Sunday, July 06, 2014

Brazil’s Cup

The Unisphere, built for the 1964 New York Wor...
The Unisphere, built for the 1964 New York World's Fair, in Flushing Meadows Corona Park, Queens, New York City (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Brazil-Colombia has been the most intense game in the World Cup so far, with Germany-Algeria a pretty close second. Messi deserves a Cup to join the all time greats of the game, but Brazil is the most exciting team. Neymar’s injury and ouster aside, I think the home team has a clear shot at the Cup. Half the world is watching live.

James (Ha-mez) of Colombia crying after losing to Brazil made my eyes wet. A Brazilian took off his shirt and gave it to James. That was perhaps the most beautiful sight of the entire tournament.

The ugliest happened only moments before that. The attack on Neymar was a knee to backbone deliberate, premeditated attack. It was an immediate red card. This was criminal behavior. The whole world saw, but the referee did not. There was not even a foul called.

Messi is methodical when slow, and magical when fast. When he is about to score, the pace of the game quickens.

Politics is my sports to watch. But I do watch World Cup Soccer, not even the Olympics so much. Brazil is the team I root for by default. It can be argued I am still rooting for Pele, the undisputed all time great.

Soccer is to Brazil that cricket is to India. It is like religion. It is such a big part of the country’s culture.

The US team to make it to the round of 16: it has come a long way. It might even win the cup by 2030. An entire generation of Americans will have to embrace the game if the country is to have a shot at the Cup. It does not come easy. You sure can not throw money at it and make it happen.

Soccer is the simplest game. You just need a ball. You can play it anywhere.

Although refereeing will have to go high tech. You can’t let a crime watched by half the world go unpunished. That sends bad signals.

There are not enough cameras in the stadium. There are not enough cameras looking at the fans. It is fun to watch people watch soccer. There are not enough cameras following the ball, and the teams. World Cup viewing is still in the age of television. It is like the Internet has not arrived yet. World Cup viewing has to be taken to the age of the Internet. The age of mishmashing of videos has arrived.

FIFA needs to brought to the 21st century. Its ways are still archaic. There is not enough fluidity at the top levels of the organization. More dynamism would help.

During the Brazil-Colombia game, the Brazilian team gave an outstanding performance. The team was liquid, especially in the first half. I don’t remember seeing soccer that good the last time. It helped that I was at a bar that seemed to have collected what felt like 1,000 Colombians. I was rooting for Brazil, but was quiet about it.

World Cup Soccer is the ultimate festival on the planet. These are movie stars dancing on our TV screens. The all time greats are still alive and kicking. Kind of like the village in Gabriel Garcia MarquezOne Hundred Years Of Solitude where no one has died yet.

Sometimes when I watch I get flashbacks in my mind of my average soccer skills during high school days. I made it into the teams but was not a star player. I played defense. The idea would be to kick the ball hard in the other direction. That is rudimentary. You have to possess the ball, you have to pass the ball.

By now I play mental soccer. I try to think like the stars. I try to imagine scenarios.I try to stratetize. I think there is room for that.

Watching the World Cup can also give you energy for your own simple workouts. I bought a soccer ball and made a few trips to the Flushing Meadows Corona Park just to be able to dribble around. The giant globe in the park is apt metaphor for the global appeal of the game.

I hear soccer is religion in Brazil.

Saturday, July 05, 2014

Neymar Injury



This was a knee to backbone deliberate premeditated attack. This was an immediate red card. This was criminal behavior.














Neymar Airlifted From Brazil's Training Camp
When the plane arrived in Rio early Saturday, teammates came one by one to embrace him as he sat in a wheelchair waiting to be taken into the ambulance...... The 22-year-old Neymar broke his third vertebra after being kneed in the back by Colombian player Juan Camillo Zuniga in the 86th minute at the Arena Castelao....... Doctors said he will not need surgery but is expected to be sidelined for at least four weeks. The player is wearing a strap to help keep his back immobilized........ Seeking its sixth world title, Brazil will play Germany in Tuesday's semifinal in Belo Horizonte. The final is next Sunday, with the third-place game a day earlier......Neymar was carried off the field in tears on a stretcher and "screamed in pain in the dressing room" before being taken to a hospital for tests, the Brazilian confederation said in a statement......Neymar had been one of the standout players of the World Cup, scoring four goals in the team's first three games.....Fans watching the Argentina vs. Belgium quarterfinal in Brasilia on Wednesday at times chanted "Neymar, Neymar."

Zuniga apologizes to Neymar for tackle
Colombia defender Camilo Zuniga has sent a letter of apology to Neymar, saying he is “deeply sorry and sad” for causing the injury that knocked the Brazil striker out of the World Cup......In a statement distributed Saturday by the Colombia team, Zuniga says “although I feel the situation was normal in a game, there was no bad intention, malice or negligence on my part.”
Neymar injury robs Brazil and the World Cup of its star attraction
Ronaldo spoke as he once played, speeding to his target. “It was a very violent, unlawful tackle,’’ Ronaldo said. “We all have to fight for football to have more fair play. We have to demand that sanctions to be given to violent players. I am in favour of very severe sanctions to those who don’t want to play football and just want to do such violent tackles. It was an evil tackle.’’ ........ The way that Zuniga leapt into Neymar, the speed, force and angle of the knee would suggest this was no normal sporting collision. As well as calling on Fifa to punish Zuniga, Ronaldo argued that the incident accelerated the arrival of video technology. “I’m in favour,’’ Ronaldo said. “We have goal-line technology brought in for this World Cup and it’s not been a hindrance.” ......Yet that was for issues of fact, of whether the ball has crossed the line. Establishing intent such as Zuniga’s was more difficult. “This debate about technology in football has to grow. We should use technology on behalf of football.” On protecting the stars. ...... Agreement came from Cannavaro, who gave a defender’s insight into the situation. The man who led Italy to 2006 World Cup glory was a defender of great stealth and timing, who used intelligence rather than belligerence in challenging for the ball. “I didn’t like that high knee,’’ Cannavaro said of Zuniga. “When Neymar had the ball, there was no possibility of his [Zuniga] getting the ball like this. Neymar is not transparent. It was a foul with intention to cause harm. It will be very hard for Fifa to accept such a challenge because it is very evident foul. Everybody who has ever played the game knows that.’’ ...... Ronaldo texted his stricken compatriot. “I sent Neymar a message, conveying my support and solidarity. I told him the whole country is proud of him and the team will win the World Cup and dedicate it to him. ...... “No German fan or player is happy with Neymar being injured. We want the spirit of fair play and that wasn’t there [by Zuniga]. But Brazil don’t just have 11 players. They have a very good squad. I think Dante will play instead of Thiago Silva and he’s used to pressure because he plays for Bayern Munich where there’s a constant obligation to perform. Thiago Silva is easily replaceable. To replace Neymar is just not possible. It could be Willian who is used to pressure, having played for Shakhtar and now for Chelsea.’’....... Ronaldo responded, issuing a rallying cry: “We are fearful and sad about out loss but if the German team believe they are going to come against weak, demoralised team because of the loss of Neymar, the Germans will be making an enormous mistake. Brazil are never made up of just one player. Pele got hurt in the 1962 World Cup [against Czechoslovakia] and Brazil still won. We’ve lost a very important figure, our main reference, but perhaps Fred may step up and become a more important player for Brazil......... “I believe we will win [against Germany] because I believe so much in our national team.”


Friday, July 04, 2014

Brazil All The Way

Brazil star Neymar out of the World Cup with fractured vertebrae
Brazil's team doctor says Neymar will miss the rest of the World Cup after breaking a vertebrae during the team's quarterfinal win over Colombia...... Neymar was kneed in the back by Colombia defender Juan Camilo Zuniga in the second half of Brazil's 2-1 win, and was in tears when he was carried off the field on a stretcher...... He was taken to a local clinic and team doctor Rodrigo Lasmar said after the match that the star striker had broken his third vertebrae...... Neymar is the Brazil's biggest star and has scored four goals for the team so far in the tournament..... Brazil plays Germany in the semifinals on Tuesday.



Brazil advances to World Cup semifinals with 2-1 win over Colombia
Brazil dominated in virtually every statistical category, especially possession, controlling the ball nearly 60% of the time. Despite that, Colombia appeared to have tied the score in the 67th minute when Mario Yepes scored after a wild scramble in front of the net....... But the goal was waved off by an offside call. And moments later Luiz made it 2-0 -- a score that proved important when Colombia finally got on the scoreboard with a penalty kick in the 80th minute. Not surprisingly the goal came from James Rodriguez, who leads this World Cup with six scores........ The victory might yet prove to be a costly one, though, since Neymar, Brazil's star playmaker, left the field with a back injury in the 88th minute.


World Cup 2014: Brazil Beats Colombia in Quarterfinal
Streets across the country cleared out when Brazil played, but they nevertheless filled with invisible noise that streamed from restaurants and homes. Fireworks sizzled in every major city to announce every goal, every win. And after the games, the music was turned all the way up again....... The party continued, even louder, on Friday night. Showing its most spirited performance yet in this quarterfinal game, Brazil dispatched an upstart Colombia team, 2-1, in front of a deafening sellout crowd at Estadio Castelao....... The team this summer has only ever had one goal: to win its sixth World Cup trophy in front of its home fans. The next step will come Tuesday, when Brazil faces Germany in a mouthwatering semifinal matchup...... After Brazil squeezed past Chile in the Round of 16 last week, emerging from that game only after enduring a nail-biting penalty shootout, several players collapsed to the grass in tears. Whether it was acceptable for the players to cry so much became a matter of public discourse here. .... Colombia had become the darlings of the tournament while playing an upbeat brand of fast-passing soccer, scoring copious goals and celebrating them with unbalanced joy. If Brazil was the team with everything at stake, Colombia seemed like the team with nothing to lose.



World Cup: Brazil: Still Wobbling, Still Winning
In the space of 10 anxious minutes on Friday, the Brazilian fans inside the Estádio Castelão watched the beginnings of a nightmare unfold...... Colombia pulled within a goal. Then Neymar was stretchered off with a back injury. If the Seleção was going to throw away a two-goal lead and this quarterfinal, this is how it would unravel...... Goalkeeper Julio Cesar, the hero of the round of 16 ..... For its first trip back to the final four in 12 years, Brazil will face Germany on Tuesday in Belo Horizonte after Die Nationalmannschaft's 1-0 victory over France. It will be their first World Cup meeting since the 2002 final, when Brazil sealed its fifth World Cup title. And ever since then, the sixth has been a national obsession. ..... All isn't perfect. If Brazil is to punch its ticket to the final at the Maracanã on July 13, it will have to do it without Silva, the team's captain, who will miss the semi because of accumulated yellow cards. And Neymar's status for the next game, after a knee to the back, wasn't immediately clear. ..... In a week that the mental health of the Brazilian players became a matter of national concern, it wasn't their brains that fans should have been worried about. It was their hearts and lungs and legs. Inside the throbbing Estádio Castelão, the two sides produced the most frantic half-hour of the World Cup. If Germany-France was a controlled exercise in tactical efficiency, this was a pickup game on fast-forward. ..... The Seleção played physical soccer, clobbering Colombia's playmakers when it needed to, and broke with powerful runners all over the field. ...... Colombia's Rodriguez, one of the lights of the tournament, had the space to carry the ball for one solo run of nearly 40 yards—but only once. The rest of the time, Fernandinho and his midfield cohorts used any means necessary to close him down. Rodriguez, 22, wouldn't worry Brazil again until late. ..... Goalkeeper David Ospina strung together enough saves to keep Colombia in the game for a few mad breaks of its own. In the first breathless 30 minutes alone, the teams combined for 27 so-called dangerous attacks, according to FIFA statistics. .... But the only trace of them on the scoreboard at halftime was Silva's seventh-minute goal. Neymar curled in a corner kick from the left that eluded both sides as it shot through the box, until it hit Silva. Unmarked at the far post, he knocked it in with his knee to push the already-deafening noise inside the stadium to something like a space-shuttle launch....... Make no mistake, Brazil remains a flawed team. The side doesn't have a forward who can keep up with the invention of Neymar—Fred, Hulk and Jo have hardly captured the imagination at this tournament. And the defense is shaky. Its calamitous handling of a second-half free kick, which wound up with Colombia putting the ball in the net, was only absolved by the an offside call......Brazil flirted with elimination before the quarterfinals. Chile was inches from knocking out the Seleção in extra time with a shot against the crossbar....... The tears several players shed before that shootout were the trigger for the national conversation about the Seleção's mental strength. As the nation wondered whether its team could cope with the weight of 200 million fans, Scolari found himself defending everything from Silva's captaincy to his use of a sports psychologist...... There were plenty more tears after the final whistle on Friday, too. But once more, Brazil had held its nerve.



Brazil, Germany set up semifinal at World Cup
Brazil-Colombia didn’t quite live up to its pre-match billing as a battle of two brilliant goal-scoring young talents — Rodriguez and Brazil’s Neymar. ..... Rodriguez put Colombia on the score-sheet and made the last 15 minutes very uncomfortable for Brazil with a coolly-taken penalty that took his tournament-leading tally of goals to six. ..... Incredibly for two powerhouse teams that have won eight World Cups between them, the Germany-Brazil semifinal next Tuesday in Belo Horizonte will be just the second time the two nations have met at the showcase tournament. Brazil won the first meeting: 2-0 in the World Cup final of 2002. ..... Brazil will be without Silva, its captain, against Germany after he picked up his second yellow card of the tournament for a foolish foul on Colombian goalkeeper David Ospina. Brazil also has injury worries with Neymar, who was stretchered off after Juan Zuniga kneed him in the back.



















































Thursday, July 03, 2014

My July 4th Weekend Plans: World Cup Soccer

But of course.

Google predicts France, Brazil, Argentina and Netherlands will win. I agree with three of the four. But I don't see how Germany could lose. We shall see.

But if France does win, Brazil will beat them to go into the final. To meet Argentina? I hope.