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.

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