Protest against Football: Response of Brazilian Passion

Confederation cup is over but not sure about the protests in Brazil which started along with the tournament. May be, the victory in the final match worked like an aspirin or cocaine that will make you to forget the real pain for some time. In media, the protests went to inner pages and the news of victory splashed in colours in the front page or in the last page where sports news is located. The protesters have nearly one year left for their preparation before the big event- World Cup finals. In the mean while, the government can change its approaches and accommodate the demands of the people in its welfare policies.

Brazil did very well throughout the tournament. Before the Confederation cup, they had friendly matches with England in Maracana and ended up in a draw. It was the beginning of their team building process and by the final of Confederation Cup, they found their rhythm and strengths, gelled as a team and ended up as one of the best team in the world. As the host of coming World Cup, Brazil doesn’t have to play qualifying matches against Latin American countries and this tournament helped them to have a preparation round. The Confederation Cup victory was their declaration towards the football world that they are ready for the big stage.

Victory against Spain is celebrated very much in the media. Some declared that it is an end of tiki-taka game and of course, the end of Spanish domination. Yes, they lost to Brazil for a big margin which was unexpected. But, the statistics says they were not clinical and ruthless but had better position and number of shots. People were confused with the game of Barcelona, where tiki-taka is more used, because of the dominant presence of Barca players. But, they forgot the fact that the Spanish manager is not from Barca school and he played for and managed Real Madrid team who have completely different game plan. In Madrid, he trained Luis Figo, Raul, Zidane and won the Champions league twice but not with tiki-taka game.

It is quiet immature to write off the chances of Spanish team in the world cup and it is same by saying Brazil is the best team in the world based on their performances in Confederation Cup. This tournament had just 8 teams and the finals of the World Cup will have 32 and all of them except Brazil will play against equal forces and book their berth. Uruguay and Italy gained experience from this tournament and definitely will come up with better teams. Germany, the emerging European football powerhouse will be a contender for the cup. The performance of two German teams in the Champions League finals –Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund –cleared the doubts of the world about German football’s reincarnation.

Argentina will appear with a better team in the finals and one can expect a better performance from Messi in this World Cup. Can’t we expect a repeat show of 1986 this time by Messi? A distant dream but the Argentinean team is capable to do better this time. We are not talking about the other teams from Europe. Most of the former East European teams are not very successful in the World Cup history but they can harm any giant team. Remember Croatia of 1998, Bulgaria of 1994 and Romania of 1990. If we go through the tough European leagues, we can see an emergence of new talent from countries like Croatia, Serbia, Czech Republic and Slovakia. After a long period of talent drought, Belgium became a production house of talent. May be, for the next world cup, we can expect a proper challenge from them. 

The waves of protests were receded by the final day of the tournament. Not sure, whether it was because of the intervention of the Brazilian government or just because of the Brazilian passion for football, especially when their own team were playing in the final. Report says, more than 90 percent of the spectators in the legendry Maracana stadium were supporting Brazil and shouting for them. No wonder, Spain lost that badly in the final. If they can repeat the show in the World Cup and the Brazilian passion for the game extends its support like this, the opponent won’t be able to do anything.