Sports

Sleepless Music

Crystal ball-gazing time. Who’ll star in 2014? Indeed, who might win the Cup?

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Sleepless Music
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Almost four years after Spain’s magical night at a freezing Soccer City, the greatest sporting show on earth rolls into Brazil, the spiritual home of the beautiful game. As always, the road to Rio has had its share of spills and upsets. For every star player whose team did not make it—Zlatan, where are you—there are new stars like Belgium’s Adnan Januzaj who could shine on the biggest sporting stage. For now, there will be the usual arguments about team draws, squad selections and on the form book. But the truth is, no matter who should also have been in Brazil, and no matter how feverish the preparations may still be, some highlights are preordained. The western media will gripe about the ‘unpreparedness’ of Brazil as host—this is a hardy perennial of all World Cups outside Europe; local colour stories will feature samba parties, the beaches of Rio and the Amazon rainforest, and the gloomier lot will do their best to dig up problems in the favelas; stereotype-spotting will remain a key spectator sport—our commentators will mangle consonant-rich names, which are sorely in need of emergency humanitarian assistance in vowel supplies; TV crews will have a field day focusing on comely spectators in the minimum of clothing permissible by law and the weather (in Brazil, there will be wider latitude in defining such norms); new stars will be hailed and big football clubs will beat a path down to their doors, cheque-books in their hot little hands; one or two European teams will be “upset”, and we will have calls to use technology to eliminate human errors. We can also predict that the whining won’t necessarily come from the Group of Death (Group G: Germany, Portugal, Ghana and usa).

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And, of course, FIFA will declare this World Cup the best ever.

Even without these sideshows, the talent on display is spectacle enough. For any neutral football fan, the prospect of first-round ties featuring Germany vs Portugal, Italy vs Eng­land and Spain vs Netherlands is a treat. It is of course far too early to speculate over which teams are in their best form, but there are early straws in the wind. One way of analysing a team is to look at how it is structured, and figure out if it has the mix right.

A really successful team is a lot like a really good rock band. The crowd heroes are the forwards, the lead singers of the team. Think Messi, Benzema, Ronaldo, Balotelli, Suarez, Eto’o, Rooney, van Persie, Falcao or Neymar—barring the phlegmatic little Argentine, this is a list of showy stars. It’s a no-brainer to suggest that on form, many of these names are candidates for the ‘golden boot’ award.

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The thinking midfielders are the lead guitarists; they control the tempo and flow of the game. A creative midfielder, thinking on his feet, can adapt a plan on the fly to swing a match. An ageing Pirlo is still a sublime tactician, as are Iniesta, Xabi, Hernandez, Ozil, Schweinsteiger, Ribery, Ramires, Willian, Mascherano and di Maria. Some great play and sharp passes will flow from creative Croatian boots—Modric and Rakitic—the mercurial Russians and Marc Wilmots’ new Belgian side, whose midfield features Hazard, de Bruyne and young Januzaj, or the exciting new midfield talent from Ghana, Afriyie Acquah.

The bass players are the defenders, enforcers who keep their teams going. Teams that can shut down the opposition offence and energise the midfield will ensure that the battle is fought towards the opposition half. The Spanish, French and Italian backlines remain strong, if a bit on the wrong side of sell-by dates. The physical German, British and Brazilian backlines will be hard to break, although there are questions about their susceptibility to attacks at speed.

And goalkeepers are the band’s drummers. As the only players with a vantage view of the ebb and flow of battle, they’re the vital pulse running the game from the field. Usually, their vision is a bit like Cassandra’s curse—they see what’s coming, but usually no one believes them. Star keepers are a commanding presence in marshalling their team. The best ones are Casillas, Buffon and Neuer, but others come very close: Tim Howard of the US, France’s Hugo Lloris, Bel­gium’s Thibaut Courtois, Tim Krull on the Orange side and England’s Joe Hart.

On this basis, which teams will be on song? The form book puts hosts Brazil, followed by Argentina, Spain and Ger­many as the top picks. But there may be surprises on the way. All four have vulnerable points—what Brazil lacks in attacking flair compared to Arg­ent­ina, the latter lacks in defence. On their day, hig­hly rated teams such as Italy, Portugal and Holland could pick off any opponent. The Dutch have done that more than once with the fancied Brazilians, including in 2010; they might meet again as early as the second round. Korea put Italy and Spain on the plane in ’02. And Colombia, Belgium, Chile, Uruguay, Croatia, Eng­land, Japan, Korea, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana and Nigeria are fully capable of upsetting the form book.

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Statistics, superstition and sentiment suggest that this is Latin America’s turn, but Europe’s strongest teams are well-placed to break their Latin American jinx and finally win one Cup in that hemisphere. In any case, such speculation will start becoming redundant in less than two weeks, when the first whistle blows. Which reminds me: two weeks is time enough to stock up on sleep; Indian fans will need every bit of it, as a ridiculously inconvenient time difference brings us games in the witching hours before sunrise. And so, I plan to become a recluse. If I ask very nicely, my wife will even let me have the guest room TV remote control. In which case, you’re invited, but as long as you bring the beer. And a bonafide doctor’s sick leave letter.

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Doraiswami is a football fanatic and a serving IFS officer. He writes on sports in his private capacity.

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