Despite many problems with the preparations of World Cup 2014 in Brasil, the sporting event itself has been so far a success. Not only the amount of goals scored has been so far the highest since 1958 World Cup in Sweden, but the level of play has been quite good, to say the least. Moreover, until today, there were only two draws out of twenty-three matches played, and only the match between Japan and Greece did not bring any goals. Prior to the outset of this World Cup, as every football aficionado (I detest the term soccer so I use European English word: football), I chose my eight favorites, among which I could see the future champion: Argentina, Spain, Germany, Netherlands, Italy, France, Colombia and Belgium. So far, only Spain disappointed, bowing out of the tournament after two games played. It appears that after eight years of constant successes and three consecutive major titles, the Spanish national team lost its hunger; I believe Spain will quickly regroup and will be among the contenders for Euro 2016 trophy. Out of the remaining teams, my sentimental favorite is Argentina (although I am hugely impressed so far by France, Colombia, Netherlands and Germany), for two reasons: firstly, I would like to see Lionel Messi to crown his outstanding career with the Rimet Cup and secondly, Argentina needs badly some consolation in their current economic situation, complicated by the recent ruling of the United States Supreme Court which took side of the vultures hedge funds in their fight with Argentina's government, stemming from the past monetary crisis and unresolved bond issues, what might cause bankruptcy of the whole country. In my opinion Leo Messi is the greatest player who ever played football, but for the sake of detractors who list Pele and Maradona as the greatest footballers ever, because among other achievements they managed to win the World Cup, Argentina's successful World Cup 2014 campaign would finally shut up all the detractors, mostly English journalists and football fans, denying Messi's greatness. Regarding England, they fared precisely as I have predicted by losing consecutive games against Italy and Uruguay, and just today they were kicked out from this world cup by Costa Rica's win over Italy. I do not know what it would take for the English to realize that they are average footballers, just like Ukrainians, the Poles, Norwegians or Swedes. England happened to be a host of the World Cup in 1966, and as a host nation happened to win that World Cup 48 years ago, thanks to the referees' help (in quarterfinals against Argentina and then, in the final, against West Germany - when Soviet referee awarded England with a goal that never was, as the ball did not cross the goal line). It beats me how can the English ahead of every world cup ( to which they qualified) herald to the world that this time they are about to win it when their footballers have such limited technical skills that they are unable to stitch several passes together and have problems with basic control of the ball? It is the highest time for the English to learn from the Dutch, Germans, Spaniards, or Belgians how to properly teach the kids basics of technical skills. The English footballing philosophy is to take big and athletic boys and to make them into footballers (tackle, run and shoot), whereas all over the world the policy is to find skillful technically boys and only then those talented are being developed further technically, athletically and tactically. The English support their pretenses with claim that their Premier League is the most competitive league in the world yet they conveniently omit to mention that in the top 7 Premier League teams an English player is a rarity (Manchester City, the current Premier League champion, fields only an English goalkeeper in its starting 11); take out the foreigners from premiership teams and you are left with nothing but mediocrity. Apparently, England had everything they needed to win this world cup: 72 person entourage including psychiatrists, nutritionists, turf specialists, industrial fans, heat chambers and individually tailored recovery drinks. I wonder about the valiant but poor boys from Costa Rica, do you think they had a shrink in their entourage? England, its the time to finish your personal recriminations, leave alone your coach as he is the best and the most experienced you have, stop to blame Steven Gerard and start your basic work with the kids, by copycatting the Dutch or the German models. Then, perhaps in 16 years from now, you can dream again about wining the World Cup or Euro. Good Luck!
Janusz Andrzejewski is a New York City based attorney, writing on legal and other important community subjects. You can contact him by telephone at (212) 634-4250 or by e-mail: janusz@januszandrzejewski.com
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