Despite all the drama and fuss of refereeing woes, constant din of vuvuzelas and unpredictable flight of jabulanis, this world cup has gone on predicted lines. Fight between European and South American football, peppered with African and Asian mix here and there.
African teams have shown promise except for Nigeria which really had a poor show. SA, Ivory Coast & Ghana have made themselves count. Asians also have done whatever they can do at this stage.
For Africa and Asia it is still a distant dream to find the best mix of flair and strategy. Africans have plenty of flair but they have lacked quality long term coaches. Asian teams are yet to produce an international star in football which goes to show the flair deficit to a large extent.
Quarterfinal games have shown that in big games execution of strategy and flair bot are needed to seal the games. Brazil faltered on account of strategy against Netherlands and same was the fate of Argentina against Germany.
Germany look like the only team with perfect blend at the moment. Some of the goals against Argentina reminded me of scoring moves in field hockey. The way they took the ball from the flanks to inside of the box without trying to put in high crosses is just a like field hockey move designed to score or atleast create penalty corners. Argentina was not able to close the gaping hole on their right flank through out the game and paid the price with 4 goals.
With the semi final line up of Netherlands, Germany, Spain and Urguay, an all European final is very much on the cards. Germany vs. Netherlands final would be worth watching!!
