The World Cup finale on Sunday night was possibly the most exciting one in recent World Cup history and without doubt, much better than the last time Germany and Argentina met each other in a World Cup final, which was over 24 years ago in Rome. That match is remembered for being a dreary affair which was decided by Jurgen Klinsmann’s special diving abilities, which won a penalty for Germany right at the end. This final was a befitting climax to a great World Cup, and the goal that decided it was a great way to end it all. Mario Goetze’s amazing goal will be talked about for generations as perhaps one of the greatest goals of all times, considering the circumstances in which it was scored.
What we will do in this article is to discuss the performances of the most talked about teams in the World Cup and gaze into our crystal ball and hazard a prediction on the performance of these teams at the next World Cup in Russia, four years from now. Let’s begin with the home team for the just concluded World Cup, Brazil.
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Brazil: Was Brazil really ever as good as they were made out to be at the start of the World Cup? With Brazil, it’s often a matter of history dominating reality as people remember the great Brazilian teams of the past, and expect the current side to play just as well. There was a plenty of hype around Brazil, but reality caught up with them in the semi-finals against Germany as they found out to their horror that there weren’t any hiding places on the football pitch. The 7-1 defeat was a wake up call that Brazilian football and its hundreds of millions of supporters all over the world needed. Brazil cannot win the World Cup by depending on just one world class player like Neymar and there seems to be a serious paucity of talent in the country – something which is unthinkable in a country that produces an assembly line of great footballers. We don’t expect Brazil to do much in Russia, and we predict Brazilian football to go from bad to worse over the next four years.
England: England are the richest football team in the world. Quite possibly, the lowest paid member of the England squad in Brazil was worth more than the entire Costa Rican team put together. But that didn’t help much as Costa Rica topped England’s ‘Group of Death’, while England were out of the World Cup only after having played two matches. England always perform poorly in World Cups, except for their win in 1966, and this performance was their worst ever. We expect something similar in Russia as well. England will arrive at Russia hyped to the skies by the English media and marketing agencies with multimillion dollar budgets, only to falter at the first hurdle and to return home amid much tears and recrimination.
Argentina: Argentina found out one thing in this World Cup. Lionel Messi is not Diego Maradona. At least, not yet. They needed Messi to be outstanding in every match if they were to win. Messi was indeed brilliant in the group stages and was great in the second round. But after that, tiredness, exhaustion and the pressure of playing too many matches had their effect on the world’s best footballer. But perhaps Russia will be a different story. Messi will be 31-years old in 2018. He will probably see the Russia World Cup as his last chance to show that he is greater than both Pele and Maradona. Perhaps Messi will take Argentina one step forward in Russia four years from now.
Spain: The champions of the 2010 World Cup lost at the first hurdle in Brazil. This means that the Golden Generation of Spanish footballers – Xavi, Iniesta, Casillas David Villa, Fernando Torres, Sergio Ramos, Pique – with the exception of one or two – will never be seen in a World Cup again. This could also signal an end to the famed tiki taka. But all is not lost as Spain are blessed with a plenty of highly talented young footballers and win almost every tournament played at a junior level. Perhaps the new generation of Spanish footballers will rise to the occasion in Russia.
Germany: It was clear that Joachim Loew just had to win the World Cup, else the entire population of Germany would have had serious psychological issues. All the talk about the clinical efficiency of the German football machinery is great. But Germany never quite had the killer instinct that is so critical in sports. Runners-up in 2002, semi-finalists in 2006 and 2010. A defeat in the final against Argentina would have been simply disastrous. But they won, and they were most deserving winners. Moreover, Germany are a remarkably young team. Manuel Neuer, Mario Goetze, Bastian Schweinsteiger,Mesut Ozil, Sami Khedira, Toni Kroos, Andre Schurrle and the leader of the pack, Thomas Mueller, are all in their early to mid-twenties. They are all great players already, will get even better in four years time, as footballers are usually at the peak of their abilities in their late twenties and early thirties. This is an extraordinary football team, and it would be major shock if they don’t retain the World Cup four years from now in Russia as well.
