And while we're on the topic before I dive into some pretty somber writing, the game yesterday was definitely a surprise. I already had a feeling that Brazil would not fair as well considering that their best striker AND their captain were unable to play, but I never fathomed the outcome to be that bad. I wonder if the absence of the captain was the major contribution to the frantic and unorganized method of playing, or was it really the lack of strategy and authority of the coach? I rule out the idea of Neymar making that much of a difference because, despite his status as the "best striker on the Brazilian team", let's face it — he looks as light as a feather and evidently, gets knocked down a lot when he does have possession of the ball (and I mean more than the average soccer player). All I'm going to say is, with offence like that, I don't think it greatly affects the fact that the team poorly defended whenever the Germans had a chance.
I know that I was cheering for Germany, but I still felt kind of bad for Brazil. It was a brutal and uncharacteristic loss, especially when they were at 0-7 at one point. I feel only a bit of remorse for them however, since I noticed that a good amount of their fanbase would cheer for whatever team was opposing Argentina, which I felt was kind of bad sportsmanship...
Anyway, onto the last point...
controversial: Right from the get go, there's been a buzz around the World Cup Stadiums in Brazil, before the actual commencement of the games. There are 12 stadiums in all, which is quite extravagant already (an estimated $14 billion...). It's no surprise then that a number of locals were unhappy with the way public money was spent just to host the games, especially when there are other more important things to spend that money on. In addition to that, World Cup had the same criticism that Sochi had for the Olympic Games — the construction was rushed, with parts of stadiums unfinished and posing possible safety hazards for spectators and players alike. The construction of the World Cup stadiums and roads has also forced a number of Brazilians to evacuate their homes in the slums, which makes their lives even harder than it already is. Of the twelve locations, one of them, Arena da Amazonia, is in the middle of a rain forest. Yes, it's being built on top of an old stadium site, but it's a waste overall since not many world cup games were scheduled to be played there, and there seems to be no plans of letting Brazilian league teams play in it afterwards.
That's only before the games.
As for the actual games, obviously there's the usual biased refereeing (lack of foul calls, penalty calls, etc), but the one topic that was on fire started with this:
So let me get this straight. Suarez gets banned from FIFA and other soccer related events for 4 months and has to pay a fine of 100,000 swiss francs for his rule infringement, and yet, the Columbian player who kneed Neymar in the back has no penalties whatsoever? How does that even make any sense?! I understand that biting is a very serious offense, but he bit Chellini's shoulder. A bitten shoulder is not going to end Chellini's soccer career. Neymar on the other hand, "was scared after the incident because he couldn't feel his legs". If Neymar's back had suffered even more serious injury, he could've been crippled for life pretty much. The saddest part is that he's only 22, with many many many years ahead of him. Had his career ended now, it would've been a tragic loss not only to the world of soccer, but to himself as an individual and a relatively new father *workplace safety and hazards video quietly haunting the back of my mind*. I understand that the Columbian player most likely didn't intend to hurt Neymar that much (heck, when I was watching that game, it didn't look that serious at first), and well... I don't even want to try to analyze what Suarez was thinking at the time, but FIFA should really step back a little and think of the more dire consequences. Yes, Suarez has repeatedly bit people (I totally called it when I first heard about him three years ago.... couldn't stop calling him a vampire since), but where has he been biting them? They were all at the shoulder area, not the legs and not the face. As I said before, it's not gonna leave the victim with a possible abrupt end to their soccer career. Honestly, I just feel that any serious injury to the legs should cause a fine, cause that's the body part that a soccer player needs to cherish at the end of the day.
Somewhat unrelated, but this got me empathizing a lot for today's game...
The poor guy lost his tooth! :(
Hopefully he won't get beaten up during the finals...
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