Highlights from a casual observer of the World Cup

That I am a casual observer is obvious from the fact that we do not have Astro subscription, and I do not go to the public places to watch with friends. As an example, when Netherlands played against Brazil, I knew about the results (2-1) from TV3's midnight news! Then I watched the delayed broadcast of the game. It was sheer determination of Netherlands team which was 1 down, and yet managed to win, maintaining their all-win record for this World Cup.

Where it was available on national television, like last night, I watched how Argentina was humbled by Germany with 4 goals! Who was being punished but the 'Hand of God' Maradona as coach who went into the game changing his tagline to 'Will of God', watching in despair.

Incidentally, in the match Uruguay vs Ghana (which I did not stay up to watch at 2.30am), Suarez says he deliberately stopped ball with his hand and was 2010 version of the 'Hand of God'! His reflex action of stopping the ball from entering the goal mouth, maintained the draw at 1-1, which was decided by penalty shoot-out, which Uruguay won 4-2. With the benefit of hindsight, it was an excellent decision on Suarez's part, though it left an unpleasant after taste of abusing the rules.

Having skipped the earlier games, I don't think I have missed much. From Quarter Finals onwards, the lesser teams would have been knocked out, leaving behind the really good ones. Big names like Brazil and Argentina have given way to better teams like Netherlands and Germany.
While Netherlands has unbroken record of winning, Germany stood out as top scorers. It will be interesting to watch if they were to be playing each other in the Semi Final or even the Final.

There are so many variables which could affect a team's performance: fitness of the good players; fitness of the opponent's players; reliability of the referee and linesmen; suspension of good players; and so on. For those with yellow cards, the coach has to decide whether to field them, for fear of being sent out with a red card and without a replacement. Where it ended in a draw, the team with good penalty shooting skills would be at an advantage, but the intense pressure could change all that!

It is surprising to note that the westerners are as superstitious as us when it comes to football. The most interesting was the belief that the teams supported by Mick Jagger seemed to be losing one by one: USA, England and Brazil!

I noticed girls seem to have different preferences for supporting certain teams. For eg. 'because of the good looking players in the Spanish team'!

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