Waiting for the Football Feast: The Joga Bonita v/s Tiki Taka

As expected, the FIFA Confederation Cup is moving towards a final between two Football powerhouses –Spain and Brazil. There was no miracle so far and not expecting anything in the final too. Japan played good football but forgot to win. Mexico did justice to their talent but was not sufficient to reach in the Semi. Performance of Nigeria was not up to the mark for any African country who are regular in World Cup finals. Italy appeared in the Confederation Cup as a second best in the Europe and ended up as second best in the group, behind Brazil. Uruguay, the Latin American Champions forgot their role and aspiration in this tournament. They are one team produced a crop of talented players recently in World Football. They are blessed with the best striking pair in the world football –Cavani and Suarez, still they looked up to ageing Diego Forlan’s contribution to reach semi final. It is not a good sign at all.

Murder –is not a term used in football writings. But, in this edition of confederation cup, performances of Nigeria, Spain and Uruguay in the group level were murderous. All three other teams pumped two dozens of goals against this minnows of world football. Spain used their best players against Uruguay in their first match but decided to field second rung against Tahiti and Nigeria and showed them they are far ahead in football terms.

Now, semi-finals are also over. Brazil defeated Uruguay but I don’t want to call it as a revenge of 1950. Uruguay also played well and the lost penalty of Diego Forlan mattered a lot in the final result. In the second semi-finals, the repeat performance of Euro finals –Spain against Italy was thrilling performance. Italy without their star/controversial striker Mario Balotelli struggled to find the net but succeeded in stopping Spain from goal. In fact, the match statistics says Italy had more shots on goals than Spain had more saves in the 120 minutes match.

Now, only two teams remaining to fight for the cup. Remember, those who won the Confederation cup rarely repeated the same result in the world cup. So, whoever wins whether the host or the existing world champion –and it matters. Both of them have enough capacity to meet again in the finals of world cup and both Luiz Felipe Scolari and Vicente Del Bosque are trying to be the second person to win World Cup twice after Vittorio Pozzo.

Match between Brazil and Spain will be interesting because of the contrast in their playing method. Brazil is not the old romantic small passing dribbling Latin American football team whose approach was known as joga bonito. They become pragmatic and added re-instated defensive methods which they adapted from European football. On the other hand, Spain will closely follow the Tiki-Taka of Barcelona, which was effective for more than last five years. So, the World’s Derby – as Spanish goalkeeper referred Iker Casillas –will be a feast for football lovers.

As a host, Brazil prepared well for the curtain riser of the World Cup and come out with a strong and young team. Protest against the government is continuing on one side but Brazilian passion for the beautiful game will ensure their support for the successful run towards the World Cup finals. Let’s hope the protests will bring better results – socially, economically and footballistically[i] for the Brazilians.

---

[i] A word coined by Arsene Wenger some years ago. Meaning –in terms of football. 

Confederation Cup –What, How and Why?

Confederation cup football tournament started on 15 June in Brazil. This twenty year old tournament is known as the curtain riser for the World Cup and was started as King Fahd Cup and later adopted by FIFA and named it Confederation Cup. It was running as a tournament which occurs every three year, but from 2009 onwards FIFA decided to make it every four year and planned it happens one year prior to the World Cup year. It is considered as a dress rehearsal for the host country to prove its preparedness to conduct the real one. In 2001 it was held in South Korea and Japan where 2002 World Cup was held and Germany and South Africa hosted 2005 and 2009 tournaments who were the World Cup hosts for 2006 and 2010 respectively.

What is the relevance of this Confederation Cup? Is there any extra significance carried with it? Or, it is just a money making effort by the International football federation?

The first couple of years it was organised by Saudi Arabia not FIFA and it was a bye-pass for Saudi football team to compete with the champions of all continents. Before the takeover by FIFA it was known as King Fahd Cup and the takeover in 1997 renamed it as Confederation Cup. It was held in a gap of three years initially and in 2005 FIFA made it every four year and positioned it just one year ahead of the World Cup. The international football governing body fixed the same venue of the next World Cup finals for the Confederation Cup. The tournament is based on competition between the Champions of each divisions based on 6 FIFA continental zones (Asia, Africa, South America, North and Central America and Caribbean, Europe, and Oceania) and the winner of World cup along with the host nation. The loser in the game plan was Saudi Arabia who lost their privileged position as organiser and later lost their position to Japan who started dominating Asian football region. 

In the beginning, none of the football powers were serious about Confederation Cup. Many of them thought that it is a meaningless exercise on the tight football calendar and considered it as part of FIFA’s greed. Three times European Champion and 1992 UEFA cup winner Germany declined its participation twice and 1998 World Cup winner France declined to participate in the 1999 edition of Confederation Cup. 2006 World Champions Italy approached this cup without any seriousness and lost in all matches in the first round itself and went out. On the other hand, Brazil took it seriously each time and won the cup thrice. Italy is lucky to participate in the 2013 edition of Confederation because Spain the winner of UEFA championship is also holding the status of World Cup winner. Italian defender Giorgio Chiellini put his words to show the seriousness of Italian team for the present edition by saying... "Four years ago in South Africa we didn't approach [the Confederations Cup] properly and we paid the price," and "being together for a month provides a great chance to improve – we know that now.(Doyle, Paul June 2013)"

Slowly and steadily, FIFA gained the confidence of powerful football nations for the Confederation Cup. FIFA made it sure that the Champions of the regions will definitely whether they are big or small countries, with or without football tradition, will appear for the Confederation Cup. Tahiti’s participation makes this edition of the tournament more beautiful. They are the champions of Oceania region who overcome New Zealand, traditionally powerful football nation in the region. Africa is emerging as the football production house of European leagues and the green brigade of Nigeria represents the region. Japan is representing Asia for many years in this tournament but it is difficult to find another one to replace them at this movement.

Interestingly, there are some facts saying that the winners of Confederation cup won’t lift the World Cup. In 2005 and 2009 editions the winner was Brazil but they failed to perform similarly in the followed World Cups. France won the Confederation cup in 2001 and 2003 editions but both were after their World Cup and UEFA Cup victories. Spain won their second European title in 2008, appeared in 2009 edition of Confederation cup and satisfied with third place. But, they used this experience for the next World Cup, held in South Africa, and repeated the show in 2012 European Championship by winning both.

If Spain win this Confederation Cup in Brazil, then their team manager Vicente del Bosque will end up as the most successful manager in Spanish history. If he repeats his world cup success in Brazil, he will end up as the most successful manager in World Cup history. This is not the time to discuss such things and there is a long way to go for Spain and other countries to be there in Brazil 2014.

Relevance of Confederation Cup is nowhere near to any other tournaments organised by FIFA. Yes, football lovers will watch the game but not with the enthusiasm for World Cup, Euro or Copa America. In India, the land of Cricket, IPL and controversies the media is least bothered about Confederation Cup. Still, it has some relevance just because it brings the champions of all football zones along with the world champion Spain and great football nation as host –Brazil.

P.S. Vicente del Bosque was kicked out by Florentino Perez, the Chairman of Real Madrid in 2002 by saying his style is very old and ineffective. Real Madrid won two Champions League titles under his management in 2000 and 2002 and they were the last for them. Perez openly said that Del Bosque is not the person to handle his valuable ‘Galacticos’ and need to move ahead with modern managers. Result –Real Madrid never won any more Champions League trophies after Vicente del Bosque and they saw nearly a dozen managers passed through the revolving door of the club. During last one decade, only twice they managed to win league championship that also with the managers who prefer to follow negative tactics – Fabio Capello and Jose Mourinho.  

India’s Lost Opportunity: Football World Cup 1950

Brazil has won more Football World Cups than any countries in the world but they were forced to wait for more than six decades to get another chance to host the finals of the ‘most beautiful game in the world’.  Now, it is less than one year to go and preparations are reaching in the final stage and expected everything will be ready by December 2013. Qualifying rounds are still on and the world is sweating to see the list of countries participating in the finals. As hosts Brazil is already there but the defending champion has to qualify through the rounds in Europe. Who will be missing this world cup badly???

The question is quiet absurd at present but I have my own answer and the one and only answer is my own country India. If Indian football lovers know the reason, they will be more disappointed. Yes, India had a golden opportunity to represent Asia and play in the World Cup finals held in Brazil in 1950 and it did not work out in favour of India. As a myth, we all heard that we were qualified to play in the World Cup but FIFA did not allowed Indian team because of their inexperience in playing football with boots. Now, the World Cup is back in Brazil but India is nowhere near to the final qualifying round from Asia.

In 1950, there were few countries who could afford to fly down or sail up to Brazil and participate in the World Cup. FIFA made it clear that two berths were booked for defending champion and the host country. Economic and political conditions of post World War II were not supportive for any big event. Colonialism was continuing and entire Africa was completely missing from FIFA’s list. They were ready to accommodate some participation from Asia and kept two berths for them and approached four countries by invitation.

India was one among that and the others were Burma, Philippines and Indonesia. FIFA expected among these four two will come up through a qualifying round but the later three withdrew from the tournament before qualifying round and India remained as last hope for the representation from Asia. One argument is India was not in a position to afford the financial liabilities of travel and boarding of their team. It was not complete true. FIFA was in a desperate condition and were ready to bear the travel and other expenses of Indian team. For the organisers, it was more important to get representation from the largest continent.

All India Football federation, the apex authority of Indian football that started well before Indian got independence, played a big role in the absence of India from the tournament. They lost a golden opportunity and that opportunity never returned to Indian after that. The withdrawals forced FIFA to keep only two teams in a group for the league round and Uruguay gained maximum out of it. AIFF cited financial difficulties as the reason for the withdrawal of India from the tournament. The later research says that it was not financial difficulties but ‘disagreements over team selection, and insufficient practice time’ were the true reasons.

In fact, AIFF was now aware about the importance of World Cup and they felt that participation in Olympic is more superior thing to do. Sailen Manna, one of the most respected Indian football player who played in 1948 and 1952 Olympics once opened his mind about the lost opportunity of 1950. He accepted that ‘we had no idea about the World Cup then. Had we been better informed, we would have taken initiatives ourselves. For us, the Olympics was everything. There was nothing bigger’ (Cronin, 2011). We can’t blame that generation for lack of information but AIFF failed to correct their ignorance in the later years. If 1950 was an offered opportunity, in the later years, we could have gained a berth by winning qualifying rounds but failed to cross the qualifying round. FIFA increased the number of berths for each continent and increased the number of teams in the finals to 32. Still, to qualify for the 32 is a distant dream for Indian football.

Brazil approached 1950 World Cup with its own way of football romanticism. They prepared to lift the cup in the final in front of more than 200,000 spectators in the famous Maracana stadium. They expected that they are the best football team in the world but the final result was against them. Uruguay, the first winner of World Cup defeated Brazil in front of the biggest crowd ever gathered to watch the final game. Brazil has moved ahead from this tragedy and imposed themselves as the most successful country in the tournament history by winning the cup five times.

Brazil is going to host the World Cup second time in 2014. Brazil might be the fourth country getting second chance to host World Cup finals second time and this time they decided to be realistic and left the romantic approach of 1950s in the mid way. They decided to bring down the capacity of Maracana stadium from 200,000 to 75,000 and brought back Luiz Felipe Scolari, the Cup winning manager of 2002 World Cup edition, to win the cup in their own land.

PS: Football becomes a universal game with more followers than any other sports event. I quote our bureaucrat turned famous short story writer N.S. Madhavan ‘if football is a religion, it will be the biggest religion in the world with maximum number of followers’.