Just Like Watching Cowdenbeath

The 2014 World Cup is over and the quality of the football, the drama of the competition and the breathtaking backdrop that Brazil, particularly Rio, provided glossed over many of the misgivings that many people had before the tournament, for which I am sure Fifa, particularly Sepp Blatter, will be grateful.

In the end I managed to see 22 of the competition's 64 matches; some I missed through choice or conflicting engagements, some for other sometimes more surreal reasons. For instance I managed not to see any of the Quarter Finals, despite being particularly keen to see Brazil play Colombia. Instead I spent the evening coaxing our recently acquired pet hamster from under the bed where it had taken refuge after escaping from its exercise ball. I missed Brazil's crushing 7-1 Semi-Final defeat at the hands of Germany as I was at the BBC watching a recording of the radio show Wordaholics. Emerging after the recording I switched on my phone, checked the score and was astonished to see that Germany led 5-0.

Brazil's capitulation in the penultimate round, and their almost equally poor performance in the 3rd Place match have dominated media coverage of the tournament, almost overshadowing Germany's 1-0 win over Argentina in the Final. That game, whilst not a thrill a minute spectacle, was absorbing and entertaining in its own way. Much more so than the 1990 Final when the then West Germany also beat Argentina by the game's only goal.

For Brazil, probably the most iconic of all national teams, it was a strange tournament. They remain under the weight of expectation that the nation, and much of the rest of the world, piles upon them to win and win with style, to emulate the 1970 team. That side's almost mythic status is  something of a millstone for the current crop of players, many of whom are not in the same league as the team of 44 years ago. In fact taking Neymar out of the equation (as Colombia did), the England forward line of Rooney, Sturridge and Sterling does not compare too unfavourably with Brazil's trio of Jo, Fred and Hulk. For once the terrace chant, "It's just like watching Brazil " might have been applied to the Three Lions without irony. [1]

Cowdenbeath, not Brazil; Central Park not the Maracana.

England's failure to qualify from their group was sadly no surprise. So much so in fact that the expected fuss that met their elimination from the tournament never materialised. Like me I think that many people did not expect England to progress from the group, although the performance against Italy actually augured quite well. England looked more positive than we normally expect and created more chances than we are used to seeing. They still lost though and reverted to type against Uruguay. Fortunately I was not able to see the Costa Rica match, which sounds as though the word turgid was invented for it.

Daniel Sturridge's goal against Italy was about as good as it got for England. Photo: BBC

There were many things that stood out in the World Cup, some good, some bad; some major, some trivial. Here are a few of the things that struck me.

Vanishing spray - It has been used in South America to mark the relative positions of ball and wall at free-kicks for a number of years and like many of the best ideas it's major virtues are it's simple effectiveness. It is definitely an idea that should be brought into the game throughout the world.

Black boots - Whatever happened to good old fashioned black boots? There were players wearing pink boots, blue boots, orange boots, spotted boots, even odd boots. At first it was distracting but after a while I thought, what does it really matter what colour the boots are?

The ball - At every tournament, Fifa unveil a new ball and almost without exception there are complaints. This year they managed to bring out a new ball that was remarkable in its normality.

Sponsors - Fifa rely on their sponsors and behind the scenes have, I am sure been building bridges with them following the controversy over the alleged bribes that were part of the process that awarded Qatar the 2020 World Cup. The power of the sponsors is frightening and perhaps has gone too far. For instance Sony supplied headphones to all the players in the competition and they (the players) were not allowed to be seen with any other brand inside stadia or at media events. Will we ever see the day when sponsors like adidas dictate that teams may only where their kit, that players may only wear their boots?

Fifa has many sponsors to keep happy.

Fifa - You could write a book about the antics of the game's governing body (and people have). Some stories may be exaggerated but there is little doubt that Fifa bring a lot of the opprobrium upon themselves. Again, due to their sponsorship deals, this time with Budweiser, all stadiums had bars selling their sponsor's product despite the fact that in Brazil the sale of alcohol in football grounds is illegal. Fifa's requirement that they are granted tax free status in the host country means that they have trousered millions of pounds profit while Brazil basically picks up the bill, not least for the new stadia that Fifa insisted they build that will become derelict now that the tournament has ended.

Luis Suarez - Controversy follows him around like a bad smell and after his third episode of biting an opponent he received a lengthy ban but still came up with the aroma of roses by negotiating a move from Liverpool to Barcelona. It surprises me that some people still make light of his biting antics by comparing them with a bad tackle.

Simulation - Or cheating as we should more properly call it. It is sad that players as talented as Arjen Robben resort to it and shamelessly so as he openly admitted to diving. Marcello of Brazil was another culprit, who added the brandishing of an imaginary card to his performances. It was a shame that Marcello did not play in the 3rd place game as a coming together between him and Robben had marvellous comic potential.

Robben in typical pose.

Goalkeepers - Neuer and Romero of Germany and Argentina respectively in the final and Ochoa of Mexico to name but three of the World Cup's fine goalkeepers and yet Brazil had Julio Cesar (who is actually a fine goalkeeper) a player who could not get in QPR's first team.

"Humiliation" - If ever there was an overused word it was this one in the wake of Brazil's Semi-Final defeat. The British media, having been deprived of the normal soul searching and gnashing of teeth that accompanies England's tournament exit thanks to its sad inevitability, seemed to adopt Brazil as surrogates and latched onto their failure as a sort of proxy shame. Furthermore on the subject of the media, I managed to avoid all but the smallest dose of the studio punditry and watched games with the sound turned down low to avoid the constant babble of the commentators and their sidekicks. Someone should remind them that it isn't radio, dead air is not a problem and a little silence now and then would go a long way. I saw forty five minutes of the Italy versus Costa Rica game sitting on a bench at Lakeside shopping centre opposite the Sky TV stand where the commentary was completely inaudible. Far from spoiling my enjoyment of the game it in fact enhanced it.

Brazil's showing disappointed almost as many people in this country as England's did. After years of admiring them, this time round it was more like watching Cowdenbeath. It may be some time before "It's just like watching Brazil" rings around the terraces anywhere as a compliment.

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[1] "It's just like watching Brazil" stems from an over excited Cowdenbeath fan who dubbed his team The Blue Brazil in the wake of their 3-1 win over Stranraer in a Scottish Cup tie many years ago.