What’s so special about this World Cup?
After a near-lifetime of World Cup disasters, the beautiful game is finally where it should be.
Say what you like about England being the ‘home’ of football. The fact is, home or not, Brazil is where football really belongs, and after near on 30 years of watching the World Cup being hosted by some of the least appreciative countries imaginable, the World Cup is finally in a place where we can all breathe a sigh of relief, sit back, and be treated to a spectacle that is the greatest party on the planet.
Flashback 30 years…
The World Cup in 86 was the closest, and only one I can remember to being a decent tournament. Remembered for moments like the first Mexican Wave and Portugal’s surprise win over England. Add to it Lineker’s fantastic hat=trick against Poland, that Hand of God, and of course Maradona’s general all round amazingly tricky runs, and we had everything we needed from what a World Cup should be. However, what stuck out most was: Hugo Sanchez, badly cut grass, far-too-short shorts, and the wildest of crowds. Can we do it in Mexico again please?
If Maradona inspired me to play football, then in 1990, it was the England team that pushed me to love it.
Growing up in Portugal to an English football-loving father and Portuguese mother, I was allowed the privilege of being able to support 2 teams at a World Cup. They say when you break up in a relationship, there are a number of emotions you have to go through before you can fully recover; well the same could be said for my deep loving passion for football. The 2 emotions that where lingering in oblivion for me, were finally found when Gazza’s tears brought me the sorrow, and Chris Waddle’s spooner brought me the anger. It all led to me asking myself that fateful question… Why? Why is the world so unfair to some of us? Why am I feeling this way? And why did they let the mullet-man take a penalty?
All these questions filled me with anticipation and a zest for something new. In fact, those ‘wonderful’ years should have been the beginning of something spectacular. A life of love, ecstasy, and passion for the greatest sport on earth. Only for everything to take a nose-dive into a pile of shit at USA ‘94. England never made it to that World Cup, and it was probably just as well. Diana Ross epically failed to score that pen at the opening ceremony, and the rest of the tournament was history.
Played in front of a people who’d rather watch men dressed in padding hit each other, the tournement turned in to a sad and sorry affair. Maradona was so distraught, he had to take drugs to get through it, the final ended up a goalless draw — the first time in World Cup history — and the Colombians shot one of their own players for scoring an own goal. One to forget then.
Shooting through the next 20 years, France 98 sucked, simply because France won, and 2002 wasn't even on Earth… was it? Germany made a good attempt at hosting one the most boring competitions in 2006, that was until 10 minutes from the end of it all, when Zidane finally lit it up by doing something interesting, and finally, in 2012, the should-have-been-banned Vuvuzelas prompted people to actually watch the world cup with their TV’s on mute. A first, at least.
And so now it’s time. Time for the World Cup to be brought back from the ashes and to be reinstated to it’s former glories of ‘86 and ‘90. The World Cup in Brazil is what it’s all about. The love for the game, the passion for the fans, the lust for an inspiring step-over and trick, and the thrills and highs of proving to the world that your team, whichever team that is… is the best in the world. If you win in Brazil, you’ll be immortalized as one of the truly greats in the sport. In fact, I’d even go as far as saying this should probably be the last ever World Cup so we can avoid any future disappointments.
Bring it on!
