Four people are lounging in the office on a Saturday evening. Two of them manage to land entry passes, for the most eagerly awaited party of the decade, just in the nick of time. The other two, perhaps in an unexplained flash of magnanimity, give their two joyously departing colleagues all their money, so that they (those leaving) can have the best time ever. They are then left to spend the rest of the weekend stranded at the office, wondering throughout, why they took the trouble of landing up on a Saturday in the first place. This perhaps, in some manner, captures the mindset of the teams, beginning a match for the third place at the World Cup. Just about nobody wants to turn up. For both Holland and Brazil, the nations which began this match last night, it was clearly a heartbreaking step down in their ambitions, from merely a week ago. Yet Brazil should have had more of the incentive. This was an opportunity to leave the nation with at least some sort of a memory, post the horror of the semifinal. But the manner in which it began, it only seemed the nightmare had been briefly paused for a few days. With no semblance of defensive intent, Brazil succumbed to the rampaging Robben who sliced through, only to be pulled down outside the box. The referee who had an off day to say the least, saved Tiago Silva the red card, but gave the Dutch a penalty, which Van Persie emphatically converted. If that criminally lax moment was not enough, David Luis helpfully nodded a perfect assist in his own box for Daley Blind to thump past Cesar. The Netherlands was two nil up in no time. Blind ran down to celebrate with his father (the famous Danny Blind) in a poignant moment, though another example of shambolic defending, brought more memories of Sunday picnic matches more than anything else. Brazil awoke for a while, especially through Oscar who toiled without reward throughout the night. He should have had a penalty in the second half, instead was shown a yellow card for his troubles. But while they tried, the fluency was sorely missing. Brazil, so renowned the world over, for the silken touches and the imaginative cobbling of moves together, looked laborious and uninspired. This World Cup more than any other, will forever be remembered as the one where Brazil worked at football. It was almost as if they had been condemned to exile, in their own homeland. Close to the end, Robben astute reverse pass to Janmaat on the overlap, saw the Dutch defender square the ball to Wijnaldum, who superbly beat Caesar with a soul crushing third goal. The Dutch had deservedly won the bronze medal. Only about a month ago, if one was told a team would decisively beat both Spain and Brazil, it would be likely ones response would be, ‘And then they became World Champions right?’ This has been a month of tectonic shifts in the world order, and the Netherlands after doing all this, only end up with bronze. In fairness, they were found lacking in the previous two matches at the really big moments. Their reluctance, to boss the game against Argentina, eventually cost them the chance to finally change Holland’s wretched history of falling short at the big one. Still they might savor the milestone, of going through the entire tournament without losing a match. Whatever the state of the profit and loss statements at the end of things, and even if financially this tournament has been a resounding success; this tournament will go down as Brazil’s worst World Cup ever. On the face of it, fourth place isn’t all that bad for most. It is never adequate, however, for Brazil. Not in its own backyard. Given the way things have turned out, Brazilian supporters are dreading the final. If Argentina wins it, it will be the absolute icing on the cake of Brazil’s crushing disappointments of late. And looking at the turn of events for the yellow clad, over the last week, this is a distinct possibility. It only needs a little man to stand tall…
Posted on: Sun, 13 Jul 2014 05:47:20 +0000
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