In the very last minute of extra time, Dominic Adiyiah headed what should have been the winner for Ghana. The ball, without doubt, was going in. But Uruguay striker Luis Suarez got in the way – with both hands: “The best save of the World Cup," he said later, not the hand of God, “the hand of Suarez.”
It was a decision that would keep Uruguay in the World Cup and would change many lives forever. Suarez was sent off and Ghana was given a penalty. The penalty before the penalties, as we know now. When Ghana’s forward Asamoah Gyan was about to take the shot, a whole continent held its breath. Seconds later, the silence in and outside of the stadium was eerie - after he had only hit the crossbar.
After crashing out of the World Cup today, Brazil - as yet another big football nation after Italy, France, and England - will have to reinvent its brand of football and build a new "golden generation" of players.
Interesting piece on "Soccer and Snobbery" by Theodore Dalrymple in the New English Review (hat tip to @axelletess), examing the ramifications of the French World Cup fiasco on French society and civilization at large...
My favorite paragraph:
"The decerebrating effect of football (and no doubt other sports as well) is illustrated by a story that my French brother-in-law told me recently. A couple of months after France won the World Cup in 1998, he went to Tibet. He went to a Buddhist monastery that was two days hard trek from the nearest road. There he met young novices, some of whom spoke a few words of English. They asked him where he was from and he told them.
After today's dramatic 1-4 defeat against Germany, English fans will complain about their disallowed goal, while German fans will argue that it was the long overdue compensation for the controversial English "Wembley Goal" in the World Cup 1966 (see video below). As you can see below, at least for today, there is clear evidence that it was not a goal.
If you examine the history of football for groundbreaking, "game-changing" innovations, you realize they have been scarce; by and large the game hasn't changed much. Some innovations resulted from a changing of the rules (on the macro-innovation level, if you will). Most of them, however, were truly driven by either organizational or individual excellence: for example, the position of the "Libero," the "sweeper" before the goal-keeper, who, freed from marking a direct opponent, was mandated with opening a team's game from deep in its own territory (German legend Franz Beckenbauer perfected this role in the '70s); the allure of the "playmaker" (personified by the French Michel Platini in the '80s); the introduction of a three-man defense row in the '90s; the "Sweeper-Keeper" performing the defensive actions of a libero; the increased importance of the "6," the defensive holding midfielder; and the Dutch "Total Football" concept with its fluid, attacking 4-5-1 and 3-2-5 formations.
“Writing about football is like dancing to architecture,” one might be inclined to say, slightly paraphrasing Elvis Costello. In other words: it’s tough. The “beautiful game” comes to life in the moment it is experienced, either in the stadium or in front of a screen, alone or with others. And while the seminal games live on in the collective memory of fan communities, cities, regions, and nations, ruthlessly dissected by an army of self-proclaimed pundits who squeeze the last ounces of magic out of football in their data-obsessed post-match analysis, football has always been more about the here and now – because, as we’ve seen so far in this World Cup, anything can happen. So it is not surprising that amidst the flood of football literature there are only a few books, in my eyes, that really capture the beauty of the game. Here are three of them.
The New York Times calls the relationship between Argentina’s national coach and legendary player Diego Maradona and his star player Lionel Messi a “complicated tango,” but, hey, a tango it is! Just take a look at the breathtaking resemblance of these two famous goals and the synchronicity of the players’ movements (Maradona’s goal against England at the World Cup 1986 – still considered the best goal of all times – and Messi’s goal in a Primera Division game against Getafe in 2007).
What does it say about the World Cup when the most beautiful football is played by the Germans? Is the quality of the competition so low or are the Germans so good? After the 4-0 thumping of the Australians, pundits are heaping praise on the "Mannschaft" and declaring it (somewhat prematurely) to be the favorite for the title.
No one really knew what to expect from Joachim Loew’s young side (average age is 24.5), but the Germans are, as former national coach Juergen Klinsmann put it on ABC, “always ready when it matters.” Well, we’ve known all along that the football god is at least half-German, and no one has described the deeply rooted respect for German teams better than Gary Lineker’s famous quip: “Football is when 11 men play against 11 men and Germany wins.”
Welcome to the kick-off of Total Football, our special World Cup blog!
With the FIFA World Cup in South Africa starting on June 11, we’re launching a group blog devoted to covering the world’s largest sport event through a unique design and innovation lens. Up to the the final on July 11 in Soccer City in Johannesburg (game 64, as the true fans call it – by the way, you can still purchase tickets here), we will leverage our global network for this effort (thus sticking with the global “football” vs. the American “soccer”) and feature perspectives from Asia, Europe, and the US. At least three of our studios are located in countries that can be considered serious contenders for the trophy (Netherlands, Italy, and Germany – no, not the USA! :)).
