Goycochea. Like this new Argentine golie Romero, Goycochea was not in first eleven. Even Romero's first name (or last name ?) is Sergio. Germany scored from penalty in final. I can remember Goycochea jumped in the right direction but failed to touch the ball
ReplyDeleteEarlier post was abrupt as I had a meeting. Going back to 1990 semi final .... Maradona was outstanding in that match. Obviously it was not in same class of 1986 semi final however, even 1990 semi final performance was outstanding. Youtube gives us an opportunity to rekindle the memories. Yesterday's performance from Messi was far below expectation.
DeleteIndian football's old footage can be a wonderful archival project. It is hard to get India football video footage - available footage in youtube are within last fourteen years.