The Day After: July 14, 2014 – A Sad Day In Football

 

It’s not sad in the sense that Germany took home the honours as World Champions (which they fully deserved). Sad in the fact that we all woke up this morning knowing that the FIFA 2014 World Cup is over. We had the same feeling 4 years ago when we couldn’t hear Vuvuzelas.

So, rather than lay in bed and mourn the end of the best World Cup we have seen since France ’98, let’s look back at some of our favourite moments.

In no particular order:

1. James Rodriguez.  What a standout player this young boy is. He is only 22 years old and will, without a doubt, carry a big price tag if Real want to bring him to the Bernabeau from Monaco.  James was the Golden Boot with 6 goals (more than CR7 and Wayne Rooney’s WC tally, combined!) and was a huge factor in every match they played. And who can forget that goal against Uruguay in the round of 16.  Pure quality.

 

2. Speaking of Uruguay, the twitterverse can’t thank Luis Suarez enough with giving bloggers, writers, and the general public alike the material they needed when he took a chunk out of Cheillini’s shoulder.  What was this boy thinking….again??

3. Goals! Goals! Goals!  This World Cup saw a record tying amount of balls hit the back of the net. There were some beauties in there too.  Van Persie started a new craze called Perseing with his flying header against Spain.

 

There was Cahill’s volley, David Luiz’ sizzler against Colombia, James Rodriguez’s brace against Uruguay,  Messi against Iran and Messi again against Bosnia. And of course, Miroslav Klose’s 2 goals to make him the Top Scorer with 16 celebrations.

4. Belgium v Tim Howard.  In one of the greatest games of the World Cup this year, Tim Howard of the USA stopped almost everything he saw as he set a World Cup record for saves in a match.  Eventually Belgium won in extra time, but this match will go down as a World Cup classic.

5. Germany 7.  Brazil 1.  The shock of the tournament.  The streets of Belo Horazinte were flooded with tears in the semi-finals as Brzil were steam rolled on their home turf.  There were plenty of images (and jokes) that spread around the glob from this game, but one that summed up the game the most was that of the old Brazilian man hugging his trophy knowing that he won’t get to see his beloved Brazil team win the World Cup on home soil.

So long World Cup.  It was fun while it lasted.  Only 1426 days till Russia 2018.  But don’t fret, only 33 days till the Premier League starts again!!