And so it goes!

Finalement, the number gradually drops. From a total of 32 teams that started the tournament, only 13 teams are left. By the time the round of 16 is over, only 8 would progress till a winner emerges.
So far, 4 European teams are remaining, after tonight's game maybe no African team will be left.
The game played earlier on today between France and Nigeria, showed that teams should make good use of their chances or be severely punished.
Bravo to Costa Rica for enduring such a side  as the Greece team. While the Brazilian side went through their teeth. The Oranje men pressed hard till they got their reward. Columbia dealt with Uruguay.
This is Brazil and the excitement just started.

Fair Ruling??

With the recent ban on Luis Suarez, its now a total of 34 games Suarez is been banned for the same offence. Should he be pitted or not? Had the official in charge of that game( Italy vs Uruguay) acknowledged the incident and given a red card or warning card, would FIFA had increased the punishment by additional 6-game ban and 4 months global ban in the game followed by non entrance to any stadium in the world?
What this means for Suarez is; he will not be able to play for his club Liverpool till October, he might not play for country side for probably 18 months and a fine of 100,000 francs swiss which he has to pay.
From this point, I don't want to be in anybody's head but, for how long will a person commit same offence till he will be seen as dangerous to himself and others as the biting Suarez?
Personally, if a person is not able to control his/her emotions in their respective jobs not once not twice, then such a person should be given a leave of absence and take care of his/her emotions. But, this is Suarez. Shame.
If  it were to be an African player(I don't want to sound racial) would FIFA have taken the same measures or, it would have taken stiffer measures? Well who knows these things?
At this moment i don't want to be a Luis Suarez, the world's attention is on him. I'm sure countries like England and Italy are not contented with FIFA's ruling on him.
But, if he does these things on purpose then he should have gotten more but if not, no option than to say, this is a suffering man.

Passion or Pay???

A lot of razzmatazz is going on in Brazil, the latest being the news of Kevin Prince Boateng and Sulley Muntari of Ghana. These two players have been sent home by the Ghana FA for gross indiscipline in their training session on tuesday. There have been speculations that the footballers planned to boycott their last group match against Portugal due to their appearance fee brouhaha.

Before this recent news from Ghana, Cameroon had similar issues with appearance fees. This was followed by a show of disgrace by some players on the pitch in their game against Croatia.

Leaving the matter of discipline and the lack of it aside, as it seems that not only African players are undisciplined‎ after all we saw a world class player like Suarez employing his teeth on another player.

What is the issue with this appearance fees saga? Why is this issue pertinent to only the blacks on the African continent? Who is to blame?

Same issue rocked the SuperEagles camp last year prior to the kick-off of the Confederations Cup. Now other nations' boats are rocking with the same problem.

Why do the nations FAs keep the appearance money meant for the players in their coffers? And why do the players also make a big deal out of just a small fee as appearance money?

Is football as we enjoy it all about money? Or, shouldn't passion supercede money? Its just so annoying if one must say.

As it is now, i guess the Ghanaians should arrange their luggage, because there's no way they can advance to the round of 16 with such a matter arising from their camp.

In between, BlackStars of Ghana played fantastically against the German team, thinking we were going to see a wonderful display today. Well your guess is as good as mine.

What went wrong???

When the World cup in Brazil kicked off, Spain (La Roja) was set to defend
their 2010 title. It was all looking good when the likes of Santi Carzola,
Juan Mata, Da gea to mention but a few were listed in the 23-man squad.

Peeeeeeeee! Of goes the whistle as La Roja played against The Netherlands
(Orange Men). As the First half rolled out, Diego Costa was fouled in the
18 box thus Spain was awarded a penalty kick, Xabi Alonso took it and
scored. Not more than ten minutes later, Robin Van Persie scored an
equalizer and from that Point, the game change, La Roja ended the game in
defeat with an abysmal score line of 1-5. Thus 'tiki taka finally not
paying off for La Roja.

* What is tiki taka?*

This is a form of tactics where a false 9 is adopted, where opponents are
left chasing shadows, where the ball is held up in the midfield, more like
a geometric pattern-making and opponents are bamboozled.

The Spanish side used *tiki taka* for a period of six years and thus
Barcelona adopted this system of play.

Spain is the best football country in the world (not sure this will be the
same after this tournament) for six years, they dominated the football
scene with *tiki taka*.

Then came 2013, Jose Mourinho did a sort of decoding of tiki taka on the
Barcelona team, Bayern Munich also did a double(Champions League
semi-finals)on Barcelona. At the Confederations Cup, Brazil beat Spain to
clinch the title. And ever since *tiki taka* has been questioned. This
become more critical when the Barcelona team did not clinch any title in
the just concluded football season.



* Now how did it all go wrong?*

One thing is for sure, there is no perfect system. Thus Spain could not
have remained a champion for life. Therefore, what can be pointed out is
that;

Fatigue has set in followed by the aging of the engine room of Spain in
the likes of Xavi Hernandez, Andres Iniesta and David Villa who are 34,30
and 32 respectively.

Football as a whole needs energy, and tiki taka as a tactic demands such energy. And
these players have passed their peak.*

The lack of an alternative playing pattern is also negative for the Spanish
as if plan A fails, a plan B should be introduced, but this is not the
case of the Spanish champions.

It’s sad seeing a reign end so abruptly. Whatever the case, we will miss
seeing *tiki taka*, Will there be a replacement of the tactics in Spain or
will they improve on what is on ground??
Adios tiki taka, Adios!

Na only Spain waka come??

Brazil vs Mexico's game was like a world cup final. Mexico's goalee was so on point.
Another cracker was the Australia vs Netherlands. Whoop! Australia gave the Orange Men a run for their money, even though the lost 2-3 to Netherlands. In this group, its likely the Netherlands are the first to qualify  for the Round of 16.
From my last count if 15 goals, the tally rose to 54 as The Orange Men made it so....
The question on my mind is na only Spain waka come? Chile trashed them 2-0. Making it 7 goals conceded by the defending campiones. Hmmm this is embarrassing one must say.
So, the defending campiones are the first to exit the world cup. What a twist.

So far, not bad.

With over one million eyes glued to their television screens, the Super Eagles of Nigeria and their Iranian counterparts last night decided to play one of the most boring games so far in the ongoing 2014 world cup competition.

One sure thing is that the Eagles didn't play to their strength and Iran's plan was to park the bus which worked perfectly for them.

After this game came the black stars of Ghana against the USA, the players from the US came with revenge in mind and they got what they wanted with a 2-1 win over Ghana.

That said, the German machines massacred the Portuguese with a 4-0 win and Thomas Muller scored a hat trick making it the first  hat trick so far in the competition, with Kareem Benzema of France coming close to doing that against Honduras.

It looks like the Netherlands, France, Germany and Brazil are having a good tournament judging by their first games.

Furthermore, Costa Rica had a good game against Uruguay, because such a score line wasn't anticipated coming from a goal down and ending up winning the game.

With or without my national carrier (Super Eagles) I am already having fun in this competition, I hope you are doing same.

Pouring Goals Already!

Who could have imagined what The Orange men did to La Roja in the name of revenge was the shellacking of 1-5.
A defending world champion, the best team in the world in the last 6 years... Hmmm this is wickedness in the high places.
 first African nation to participate in the tournament didn't  fare better loosing 1-0 to Mexico. With the indomitable not playing the part, well we can only wish them luck.
With actions from yesterday and the opening game, Brazil and Mexico tops group 1, while Netherlands and Chile tops group 2 respectively. And, a total of 15 goals has been scored in just two days.
As more fixtures follow today, are we going to see more goals like we did yesterday or not? Well I'll leave it to your imagination.
Bon weekend!!!!!!

What were you expecting?

Ooops! Croatia burst our bubble last night. That was some opening game an own goal from Marcelo and thus making history(ouch, that must have really hurt).
Well, give or take Brazil did the
scoring and what did Croatia do? Croatia played well and someone mentioned "they deserved to win this game." But of course we all know how games turn out to be. Suffice me to say at this point that no host country has lost an opening game. Without doubt, the officiating wasn't fantastic and the referee could have done better but please, this is football and these scenarios are what makes this game tick. Well done Brazil but there's still much work to be done.
Today's fixture involves an African country, the indomitable lions of Cameroon against the El-Tri of Mexico. We can only wish our brothers from Central Africa the best.
Also, in play today is Spain vs Netherlands as the Orange men seek revenge against La Roja. Finally, Chile vs Australia is in action today.
The paparazzi has started already and I hope it continues.

Finally here!

The 20th edition of the Federation I*nternationale* de Football Association
(FIFA) World Cup kicks off today in Brazil. And I'm positive football
lovers are excited. This competition saw 31 nations qualify. From the
friendly games played before this competition kicks off, it is worthy to
note that some countries are more prepared than others.

With Brazil kicking off the competition against Croatia later today, we *are
definite to* get the best of soccer tonight as 'Samba' boys meets 'Vatrenis'(The Blazers).
Finally, what is topmost in the minds of Africans is, when will an African nation lift the most prized trophy on Earth? This year? Definitely not(no pun intended).

As the drums roll out tonight from Sao Paulo all to Rio De Janiero on the 13th of July 2014, may the best team win it.
On this note, I officially welcome you to my blog!!!

With the World Cup on us, I say bien venue. This is the arena for the show of world's best and flops. Just as I'm looking forward to this event its obvious you peeps feel same.