We are not
yet into the quarter finals, four of the knock out matches are still to be
played and we are seeing, possibly for the FIRST time in World Cup history that
eight of the top 12 teams haven't made it to the last 8.
No Germany
(1,)Argentina (5), Spain(10), Portugal (4), Poland (8), Peru(11), Denmark (12) and Chile did not even make it in the qualifiers.
It might change
further when all the knock out matches are played out.
This is the
first world cup when you could not wager a bet on who will win. Name the match –
Argentina Iceland, Spain Iran, Portugal Morocco or Swizerland Costa Rica and
you could not have said, yes, I predicted this score line.
It was very
visible to the naked eye that the old warlords had lost their mojo. Argentina,
Portugal too dependent on Messi, Ronaldo; Spain too dependent on passing the
ball, Denmark too obsessed with stopping the other team from scoring and
finally the famed Germany too scared to experiment.
In sharp
contrast, the new teams were fearless.
Reputations
and rankings just fell by the way side as the surge of energy, enthusiasm and effervescence
of the relatively unknown teams took center stage. Teams like Iran, Nigeria,
Morocco, Iceland showed no signs of nerves as they took on the big boys.
Gone was
the awe and the respect. They played as if they belonged here, on the largest
stage in the world.
Over the
last two decades, there has been a homogenization of football. Whether it is a
South American team or a Eurpoean one, they play almost the same way. The major football leagues, much like
McDonalds have made all teams serve the same staple fare.
We have
seen some great goals but we will possibly not see spectacular goals like the
one Maradona scored in 1986.
When every
team plays the same way, what separates the winner from the loser?
Speed!
Teams like
France, Beligium, Uruguay and England are still surviving because they chose to
differentiate. They are posing faith in youth over reputation. And focus on
speed.
Romelu Lukaku
(25years), Harry Kane( 24 ), Batshuayi (24) have
set hearts aflutter with their speed.
The French
Kylian Mbappe at 19 is the youngest since the great Pele to score a goal in the
world cup.
His sprint
that startled Argentina, made them commit a foul and resulted in a penalty was
run at top speed of 38 Km/hour.
That is how
fast Usain Bolt ran his fastest 100 meters!
Welcome to
the brave new world of speed football, reputations don’t count here.
