D. Ray Morton, 6th July 2014.
Dutch goalie Tim Krul cuts a wrestling villain style promo on each Costa Rican spot-kicker to demonstrate the increasingly dark side of this World Cup
Samba soccer, the football carnival and with all things South American attacking flair, many people have World Cup 2014 down as the best quadrennial FIFA showcase ever. They might well have a case. For the most part, the beginning of the competition was riveting. High scoring matches, very few draws and that beautiful unpredictability that comes with a tournament played in a mysterious non-European climate. With the semi-final fixtures set, it has gotten a bit pragmatic all of a sudden, however.
The knockout stages have featured chess matches rather than sexy football. After the freestyle fun of the opening games, the serious business has begun and it was no wonder that each group winner triumphed against the second placed teams in the last sixteen. With the exception of Costa Rica's heroic journey to the quarter-finals, it is all starting to look very systematic.
Cynicism has entered the fray as the World Cup reaches its climax. Brazil vs. Colombia typifies that. Brazil had set themselves up to fight and Colombia duly walked into that trap. The game turned into a kick-fest and ended Neymar's tournament. Look at the gamesmanship of Tim Krul in last night's penalty shoot-out. He taunted each Costa Rican before their penalties, a cocky tactic which worked a charm. Krul will not have won over many neutrals, however, despite making two fine match-winning saves.
There is now bitterness in accepting defeat too. Belgium, especially, are under the impression that they blew it against Argentina. Daniel van Buyten was quoted as saying in the aftermath: "Of course Argentina have superb players, but I think a team like Germany would easily beat them." A thinly-veiled jab at a side who comfortably dealt with a full half hour of Hail Mary passes lumped at a furry lamppost of a man named Marouane Fellaini. His team-mate Jan Vertonghen also jumped in on the Eric Cartman-like gripes: "I think Argentina will crash out of the tournament against Netherlands in the semi-finals. I really think so." The Tottenham stopper fuming and hoping that his European neighbours do a job on the only team that have won five games in a row in the tournament.
Jan Vertonghen decided to launch a hubris-filled prediction for Argentina going forward clearly frustrated at Belgium's own shortcomings
Another parallel to Italia '90 is that Costa Rica journey that I mentioned. Does it remind anyone of Jack Charlton's boys in green twenty-four years ago? Well don't let it! Costa Rica have played some excellent football at times and beat both Uruguay and Italy cleanly. They may be from a small nation and may have made it to their first ever quarter-finals like the Republic of Ireland did a quarter of a century ago but they can actually play a bit rather than the bland stalemate-based football bleary-eyed Irish fans cheered on back then.
Hope is not lost though. The semi-finals contain two potential classics between historic World Cup heavyweights in Brazil vs. Germany and Argentina vs. the Netherlands. Hopefully, we will see more inventiveness with the shackles of the minimum expectation of reaching that stage removed. With Colombia and James RodrÃguez out, the Golden Boot is still up for grabs so that could be a decent side story as well. Let us hope the remaining four sides get their respective mojos back in the upcoming rest days.
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