Finally the final is over and Germany has won the Cup. Congratulations to Germany though Argentina played much better. With this victory Germany created a history by being the first non-South American country to win the World Cup in South America. To my knowledge, this is the first time since 1986 the W. Cup final has reached to such an interesting and thrilling zenith where every minute till the end was exciting. No doubt the disciplined and well organized Germans played well but in Argentinians we noticed more beauty and more hard work. Their passing was more accurate, defense was rocky and midfield was perfect in attack as well as in defense. The current footballers from Goa have to learn a lot from this game and improve themselves even without the guidance of the coach. By watching this W. Cup our footballers can learn so much especially from South Americans who have shown tremendous improvement.
Brazil deserved highest compliments for successfully organizing this event without any untoward incident inspite of the commotion and chaos preceding the W. Cup. The way chaotic situation going on in Brazil demanding to stop the holding of the W. Cup tournament, it looked Brazil would have to scrap this event altogether and FIFA would have to shift it somewhere to a safer place just as it did earlier in 1986 when that year’s edition was shifted to Mexico. However, by the grace of God situation calmed down and the tournament ended peacefully in Brazil itself.
Golden Gloves award should have gone to Argentinian keeper and not to the German. So also Messi’s award was not deserving for him. Messi in this tournament contrary to his pre tournament billing turned out to be a mere spectator and more so in the final proving that he is best only at Club level tournaments. The real worth of a best player can be noticed only when he proves himself as best for his national team in stiff competition. His compatriot Maradona earlier proved himself in his national Jersey to be the best. Hence, to equate Messi with the great Maradona is wrong. Not only Argentina failed to produce another Maradona after his retirement but even the World has failed. The greatness of a footballer is noticed when he rises to the occasion to produce great game to achieve great result. Maradona did this while Messi failed.
After the end of the final one could easily notice the love of Germans and Argentinians for their respective countries thru the joy expressed by the Germans and thru the tears the Argentinians shed for their loss. This shows the patriotism and immense love they have for their countries.
The goal that Germany’s Mario Goetze scored was a fantastic one that totally fooled the keeper under the Argentinian bar. Nicely halting the ball on his chest and lowering it down, he beautifully left footed it to a match winner. Mario Goetze who a few minutes earlier came from the Bench where he was Benched as unwanted finally turned out to be the savior just as “rejected stone turned out be the corner stone".
In this edition lot of things happened for the first time in the history, namely introduction of goal line technology, use of evaporative spray, additional interval for serving of cold drinks and allowing the friends and family members of the players on the ground after the final.
The VIP stand looked majestic with the presence of Germany’s Merkel, Russia’s Putin in addition to the presidents of Argentina and FIFA. I still remember how in 1982 edition of W. Cup in Spain the President of Italy Sandro Pertini and Chancellor of Germany Helmut Smidt attended the final played between the winners Italy and Germany. During that final I can still recollect how Sandro Pertini was jumping from his VIP Seat after every goal scored by Paolo Rossi’s squad. This shows how the leadership of European nations support their and teams.
It would have been nice if our Premier Modi has accepted the invitation given to him by the Argentinian president and attended the Final where he would have been exposed to the entire world as our premier.
It is surprising that the record created by Just Fontaine of France in 1958 by scoring 13 goals is still not shattered by any one even though when Fontaine created this record the number of participating teams was only 16 while currently it reached to 32 and yet no player earning millions could shatter this record.Once again congratulations to Germany for winning the Cup and to Brazil for hosting the tournament successfully.
A. Veronica Fernandes,
Candolim,
Goa.