Football

Hallo, hola... Emma here!

When I started this blog, I just knew I would have to touch the topic of the currently most important thing to male population: football. Today are the finals of the Mundiel; who will take the throne, Germany or Argentina? Yesterday Brazil lost to Netherlands 3 to 0. I imagine Brazilians aren't the happy campers right now.

This World Cup would be remembered by a lot of things and not all of them good: last-time champions and favourites not passing the qualification round, underdogs managing to deal serious blows to before mentioned(namely Costa Rica and Columbia) and most famous of all, atrociously bad refereeing.

The opening match Brazil vs. Croatia is one of the best examples. I try not to be too biased(hello, I'm Croatian!), but some the Japanese referee's decisions were more then little suspicious. Naturally, I'm talking about that blasted penalty in 71'. Seriously, the gall of that man... I should probably stop now before I start swearing too much. But past is past, we need to move on(but I sincerely hope he won't referee any other match of that magnitude in the next couple of years).

Next point: favourites. I never thought I would see the omnipotent tica-taca Spain fall on its knees. Both them and Italy are major disappointments of this World Cup. That kind of game....
This Mundiel was fatal for many, and many would like to forget it. Unfortunately, it won't happen any time soon. Absolute underdog Costa Rica defeating Uruguay, Columbia defeating Greece, Iran and Bosnia and Herzegovina giving nightmares to Argentina, Netherlands utterly defeating and humiliating Spain, Chile giving Brazil run for their money...
It blurred the edges between weak and strong, turned our perception of victory, and in a nutshell changed the way football is played. This Mundiel also showed us something else: deadly weaknesses of every bigger team.

Brazil: get Neymar out of the game, everything falls to dust. Argentina: Lionel Messi is cut off, they're having truckload of trouble. Netherlands: if Robben is properly 'caged', no goals(unless by some divine intervention opponents manage to score own goal). Spain: nullify their tactics and they're dead. Italy: watch for the middle and you'll prevent lots of problems. Uruguay: find your way around their defence and you've practically won the match.

I could go on and on, but I think that despite disappointments we found truly surprising 'new hopes': USA, Costa Rica and Columbia to begin with, followed by incredible Germany, who made a huge appearance.

I'm sure that the next world Cup in Soči, Russia would bring a lot more surprises, more exciting games and hopefully better referees!

P.S. Aren't you excited for today's match? I surely am!