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FOOTBALL fans saw the Brazilian celebration of victory against Colombia turn to consternation last night at the thought of facing a resilient German foe without their star player, Neymar, along with the lynchpin of their defence, Thiago Silva.
Neymar’s tournament was paralysed by a knee thrust forcibly into his back by Colombia’s Juan Zuñiga in an incident that went unpunished.
The boy-wonder is lucky that he will only be out of action for approximately four to six weeks despite suffering a fractured vertebra.
However, although the Brazilians have been the recipients of an outpouring of sympathy, they are winning few fans for the manner in which they are achieving their victories.
The golden shirts of the country that has secured more World Cup triumphs than any other nation is synonymous with free-flowing football and individual flair. Pele is, of course, the stand-out name although think back to the 1980s and the likes of Zico and Socrates. The names of Fred and Jo hardly have the same tone and certainly don’t strike the same fear into opponents.
Yet, this Brazilian vintage is finding a way to win. If this were a result of purely tactical acumen then I would be willing them onto a much-demanded home victory. However, to the detriment of the beautiful game they are doing so by using the dark-arts by committing numerous fouls and feigning injury.
In the match against Colombia they committed 31 fouls; one every three minutes and twice the normal average in a match.
Many of these were of the niggling variety designed to disrupt the flow and prevent the Colombians from gaining any rhythm, although, had Fernandinho, in particular, been punished earlier for some brutal challenges then the match may have been a better advert for the game.
It’s this latter point that is particularly pertinent as FIFA aims to make use of the greater social media awareness and attract new audiences, particularly in America. A world record was set with 16.4 million tweets as Brazil defeated Chile.
The success of the US has served this purpose well with record numbers tuning in, occasionally at the expense of more traditional sports. Barack Obama has been a high-profile admirer. However, diving and pretending to be injured has left a bitter taste with many new fans more accustomed to seeing their athletes cover injuries in order to continue to compete.
One publication, the Wall Street Journal nonetheless, was so outraged that it conducted a study into the number of fake-fouls in the group stages. Of the 302 cases of players ‘writhing around like their shirts were on fire’, 293 were considered to be play-acting. The worst offenders? Brazil!
There have been a number of positives. US goalie Tim Howard recorded the highest number of saves (17) in a single match in their defeat and spawned a number of amusing parodies including him being nominated as the new Secretary of Defence!
The Algerian and Greece squads have appropriately also received many plaudits for donating their bonus payments to those less fortunate than themselves. In an era when footballers are lambasted for their greed these magnanimous acts should be applauded.
Tactically, the highlight for me from the quarter-finals was the amazing and unprecedented decision by Louis van Gaal to replace Jaspar Cillessen in goal with Tim Krul with only 40 seconds of extra-time remaining.
Whether his additional two-inches in height made a difference is debatable, although psychologically it certainly had an impact as the Dutchman vocally told every Costa Rican penalty-taker individually that he knew where the ball was going.
He went the right way every time and saved two of the five shots. Managers have regularly replaced defenders with forwards to enhance their chance of goals although saving more has never been witnessed at this level. Man United fans will be salivating in the hope he can weave the same magic.
In addition, it was incredible to see Brazil and Germany secure their passage to the next round courtesy of goals from the centre-backs. In a tournament dominated by forwards both teams were reliant upon set-pieces with the finishing touches applied by men better known for preventing goals than scoring them.
The Dutch victory set up two classic South American versus European semi-finals. At the time of writing both matches are still to be played. However, given the notable absentees, last night Germany would not have had a better opportunity to progress and nullify the home advantage.
It is ironic that Germany are playing the more attractive football in this tournament with their manager, Joachim Low, adopting a higher-risk strategy. Without the creativity of Neymar their opponents will have a more predictable style that should be familiar to the Germans.
Brazil could find solace from the fact that Germany have lost at this stage in the last two World Cup competitions. Before the tournament I believed that their tough schedule would sap their energy reserves. However, Low has managed their resources well and they look the freshest of all teams as the tournament reaches its final stages.
I have also been pleasantly surprised by the Dutch whose frontline trio of Robin van Persie, Wesley Sneijder and Arjen Robben need to reignite. Despite winning on penalties they dominated a Costa Rican team that had shocked many and topped a tough group. However, the Dutch have failed to reach the highs of their first match when they effectively eliminated the reigning champions, Spain.
They face Argentina tonight who have also largely been unimpressive, aside from a couple of flashes of brilliance from a certain Lionel Messi. However, the winners of this competition rarely come from a team that starts well.
While I would rather see the Dutch progress I believe that Argentina will progress and hope they face the Germans in Sunday’s World Cup Final, although I do admit that Brazil would make for a fairytale ending!
I’m still sticking with my pre-tournament prediction of Argentina. Their forward and captain Messi, all smiles this week during a training session at Cidade do Galo, their base camp in Vespasiano, will hold aloft the FIFA World Cup 2014 trophy. You read it here first.
