World Cup Diary – July 3

Oranje!! They have done it, haven’t they? After being mocked for almost a week since I made it clear that not only was I a die hard Dutch football fan, but that I also believed their game was good enough to stop the supposedly rampaging Brazilians, the Dutch have pulled through in their quarter final in a manner which must have seemed surreal even to them for a while. Indeed, the Brazilians and their coach Dunga’s reaction after the final whistle was one of stunned silence. How did they manage to lose that one after looking so comfortable in the first half?? I was trying to tell anyone who cared to listen that in recent times, Brazil have proven capable of turning on the style against average to good teams, but when it came to the very good or great teams, they lose their way and don’t seem to have enough options when the going gets tough. In this world cup and the last ones, they have beaten Australia, Japan, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Chile. All good teams, but not of a class of the French who Brazil ran into in the last world cup or the Dutch who eliminated them here. Over here too, once the Dutch started making their intent clear in the second half, Brazil started to lose their way and their heads. Robben must have been the most fouled player in the whole match, and Melo was deservedly sent off, while Bastos should have been earlier. Once Sneider scored the second goal, Holland could have had more. But there were some great glimpses to their heyday of Joga Bonito in the first half. Kaka had a wonderful shot which was excellently saved by Stekelenburg. It would be only later that we would realize the full importance of the save and how it kept the Dutch in the game. But my favorite was when Maicon almost scored with a thunderbolt of a shot from the right, in a move similar to the goal scored by Carlos Alberta in the 1970 final against Italy which is in some circles considered the greatest world cup goal ever. But at the end of the day, Oranje are in with a chance at long last to exorcise the ghosts of world cups past.

The other quarter final, between Ghana and Uruguay, turned out to be an even more dramatic affair in the end with Ghanaian (and African) hearts broken after a topsy turvy period of extra time. An excellent free kick by Forlan had equalized Sulley Muntari’s speculative long range goal and things seemed even till the final minute of extra time. Till Ghana won a free kick in the last moments of the game. The ball was going in, but an excellent save on the line by… Luis Suarez? He was deservedly sent off, but when Asamoah Gyan blasted his penalty (the last kick of the game) on the crossbar, Suarez tears turned to joy and everyone knew that he had probably saved his team by giving them the chance to fight it out in the shootout. And, as expected, Ghana’s young players stumbled and Uruguay were through. Though the happiest must have been the Dutch, since Uruguay will now be without a number of their first choice and especially without Suarez, a potent weapon. He may be a hero in his country, but does he deserve harsher punishment for the blatant handball that broke a million African hearts ultimately? Gyan showed great spirit to come back and slot the first penalty for Ghana in the shootout, but he was inconsolable at the final whistle. I hope he can get over this. He may not be among the best rated strikers in the world, but the heart and verve he showed during this cup for Ghana will be one of the enduring images of this world cup, as his goals played a major part in Ghana reaching here. His passionate discourse after Ghana beat Serbia in their first match and his celebratory dance jigs after each goal and victory point to someone who wears his heart on his sleeve more than a lot of the illustrious names supposed to shine here. But Ghana will get better. Their performance here is, if anything, a major bonus as it was built around the team that won the Under-20 championship last year. As by their own admission before the cup, their main focus was the 2014 tournament in Brazil. If they can maintain the core of this team and keep developing, expect them to be a major force come Brazil 2014. We need more of Gyan and his kind to keep the premier sporting event alive for the ages.