After one week, a lifetime of memories
GEORGE JOHNSON RIO DE JANEIRO — So far, so good. No, actually. So far, so very good.
After a fairly dour go of things four years ago in South Africa, the World Cup is making a spirited comeback. Outside of the Swiss jolting a snoozing Spain awake in their group opener four years ago, FIFA’s first, puzzling, trip to the African continent for its centrepiece event suffered from a dearth of hypnotic matches, blinding individual performances and a general malaise that was hard to explain.
And oh, those vuvuzelas ...
Brazil has made a much better first impression.
The lead-in, though, could hardly be described as inspiring. A litany of unfinished stadiums, citizens enraged at the US$11-billion price tag, the usual laundry list of FIFA corruption charges. Concern over the heat and humidity, particularly up north nearer the equator and worry over the distances between some venues.
Stun guns were used during a clash between police and an estimated 50 angry Brazilians enraged by the money being lavished on this World Cup by their government hours before the first game in Sao Paulo.
Then the ball was kicked off.
Brazilian prodigy Neymar lit the fuse, scoring twice to send 61,606 at the at the Arena Sao Paulo into raptures. The harshly done-by Croatians doubtless wouldn’t agree, but a host city storming out of the gate always helps a build initial momentum in a long tournament such as this.
’Tis a pity about the absences of Franck Ribery and Falcao and the ‘owies’ to Cristiano Ronaldo, Marco Reus, Gianluigi Buffon and others. Still, memorable tournaments are defined by memorable turns by memorable names. Neymar, tantalizing appetizer. Then two Dutch masters, Robin van Persie and Arjen Robben, running roughshod over a stupefied Spain, each netting a brace apiece. Mario Balotelli in encouraging form and on his best behaviour in the withering humidity of Manaus against England. Andrea Pirlo, typically sublime. Two goals from Champions League-winning star French striker Karim Benzema to open his account.
Fancy spirited comebacks? Try Ivory Coast rallying to cut down Japan. Keen on heart-seizing late-game drama? Look no further than Haris Seferovic’s gamewinner on the last kick of the game Sunday for the Swiss to stick unfortunate Ecuador on a spit.
Surprises? Holland finding a way to beat Spain, not so much. Holland running absolute riot 5-1 over La Rojas? And how. How about Costa Rica dismantling the Uruguayans, the outside choice of many analysts here? Come-on-ya-gotta-be-kidding-me.
Fond of comedy? FIFA president Sepp Blatter went all Mork from Ork in one of his addresses, claiming that football would one day be played on other planets (when in fact, the way it’s being run here on earth at the moment should be more of a concern to him).
Already we’ve witnessed a few goals that’ll rate highly in the hunt for best of the tournament when July 15th rolls around. Van Persie’s looping header to leave Iker Casillas stranded. (“It is the best goal of my career,” he later. “It was a brilliant goal — even I have to say that.”) Robben’s wonderful pulldown out of the darkened Brazilians skies to score. Pirlo’s artful dummy on the edge of the box to open oceans of space for Claudio Marchisio’s strike.
And the matches have all been of pretty good to very high quality. Not a Japan-Paraguay trance-inducer in the lot. And on tap Monday, the prospect of German efficiency testing itself against the individual panache of Cristiano Ronaldo and Portugal.
The legacy and folly of this endeavour, crunching the numbers and the benefit (fat chance) to the host country will be there for everyone to assess, to scrutinize, to break down, when the teams are long gone.
For now, front and centre, what’s caught the attention of the world, is why we fall in love with the World Cup in the first place: Enthralling football.
Just think, only a week in. If this is what we can expect of the rest of Brazil 2014 ...
More. Please. Pretty please.