Kevin Whitcher
As promised, some thoughts on the semi-finals in the penultimate entry to this diary, the bulk of which has been an account of my trip to the finals. I am now back in the UK watching the coverage on TV with most everyone else, and on that note, I have to say, I did not miss the BBC and ITV punditry whilst I was over there!
Brazil v Germany – What can be said about a truly astonishing semi-final? Well, let’s look at the last forty odd years to get some sense of perspective. The two great Brazil sides in living memory were 1970 and 1982. The reason they are so fondly remembered is that they played wonderful attacking football. However, few could state they bothered too much in terms of defending. In the six matches to win the 1970 World Cup, just the one clean sheet – v England, wouldn’t you know it. The five games in 1982 before elimination in that classic game v Italy saw, once again, a solitary clean sheet – against the might of New Zealand. In 2014, at home, the dream was to win the trophy for a sixth time, and to do it with panache, with style. They were pushing it with only Neymar showing genuine demonstration of how Brazil likes its football played, and losing him, looked pretty much redundant going forward. The defence, even when marshaled by Thiago Silva, looked ropey. Just one clean sheet in the five games leading to the semi-final. Without their captain, the writing was surely on the wall. We didn’t see it because of the belief that the wave of emotion might carry them through. Certainly, even if one believed Germany would win the match, no-one could have predicted the horrible collapse that was witnessed in those gruesome six minutes that saw four goals just before half an hour elapsed. The opener was bad enough for the lack of marking, but what followed was genuinely shocking.
Arsenal fans might have felt they had seen something similar on a couple of occasions already this year, but at least those defeats were not on home turf. One hopes that there are no such repeats for the Gunners next season, but should it happen again, opposition fans could be forgiven for striking up a chorus of ‘It’s Just Like Watching Brazil’. Shorn of their flair player and their on the pitch defensive organizer, the tournament hosts were revealed as having no depth, a house of cards. Individually, there were some big reputations, but as a collective they lacked intelligence, confidence, cohesion and spirit. Germany did a job on them and they had no answers. People were stating Joachim Low’s side could not be a great team because they struggled to beat Algeria. But great teams survive and exploit key moments. I mentioned composure as a key deciding factor a couple of entries back. Few would dispute that Germany possess it. As a unit, they have developed from the habitual nearly men of the past four major tournaments, this has not been overnight phenomenon. I would accept that they are clinical, capable of seizing the moment, but I would also argue that they are not of the quality of the sides of 1974 and 1990 that won this tournament as West Germany. I can understand them being favourites for the final, but I can see them being beaten on the day as well. Needing to play a 36 year old as the spearhead of their attack and continuing to stick with a clearly out of form Mesut Ozil indicates that they are not unbeatable. I think the 7-1 scoreline says more about Brazil than Germany.
As for the hosts, one could only feel sympathy for them. Juninho stated on the BBC, ‘We saw the Germans teach us how to play football,’ which kind of sums up the humiliation. Football means more to this nation than we can conceive back here in the UK. It would be too simplistic to state that it is all it has, but nevertheless, it is hugely significant, a source of extreme pride. You can see this by the numbers of people wearing their national colours on matchdays, and if you have 12 minutes to spare, this short film will give you confirmation. To suffer a heavy defeat in such a manner in a match of this magnitude is a severe blow to their dignity. And it was the manner of the defeat as much as anything. Their football team, the symbol of the nation, humbled. If it had been a narrow defeat, if a decent fist was made of the semi-final, then at least there is some pride. However, now there is merely an open wound, nightmare memories that will never be erased – if they still raise England’s defeat by the USA in the very same Belo Horizonte stadium 64 years after the fact, you can bet your life that 100 years and more from now, they will be showing re-runs of the goals in this one whenever Brazil reach a World Cup semi-final.
The euphoria surrounding Brazil in 2014 always threatened to be a bubble waiting to be burst, and so it proved, although no-one could foresee the manner of this collapse. Ultimately, the players weren’t good enough to carry the mantle and the manager not cute enough to devise a system that could cope with the fixture in the absence of two key men. The house of cards collapsed, and with it, a huge shadow forms over what has been a great tournament up to this point. In football terms, this was brutal. Worse though, are the implications for a nation that wrecklessly gambled £11 billion it could not afford on a finals to bring back good feeling and the glory days. It was good while it lasted, but in the end it was catastrophic. The third place match on Saturday is a strange one. On one level, a chance to restore lost pride, but really, it is meaningless, a game no-one wants to play. In the past, host countries that have played in this match – Italy 1990, South Korea 2002, Germany 2006, have treated it as a celebration. They though, entered the match with some semblance of pride mixed in with the disappointment. Little chance of that on Saturday.
Argentina v Holland – What a contrast. Two teams determined not to lose, and on that level, both performed superbly for 120 minutes. That sure didn’t make for an entertaining spectacle though. Chances were like gold-dust, and Lionel Messi cancelled out of the game until he gave up trying to get past the Dutch defence on his left foot and used his right instead, getting into a fantastic position to pull the ball back from the goal-line. No doubt Germany will attempt to nullify him too. Argentina have never been behind in a match during this tournament, a good habit. However, if Messi cannot find space to operate, they are dull as ditchwater, and offer little, in spite of having some very decent names in their roster. Holland’s plan was all well and good if they were confident of progressing from spot kicks, but when Van Persie had to leave the fray, the option of subbing the keeper for the shootout went with him. You could see from the subsequent Argentinian penalties why Tim Krul was used in the previous round.
Ultimately, Holland scored two goals in the dying moments v Mexico, yet aside from that, did not score in three knockout matches. From their group matches, and the recovery against Mexico, I thought they showed a lot of promise, a very good team in the making. However, ultimately they were undone by their own caution. Perhaps Van Gaal is not quite the genius he once appeared to be. Few expected his team would win the trophy at the outset. I have an idea their odds at the start of the finals may even have been longer than England’s, which is really saying something.
As for Argentina, there is no doubt, based on the knockout round performances, that they will go into the final as underdogs in spite of it being played on South American soil, and the vast majority of the support in the Maracana being behind them (unless Brazilians that have tickets do not sell them, as they will unquestionably be rooting for the Germans). I don’t think too many would argue that Germany have proved the best team in these finals. Sure, they struggled against both Ghana and Algeria, but they have a tendency to do that against lesser known teams. With opposition they find more predictable, they fare much better. The final is a one-off game, and Messi is capable of winning an individual match with his brilliance. However, I think he needs more support than he gets from his current team-mates. Germany are favourites for good reason, and would be worthy winners should they triumph on Sunday. The main hope is that we see a decent match with a few goals, such as the tussle between the two in 1986, as opposed to the war of attrition in 1990 – the two occasions the pair have faced each other in previous World Cup Finals.
I’ll watch the third place match on Saturday out of sheer fascination to see what kind of reaction the Brazil side will get. Whatever they achieve in this game is not going to buy them any forgiveness for what happened on Tuesday. Will the national anthem be belted out with the gusto of previous outings? Is there any semblance of pride still remaining? Although it is a match no-one wants, their best bet now is to front it and try to play with some commitment. Given their psychological state, that isn’t going to be easy, which is one of the reasons it could make for a fascinating encounter. The Dutch will, I am sure, do their bit by fielding all the second stringers and allowing their hosts an easier ride than they might have against the first choice line-up. A thumping Brazil win might at least allow them to exit the field without getting booed off it, although even then, the medal presentation is going to feel a bit strange.
One other thing, the weather over in Rio and especially Sao Paulo yesterday looked somewhat dodgy to say the least, making me realize how fortunate we were in our two weeks out there. We went to places that have seen torrential rain, but conveniently when we were not in the relevant places – Salvador, Recife and Sao Paulo. We had the odd grey day and I recall it absolutely chucking down in Salvador when I was fortunately sat in a bar watching Chile beat Spain. We were never at – or on the way to or from - a stadium when the heavens opened. So an element of good fortune there. Let’s hope the sun is shining when the game kicks off on Sunday.
