[ 2013-12-17 ]

Analysis: World Cup finals cast long shadow over 2013
The World Cup finals are not taking place until
the middle of next year but they cast a long and,
at times, disturbing shadow over Brazil and the
world of soccer in 2013.

As countries battled to qualify for the finals,
Brazil was convulsed by protests in more than 100
cities about the vast amount of money being spent
to stage the tournament.

Angry Brazilians targeted the Confederations Cup
warmup event in June to gain maximum publicity for
their grievances about the paucity of government
funds for health, education, public transportation
and welfare while billions were being spent on
stadiums.

The building of those stadiums has caused no end
of problems too, falling behind schedule to cause
more headaches for world governing body FIFA and
Brazil’s World Cup organisers.

An accident which killed two workers in Sao Paulo
in November means the stadium being used for the
opening match in June will not be ready until
April. Fan violence at Brazilian championship
matches is another worrying development.

The authorities are under no illusions about what
could happen off the field next year, but what may
happen on it will preoccupy the rest of the
world.

Under Luiz Felipe Scolari, Brazil are emerging as
favourites to win the World Cup for the sixth
time. Victory on home soil would go some way to
alleviate the pain of what is still regarded as a
national tragedy – failing to win in 1950, the
last time the World Cup was held in Brazil.

Scolari has spoken at length about how the crowds
at the Confederations Cup inspired players like
Neymar, Fred and Paulinho to take the trophy with
a scintillating 3-0 victory over world champions
Spain in the final at Rio’s Maracana.

Spain will be back to defend the title they won in
South Africa in 2010 and attempt to become the
first European side to win a World Cup in Latin
America.

Vicente del Bosque’s side qualified comfortably,
coming through their preliminary matches unbeaten,
and remained top of FIFA’s world rankings
throughout the year. But Spain face tough
competition from Brazil and the improving South
American sides of Argentina and Chile, and also
from much closer to home.

EMERGING GERMANS

This year’s outstanding European side were
Germany who ended the international year on a high
while Bayern Munich regained the European club
title.

Joachim Loew’s youthful squad cruised through
their World Cup qualifying campaign, winning nine
and drawing one of their 10 matches to raise
expectations they can become world champions for
the first time since 1990.

Ranked second to Spain in FIFA’s world list,
Germany’s inventive midfield boast attacking
talents like Mesut Ozil, Mario Goetze and Thomas
Mueller and are able to take the pressure off a
sometimes less than impressive backline.

They ended the year with a 1-0 win over England at
Wembley, the same venue at which Bayern beat
Borussia Dortmund 2-1 in an all-German Champions
League final full of drama and attacking football.
The game had a twist in the tail as Arjen Robben,
who missed a penalty when Bayern lost to Chelsea
in the 2012 final, scored his club’s late
winner.

Bayern, who also claimed the German title and cup,
and Dortmund had emphatically proved Germany’s
club superiority over Spain in the semis.

Bayern thrashed Barcelona 7-0 on aggregate while
Dortmund beat Real Madrid 4-1 in the first leg to
go through 4-3 on aggregate. Whether these results
reflect a switch in the balance of European power
from Spain to Germany will be seen next year.

FERGUSON RETIRES

There was a shift in power at another of
Europe’s great fortresses when Alex Ferguson
retired after almost 27 years as Manchester
United’s manager.

In a career unlikely to be matched for the
foreseeable future, Ferguson, who first came to
prominence at Aberdeen in the early 1980s, won 49
trophies as a manager, including 13 Premier League
titles and two Champions League successes.

Ferguson’s departure, after United were crowned
champions, left former Everton manager David Moyes
in charge and his first few months proved
problematic as the Old Trafford club struggled to
keep in touch with the Premier League leaders.

Another exit from the English game could herald
the start of a new era – at least that is what
Real Madrid are hoping.

In August they paid a world record fee of 86
million euros ($117 million) for Tottenham
Hotspur’s Welsh midfielder Gareth Bale who
joined the previous most-expensive player,
Cristiano Ronaldo, at the Santiago Bernabeu.

Real had lost out to Barcelona in the La Liga
title race and parted company with their manager,
Jose Mourinho, as a result.

Lionel Messi of Argentina and Barcelona, who won
the World Player of the Year award for the fourth
time, and Portugal’s Ronaldo continued their
battle to be regarded as the greatest of their
generation, but another man surpassed their
achievements.

In September Ronaldinho helped Atletico Mineiro to
the South American championship meaning he
completed the golden trio of winning the World Cup
(Brazil 2002), the Champions League (Barcelona
2006) and the Libertadores Cup.

Another player, or now ex-player, involved in many
a big money move was David Beckham, who called
time on his career at the end of the 2012-13
season at title-winning Paris St Germain. Beckham
is now looking at buying a franchise in the United
States, where a once-great club was reborn this
year.

New York Cosmos, the trailblazers of the old North
American Soccer League (NASL) with Pele, Franz
Beckenbauer and Carlos Alberto in the 1970s,
returned to action after an absence of almost
three decades and won the title in their first
season.

Two tiny soccer-playing nations were happy for a
brief appearance on the world stage. In January,
Cape Verde Islands reached the African Cup of
Nations for the first time and fought through to
the quarter-finals before losing to Ghana.

Tahiti, the Oceania champions, qualified for the
Confederations Cup and came up against Spain who
beat them 10-0 at the Maracana in one of the more
unlikely competitive internationals of recent
times.

Source - Reuters

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