The most comprehensive review of the football World Cup from an up and coming football pundit
What an absolutely exhilarating month of football it was! I feel the football fanatic inside me satisfied to the core. And what is even more exciting is that I get to write my first ever football review piece and for that I would like to thank DNA for giving me this opportunity. I would also like to thank my parents who always believed in me. And I would also like to thank the German national team in whom I believed. Well at least during the last ten minutes of the final.
So where do I start… Well, Ronaldo of course. Or was it Messi? No, Messi played the final so he definitely plays for Germany. What a shame Ronaldo got injured otherwise my Brazil would have won the World Cup. I have supported Brazil ever since Zidane won them the World Cup in 1998. (Funny how all the best players always seem to play for Brazil!)
Even though I only watch football once every year but my love for Brazil knows no bounds. Brazil has taught me the true meaning of ‘distance makes the heart go fonder’. Pity Cristiano Ronaldo got injured though. He has been my favourite player since the 1998 World Cup.
Oh so many upsets early on! Every team whose shirt I was wearing in the group stages was losing. Spain, Italy and England, even though I wore Beckham’s shirt! But surprisingly I didn’t see much of Beckham. I thought he was England’s best player. Saw more of him during Wimbledon! Thankfully the greatest of all time Federer won that. Or was it Nadal?
OK, back to football. Or is it soccer? There were so many goals! And there was goal line technology. The goal line technology definitely improved the quality of football. The best players feel more confident scoring goals when there is goal line technology. And so many matches had so many goals! Someone scored a lot of goals against the defending champions Spain early on! I remember there were a lot of Batman and Robin jokes, although I don’t remember any player called Batman, or Robin, for that matter.
And there were so many close matches! Extra time… penalty strokes… so so many of them!
Then there was the Suarez dude who was going around biting people. I mean what’s up with that? Who does that? How are these people even allowed to play football? It’s like me going around biting my colleagues if some of them started excelling!
Even so, despite all the biting and the nail-biting, the thing that stood out in the World Cup was the Germany-Brazil match. Oh Em Gee! Well of course Ronaldo wasn’t playing, but seven goals? How did my Brazil let in that many goals! 7-1 is a horrible score line. In many ways it is worse than 7-0. Because that would have meant that the Brazilians never really tried you know. But believe me Brazil would have won 8-7 if Ronaldo were fit! Can you imagine if Germany was without… oh well can’t really point out one particular player. Not that I remember any of their names. How did such an average team win the World Cup? I mean really…
After Brazil was knocked out the final was a bit of a pointless encounter anyway. I mean I am a Pakistani, why would I give a damn about either Germany or Argentina (or was it Holland? No def Argentina) winning the World Cup. But that doesn’t mean I wasn’t rooting for Germany in the final (ten minutes) of the World Cup!
That guy Messi also won some best player of the tournament thingy as well. Surprising considering that someone on Facebook posted he did not even score a goal in the knockout stages. Probably a PR thing. Oh and there was that Neymar dude as well. He should have won the player of the tournament award IMO.
Oh and we supplied the World Cup with the footballs! Such a proud moment for me to see the world kicking our balls!
The writer watches football after every four years but has been a football enthusiast since forever. All aftereffects of reading The Horizontal Column are the readers’ headache.