FIFA World Cup 2014

Life was indeed becoming dull. Not a great many awesome movies in the recent past, cricket is like a monotonous pain in the soul being so frequent and so abundant. Indeed a great repetition of anything renders its value low and so low that one seeks a time off from even them.

It was in this monotonous life that one fine day the sun of interest and excitement shown. It was the second week of June 2014 and its football world cup time.

Every four years it comes once and fills my life with excitement and thrill for almost 5 weeks. I just love it. This is not just a tournament, its life. Like our life, it has moments of despair, excitement, laughter, enjoyment, gloom, monotony, disgrace, virtue, defeat and victory. The game is what dreams are made of and what life is built with.

Like other earlier world cups, this world cup had a great many interesting, thrilling as well as disappointing moments. Through my blog entry I’m just sharing a few remarkable and favourite moments which I feel, shall long last in my memory.

• An outstanding moment was in the first match itself when brazil saw the face of victory by virtue of amazing football skills exhibited by Neymar and Oscar against Croatia. Neymar scored 2 and Oscar scored 1. It was a brilliant game from the outstanding duo.

• The match of Italy Vs England was pretty one sided and my favourite team was victorious, so it was indeed special. Italy played like the boss and the match exhibited one of the best goals which actually resulted from a false attempt deliberately faked by the master play-maker Andre Pirlo.

• Fantastic hat-trick from the previous world cup’s golden boot owner Thomas Mueller against Portugal. It was an amazing match with an amazing outcome. Brilliance and aggression defined by the Germans. Even the great Christiano Ronaldo appeared so miserably helpless.

• Spain Vs Netherlands, the arch rivals from 2010 WC finals. An amazing match to witness and what a payback by Netherlands. The amazing header from Van Persie is nothing less than a wonder produced in this incredible tournament. Even the great Casillas couldn’t but witness the ball enters his goal helplessly.

• Messi got his first World Cup goal ever against Bosnia and Herzegovina and so did Rooney against Uruguay. Their ecstasy cannot be expressed in words. The images below say it all.

• Former world champions Spain were already out of the tournament having lost 2 in a row. But the ageing tiger wasn’t any less ferocious. David Villa’s amazing game against Australia was indeed a fitting farewell performance from the legend.

• Italy exits world cup in the very 1^st round. The first major disappointment for me this time. It was a shock. Perhaps the last time ever we are to see the likes of the great Buffon and Pirlo. The match against Uruguay was pretty square throughout with few fantastic saves by Buffon and excellent passes from Pirlo. But the later half witnessed blasphemy. Italy got red card for a nominal foul in the second half which resulted in a Uruguay goal soon afterwards. In the counter attach Suarez bit the Italian Chiellini on his shoulders and escaping a red card despite this severe foul. Bottom line: Italy out. Sigh!

• Brazil Vs Chile, in round of 16, was a match that literally exposed all the weaknesses of Brazil. The game was a tie till extra time end with one same side goal from Chile, and eventually carried on up to the Penalty Shootout. Julio Cesar, however, saw to it that Brazil got through to the quarter finals by virtue of few amazing penalty saves, but weakness of Brazil has been exposed nevertheless.

• In round of 16, Columbia Vs Uruguay, James Rodriguez produced a goal from thin air that shall be remembered as one of the best goals ever. It was indeed a pleasure to witness the goal. It was sheer brilliance.

• Quarter final provided the audience with the best match of Brazil in 2014. It wasn’t one of the highest scoring match this time but certainly the only match where Brazil looked totally under control of what’s happening. But the match eventually was a tragedy. Thiago Silva saw a yellow card for the second time and was thus suspended from the next match. Neymar (the only Brazilian who played with full rhythm throughout the tournament) was injured severely and left the match as well as the tournament with two broken vertebrae, a loss that will eventually prove expensive to Brazilians both in football as well as their moral.

• Semi Final of Netherlands Vs Argentina was one of the most boring matches ever. It produced no goals in the total 90+30 minutes of the game. Despite few good attempts from Robben the match was goalless. Eventually Argentina got through to the semis due to some exceptional penalty saves from Romero. Netherland’s World Cup Dreams were shattered again.

• Devastation for the Hosts finally. Brazil humbled by the mighty Germans. The match was a nightmare which no Brazilian will ever forget. 4 goals conceded in 6 minutes, eventually 7-0 till 90 minutes and just to save the face of Brazil, 1 goal was scored by Oscar in the last minute to make the final score 7-1. Klose breaking the record of Ronaldo for the maximum number of world cup goals. This match certainly broke Brazil's backbone, just like quarter finals had broken Neymar’s. The devastation was so huge that even in 3^rd position final match between Brazil and Netherlands, Brazil lost to the dutch by 3-0.

• Finally the big day. The grand WC Final. Argentina Vs Germany. Historic rivalry raised stakes sky high. The match was brilliant with few fantastic attempts, few miserable misses, few brilliant saves by Neur as well as Romero. It was getting more and more thrilling as the match continued. Eventually, first time in history, Argentina conceded a goal in the extra 30 minutes and the match ended in Germany’s grand victory. Schweinsteiger was brilliant in this match, although not the goal scorer himself, but his efforts were untiring and have indeed been the best performance of the day. I supported Germany in this match but I was indeed heart Broken to see the face of Messi at the end of the match.

And Finally All Well that Ends Well. A month and a half, well spent to satisfaction.

WELL DONE GERMANY; CONGRATULATIONS.