Best Goals of 2014 World Cup

World Cup gathers the best players in the world, these players are able to score magnificent goals. 

Football fans always enjoy a great goal. It is always particular to score in World Cup for any player, because there is not a lot of games in the competition and there is a big pressure. People won't forget you were the man who qualified their country in the next round. 
Some goals are part of World Cup history and even if they were scored more than 40 years ago people are still talking about them. Maradona's hand goal is one of them. 
There are always great goals scored in this competition and this World Cup was no exception, in my opinion there was 3 goals which were absolutely brilliant.
My favorite goals were scored by David Luiz, James Rodriguez and Robin Van Persie. 

3rd: David Luiz against Colombia on 4 July 2014.

The Paris-Saint-Germain's center back was elected Man of the Match after the win against Colombia and his goal is reflective of his performance. The first goal was scored by his teammate in club and in national team Thiago Silva, he scored himself the second before James scored the last one. Brazil won this quarter-finals 2-1.
You can see the terrific free-kick scored by the Brazilian nicknamed "Tahiti Bob" in reference to his hairstyle.

2nd: Robin Van Persie against Spain on 13 June 2014.

RVP is captain of Netherlands team, he plays for Manchester United and he is known as one of the greatest striker of the World. His team were losing 1-nil before the genius Robin Van Persie scored that awesome goal. The final score was 5-1 for Netherlands with other beautiful goals. We can see Van Persie flying before he scored that header. I have never seen a similar goal. In live it looked even more crazy ! 

 

1st: James Rodriguez against Uruguay on 28 June 2014.

In this game the Colombian play maker scored twice for a 2-nil win, along the competition he scored 6 times.

To me the former Monaco's player scored the best goal of 2014 World Cup. We can see with this goal that his touch is brilliant. When he received the ball nobody expected him to shoot because he received it with his back to goal. It is very difficult to score in such position but he has shown once again that he is a great player.

PS: You can find a presentation of World Cup at the end of my blog.

Best players of 2014 World Cup

The 2014 World Cup organized by Brazil was a success. There is no question about it. Players, goals, stadiums have made the greatness of that World Cup. Some have already been into the World Cup history as the player Miroslav Klose with his 16 goals in the competition and the Maracanã stadium inaugurated in 1950 for the World Cup in Brazil. Players as James and Neymar have entered in the World Cup history thanks to their contribution on this 2014 World Cup, they played in Brazil their first World Cup.

To me the 3 best players of the 2014 World Cup were:

*  3rd : Manuel Neuer 

The 28 year-old German goalkeeper was terrific during the whole competition he never shook !
His club is Bayern Munich and he won the 2013 European cup, the famous Champion's League.
During the competition he maid brilliant saves. He managed to avoid an equalizer goal in the round of 8 against France at the very end of match. He his a deserving world champion.

Neuer against Benzema in the last seconds...

* 2nd : James Rodriguez 

James Rodriguez is the best scorer of the competition with 6 goals and 2 assists in only 5 five games.
The Colombian playmaker was absolutely brilliant ! He leaded the Colombian squad until the round of 8. Deprived of their former best player Radamel Falcao Colombians put loads of expectations over Monaco's player. His ability and his touch have impressed everybody, his magnificent performance during the World Cup has enabled him to join Real Madrid in July for 80 millions €. He was only 22 during the World Cup but his mentality was older.

James also know how to celebrate a goal

* Best player of the World cup : Thomas Muller 

Germany have Thomas Muller on their squad and they must feel lucky. I wish this great player was French. He is born to win trophies. He scored 5 goals and 3 assists. His contribution over the victory of World Cup is undeniable, he destroyed Portugal alone with a hat-trick which means 3 goals in 1 game. He was 24 in Brazil when he won the World Cup for the first time. In Bayern Munich he is an established player and his seriousness has allowed Germany to win his 4th World Cup. 

Nothing can stop the German Gladiator

This is my personal ranking of top players but you can find the official one in the FIFA official website http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/index.html .

An outstanding Germany

Suarez is the player associated with the proper name 2014 World Cup and Germany is the team.
Argentina got Messi, Brazil got Neymar and Colombia got James. In Germany team no-one stand out of the team, in the pitch there was eleven superstars at the German side, eleven Messi, eleven Neymar, eleven James.
Every game a win, every game a new hero and every game a confirmation of the squad's greatness.
Who could have predicted Germany's victory?
In fact everybody could have. According to reports Brazil was the only team which could compete the "Mannschaft" before the beginning of the competition. 
There is a famous quote of Gary Lineker, an English former footballer that define well Germany team "Football is a simple game; 22 men chase a ball for 90 minutes and at the end, the Germans always win".

 

And the winner is...

Germans deserve their win, they began with a big win, 4-0 against Portugal which is a decent team. They continued with a 2-2 draw against Ghana and finished 1st of Group G with a 1-nil win against USA. In round of 16 Germany faced Algeria, everybody expected a sweeping victory of Germans. However Algerians played with their hearts and surprised everyone by facing down the strong Germans. This night Algerians have endeared all football fans not only Algerians supporters. But Germany was too  powerful and eventually won 2-1 after extra time. Then it was the sad win against France which propel them into semi-final.
A big opposition, Germany faced Brazil, the organizing team and winner of 5 World Cups.

A memorable historic game !
Germany 7, Brazil 1. Germans slaughtered the Brazil national team and tens of millions people were behind their telly to attend the greatest humiliation of the World Cup's history.
Here come the final. Germany faced a great Argentina with players as Messi, Aguero and Mascherano. Yet Germans can beat whom they want and Argentina was not better than them. Götze scored the only goal after an extra time. 1-0. Germany are World Champion !
Moreover during the 2014 World Cup the striker Miroslav Klose became the best scorer of World Cup History ahead of the Brazilian Ronaldo.
I wish I was German after the final whistle of Argentina's game. What a feeling it must be to become World Champion !
I was jealous of Germans players, even their girlfriend are the best ! 

Götze, man of the match against Argentina

France: the satisfaction, England: the disillusion.

  In every famous sport events England and France are expected to win. We can't deny that they are two big nations of sport. During the World Cup people watched the both of them with many expectations.

France team during the 2014 World Cup

  Since the arrival of Didier Deschamps as France manager in 2012, there is a kind of renew in the French team. The appearance of loads of new young players and the retirement of the oldest are the main causes. French were sick of supporting a team that was not up to playing for such a football nation. France have won the World Cup in 1998 at home. This World Cup was the place and the moment to reconcile French and "l'Equipe de France".

England players in their white outfit

  As regards England the situation is quite different. England owns the best football's club's league in the World which is the Barclays Premier League. Never, since the 1966 World Cup, have England won a trophy. However English supporters never abandon their team, even when they hate it they love it at the bottom of their heart. Players as Sterling and Henderson made in Brazil their first international competition and English had thought they could bring the team at the top.

Benzema nicknamed "Benzegoal"

  France 98 was obviously far away from Brazil 2014, there was no Zidane, no Petit, no Barthez but Deschamps was still here, as a manager, and his team had nothing to envy to the other team. France was the favorite to finish 1st in Group E. It faced Honduras, Switzerland and Ecuador. France have impressed during the tournament, they first beat Honduras 3-nil and then gave Switzerland a footballing lesson with a 5-2 win. What missed in French team since Zidane retirement was a leader.
During the whole competition Benzema behaved as a leader scoring 3 goals and giving two assists.

 After a 0-0 draw against Ecuador, France faced Nigeria in round of 16. At the final whistle the score was 2-nil, for France of course. I was so proud to be French after the game! And I still a proud Fench today. This win, even more than the other, had an influence over the French citizens' mood. People where happy at home, at work, everywhere... We won our place for the quarters-final. Next game was against Germany, the France's adventure came to an end. Germany won 1-0, it was not a shame knowing that Germany was the stronger team of the tournament. All in all it was a decent tournament by France team, Deschamps and his players have managed to regain the Frenches confidence.

Hummels scoring the only goal for Germany

England team started in a much stronger group, they were expected to fight for one of the two qualifying positions with Italy and Uruguay. None of them feared Costa Rica.
Italy was the first team to face England and to beat them with a 2-1 win. Roy Hodgson's team was even more under the pressure after that defeat. They had to get at least a draw against Uruguay but Suarez was too big that night and gave alone a new defeat to the Englsih men. With two defeats in two games, England was out of the competition. They finished with a sad nil-nil against Costa Rica and went home with an impression of non-achievement of the expected results.

Hodgson, the England manager, was frustrated with only 1 point in 3 games
 

Hero to Zero

Luis Suarez is the man of the 2014 World Cup.
He plays for FC Barcelona after having left Liverpool FC this summer.
The 27 year-old Uruguayan striker is different from the other footballers.
As a football player is absolutely terrific, to me is currently the best player in the world.
However is sometimes a little bit crazy. He unfortunately showed his craziness during the world cup.

Luis Suarez, number 9 of Urugay national team

Deprived of its best player for the first game but still the front-runner, Uruguay lost against Costa Rica 3-1. What a disappointment!
The second game was against a much harder team, Uruguay faced a strong England side which have already won a World Cup, that was in 1966. Suarez was expected to be the Messiah, and he was there. He opened the scoring in the 39th minute before Rooney equalized for the British team. Five minutes before the final whistle Suarez scored the winner, 2-1 game over. Suarez became the national hero.

No matter which team he plays with, Luis Suarez always gives all he has until the last second.

Sometimes it makes him going crazy, he can not contain his nerves. Other players don't know what to expect with him, some of them fear him for what he is able to do with the ball but also because he can be violent. His behavior affects his reputation, He is more famous because of the fact he has bitten three players than for his talent.

On the 24th June Uruguay faced Italy in a tense atmosphere. Luis Suarez did not score this time but he still managed to draw attention. In the 80th minute Luis Suarez bite his opponent Chiellini. Everybody watching the game could not believe he had did that. I could not believe it.

Brazil: football, beach and political tension

  As everybody knows, the 2014 World Cup took place in Brazil, football fans could not expect a better place.

Football is part of culture in Brazil, people of all ages play football in Brazil, no matter if they play in a real pitch or in the street.

Admit it, you all have this image of Brazilian children playing football carelessly in favelas.

Don't you have it?
Look at this picture, that is what I am talking about, that is Brazil, rich and poor, both have one motto: "Keep calm and play football".

Football in favelas

  Moreover, the combination between the World Cup organisation and the difficult economic environment in Brazil increase the pressure within the country. Football can not be isolated from political situation.

There have been several demonstrations against the organisation of a major sport competition before the World Cup started which continue because of the next Olympic Games. Indeed Brazil was selected to host the next Olympic Games in 2016.
Brazilian players had a lot of pressure during the World Cup, their results have always an impact over the country.
They entered on the field with strong emotions, by the way we could see tears on some cheeks during the national anthem.
I think they had better getting through the first round to avoid a revolution in Brazil, it was un-thinkable for Brazilians to see their team out of the competition from the start knowing that the organization of such a competition had costed hundreds of millions of dollars.

Fortunately, the rebellion of dissatisfied Brazilians during and after the competition were less serious than might have been fear.

Brazilians want to share their discontent with the World.

  If we look beyond the political situation, Brazil appears to be a perfect place to spend the vacation, the heat and the scenic beauty of Brazil is a dream for everyone. Supporters from around the world paid their air ticket to attend a World Cup game, but also to enjoy the sun and the beach. Brazilian culture is one of the most attractive with football, carnival, samba, caipirinha,..
For many dreamers, Brazil embodies the paradise.
We can also think of the national anthem, the famous Hino Nacional Brasileiro. before every matches Brazilian players sang it with the supporters and performed the last verse a capella which personally gave me goose bumps.

Rio de Janeiro

Rio de Janeiro attracted a lot of attention this summer, people were fascinated with the beaches of Copacabana, the statue of Christ the Redeemer and the fabled Maracanã Stadium.
To me the 2014 World Cup organisation was an unqualified success!

Introduction

In this blog I will talk about a major world event that took place last summer.
As you may have guess, I am going to talk about the 2014 FIFA World Cup, a football international tournament which is the most famous sport competition of the world.

World Cup Trophy

To begin with I will make a presentation of the FIFA World Cup which was originally started in 1930 and takes place every 4 years. This event has been created by the French manager Jules Rimet, by the way the former name of FIFA World Cup is "Trophée Jules Rimet". This competition brings together the best teams in the World, Brazil is the team which has won the most trophies in the history, they have won the competition 5 times. To realize the magnitude of this tournament, the 2014 world cup's final drew attention of almost a hundred millions viewers across the world.

In this blog we will focus on the twentieth edition, in other words the 2014 FIFA World Cup.
That World Cup was particularly waited by football fans for the simple reason that it took place in Brazil known as "the country of football". It brought together 32 big football nations. A total of 64 matches were played between the 12th of June and the 12th of July. Germany won the tournament by beating Argentina 1-0 in the final and has even became the third team to win at least 4 World Cup trophies, the other ones are Brazil (5 trophies) and Italy (4 trophies).


Following its mediocre ending of tournament, Brazil national team became a subject of mockery on social networks. Indeed Brazil had been considered the favorite to win the cup but in semi-final Germany brought them down without any type of arrogance but with some class. Brazil lost 7-1, What a surprise! 
What an humiliation !
What an epic defeat!
As you will see further on, the chaos did not stop after that match.

And the winner is...

In this blog I will talk about what pleased me about the World Cup and what did not.
I had waited the event for a long time, and all along the competition I let myself be carried away by emotion. That is the reason I chose this theme.

I hope you enjoy my blog...