World Cup 2014: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Thuso Palai | Friday July 18, 2014 13:11

 

As with any tournament, there were the GOOD, the BAD and the downright UGLY. This was one tournament that had all the elements, swinging from the extreme bad to the extreme good.

In the lead up to the tournament, there was a near fracas with some stadiums not being a 100% done and ready for the matches. Throughout; the hosts were adamant that there was nothing to worry about and as it turned out, maybe there was nothing to worry about.  There were protests all over the place and it was feared that they would disrupt games. That was not to be as the disturbances were kept to a minimum and once the football kicked off, all the attention when to the football and not the protesters. For me there were 2 downright downers for me, and they stuck out like a sore thumb.

Once again the African teams did well to embarrass themselves. Starting right before the tournament when some teams refused to board for the tournament citing bonus issues, as well as on-field and off-field conflicts. The worst was when 2 Cameroon players did some haji-baji in front of the World. It doesn’t get any worse than that. The other matter is the Luis Suarez bite on Chiellini. I honestly do not know what to make of the incident but I can only say it was uncalled for and Suarez deserves the punishment he got.

There were also murmurs of match fixing and African teams were mentioned. This issue, alongside the ever recurring issue of player bonuses for African teams is a major concern. It is disappointing that at every major tournament such issues come to the fore. As long as these persist we will never have  African teams going far in the tournaments.  

Football is all about entertainment on the field, and I must say the football was breath-taking. There were some games that were subdued, but on the whole, the Tournament was action packed.  The football was sublime. As with any tournament, there were a few surprise packages. Colombia and Costa Rica came out of nowhere and sprung a few surprises. At the end of the day, the 4 teams that went to the semi-finals really deserved to be there.  

This tournament had a medley of brilliant goals. Until the Finals match, my goal of the tournament would have probably been the Tim Cahill sublime left footed volley for Australia against Netherlands. That was before Germany’s Mario Gotze came off the bench in the final to score a world class goal that was both beautiful and won the World Cup. If there was ever a goal to win a World Cup, that is the one.

On a parting note; as to how Lionel Messi got the Player of the Tournament Award ahead of Toni Kroos, Thomas Mueller or even a Javier Mascherano still baffles me.