The euphoria has died down. The football world is slowly getting over worldwide soccer mania. No more sleepless nights waiting in anxiousness and wishing for the favorite teams and players. Now all will wait for World Cup 2018 and only few and fewer people will keep track of the Europa, European league, Asia Cup, South America football. Perhaps it is time to look back in retrospect what the spectacular Brazil World Cup 2014 left behind.

For many reasons FIFA World 2014 will remain in living memory for a long long time.No other events even Olympics attract so match attention among the wider section of the people of world. One language m one religion binds the people of the world. For a month billions of people across the world of all races, all ages, all sexes, all religion remained engrossed to TV , PC and whatever other media accessible to watch live the matches . People created records through making and displaying large flags, wearing colors of favorite teams,eating,drinking, singing, dancing in the name of favorite teams. I know people who even prayed and were fasting for the success of favorite team. Now at the end of all Germany the most steady and consistent performing team won the trophy, its fourth overall. Germany is also the first European team to lift the trophy from South America and the second team to left the trophy after Brazil from more than one continent. Following the completion of Brazil World Cup FIFA has just announced new FIFA ranking.

FIFA Ranking:

Four-time world champions Germany are reaping the rewards of their triumph at the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil in this edition of the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking. The World Cup Final against Argentina was also a duel for the leading position in the world ranking – with Joachim Low’s team coming out on top on both counts.

Germanyleads the table for the first time in around 20 years, followed by Argentina and the Netherlands. The Oranje’s third-place finish at the World Cup has propelled them 12 positions up the table and back into the top ten. All of the teams that exited the World Cup in the quarter-finals have climbed up the ranking: Colombia (fourth, up four), Belgium (fifth, up six), France (tenth, up seven) and Costa Rica (16th, up 12 – the Ticos’ highest-ever ranking).

If the winners have gained, the less successful teams are left counting the cost of failure in their ranking positions. Former champions Spain have fallen from the top spot to eighth place, while Portugal (11th, down seven),Italy (14th, down five) and England (20th, down ten) have all dropped out of the top ten following their first-round exits. World Cup hosts Brazil, meanwhile, have dropped four places to seventh position. 

The results of 111 international “A” matches have been taken into account for the current edition of the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking, of which 64 were played at the World Cup in Brazil, 46 were friendlies and one was a CONCACAF continental qualifier. In this qualifier for the CONCACAF Gold Cup 2015, Turks and Caicos Islands (181st, up 26) celebrated their first victory in over six years against the British Virgin Islands, lifting them off the bottom of the table. The total number of international “A” matches taken into account so far this year is now 362.

Summary of Performance:

Of the four teams ranked top favorites in the pretournament analysis Champions of 2010 European Soccer Giant Spain made unceremonious exit from the group stage. The team which accounted for most of their dramatic fall from grace Netherlands joined other three Germany, Argentina and Brazil in the top four and finished third after losing to runners up Argentina in penalty shootout and breaking the hearts of host Brazil in the third fourth place play off .

Germany –The Most Consistent Team:

Champions Germany did not have super stars like Brazil, Argentina, Spain, Netherlands but they had a very well balanced all round team and performed steadily and consistently. They destroyed Cristiano Rolando’s team Portugal 4-0 in the first match and humiliated host Brazil to their worst ever World Cup defeat in the history with an unbelievable 7-1 drubbing. In a hotly contested final Germany overcame a resolute Argentina by a solitary goal scored in the second period of extra time. Miroslav Klose their veteran striker entered the annals of world soccer breaking the all-time goal scorers’ record of Ronaldo Luís Nazário de Lima of Brazil. If we look back in retrospect we can assuredly say that the best team of the tournament lifted the trophy. They were only looking a little bit out of shorts against two African teams Ghana drawing with them 2-2 in the group stage and Algeria in the second round.

Argentina Did Not Look All That Impressive:

Argentina for the best player of the world Lionel Messi and three other world class performers Higuain, Aguero and Di Maria was one of the fancied sides to lift the cup. Many wanted to see Messi even through his solo performance take the team across the finishing tape. He influenced tremendously in team qualifying to the semi-final stage unleashing few magic. But overall performance of Argentina did not please its followers. They won all their matches in the group, pre quarter and quarter final by the barest of margin. The only other player of the fabulous four Di Maria who was performing got injured and missed semi-final and final. Higuain and Aguero failed to impress and at the end great Messi also showed that with all his brilliance he is also a mortal being. Messi was not in his elements in the semi-final and final. He was heavily guarded and almost cut off from his striking partners. However, they were not disgraced in the final. Several chances of scoring goals came their way. Higuain missed a few and even great Messi missed one. Finally Argentina lost to a better performing team Germany. Messi was awarded the Golden Ball which however raised a few eyebrows. Few other players many thought like Arjen Robben, James Rodriguez were better performers according to many.

Netherlands Was Unlucky Not To Go All the Way: 

Netherlands was perhaps the team of the tournament which though lost the semi-final on the tie breaker to Argentina impressed all rediscovering their total football. They stunned the world destroying Champions of 2010 Spain 5-1 in the first match of the group. They went on beating very impressive Chile and Australia topping the group. They only were stretched a bit by Mexico in the pre-quarter final and Costa Rica in the quarter final. They fought all the way against Argentina in the semi-final but luck deprived them in the penalty shootout. But they went on and embarrassed host Brazil in the third fourth place play off burying them 3-0. Arjen Robben in our opinion was the player of tournament. Robin Van Persi also made justice to his reputation. South Americans were lucky that two European teams Netherland and Germany did not appear in the finals at Maracana though in neutral observations they were the two most deserving sides.

Brazil Was Huge Disappointment: 

Host Brazil disappointed their worldwide fans with their poorest ever performance in the world cup. They were tipped among the top four and were considered to have even some edge over the rest as the tournament was being played in their backyard. The expectations went sky rocketing as the team won Confederation cup in 2013 with almost the same team. But World Cup is a different ball game where experience, mental toughness, consistency matters. On that account Brazil team was little thin. Not selecting experienced Kaka, Robinho, Pato and Ronaldinho was proved a mistake. It relied heavily on the young shoulder of Neymar . He did his best and looked impressive. But others like Fred, Hulk, and Oscar could not do justice to their reputation. Injury of Neymar and suspension of Thiago Silva before the semifinal upset the balance of the team. Even then there cannot be any excuse to their absolutely abysmal performance against electrifying Germany getting their worst punishment in the world cup history 1-7. Brazil was shocked and awed. How could a team of Brazil’s stature digest four goals in six minutes? We are sure this will be discussed and analyzed for a long time. Ironically Germans were unwilling to further harass the host after leading 5-0 at the lemon break. The vaunted Brazilian defence was completely shattered and Germans literally toyed with them. They could not recover from the shock by the time they appeared in the play off and digested another 3-0 battering from Netherlands. It will take a while for Brazil to forget the nightmares and get back to its rhyme.

Teams Which Impressed Most:

The teams which impressed in our opinion were Costa Rica, Columbia, Chile, Algeria and Belgium.CONACAF region team tiny Costa Rica appeared in this world cup as giant killer. They were grouped in the group of death along with three previous Champions Uruguay, Italy and England. They played wonderfully well and accounted for first round exit of Italy and England from the group and topped the group. They entered quarter final beating Greece and went down fighting to Netherlands in the quarter final. The Ricans were very impressive all the way and could go even further if they had experience. Columbia and Chile were two South American sides that impressed in the world cup and in my opinion could not perform worse than what Brazil did if they did not have to play Brazil and get knocked out. James Rodriguez of Columbia was very impressive. Entire Chile team looked very mobile and dynamic. Algeria was one of the most impressive team of the tournament. Only luck deprived them from embarrassing the ultimate champion Germany in the pre quarter final. Belgium was another impressive team of the tournament. This Belgium team the product of very organized grass root level football development topped the group H winning all its games. It entered Quarter Final beating USA. But lost to Argentina after fighting them tooth and nail in the quarter final. World football will soon see Belgium grow from strength to strength.

Asia –Oceana: A great Flop.

Four teams Australia, South Korea, Iran and Japan appearing in 12 matches could earn two draws only. Iran drew with Nigeria and Japan drew with Greece .Iran played well against Argentina losing by a solitary magic goal created by Messi. Other than that Australia showed promise showing some fight. Football in this region still remains well below world standard and AFC must do soul searching about grass root development if they have to compete on equal footing with rest of the world. If Tiny Costa Rica can show the world how to play with limited resources then why Asians cannot do. Even Africans did not perform all that bad. Nigeria, Ghana and Algeria showed promise.

Why Teams Like Spain, Italy and England Flopped?

Many thought leading players of these teams looked tired and exhausted after entire season’s engagement in energy sapping European league and other club engagement. FIFA must give attention to this. On the world cup year nations must have greater freedom in getting their players released from club duty a bit earlier so that they are not over stressed. But otherwise in general, a little bit of complacency and wrong strategy led to the early exit of three major teams from the tournament.

BDST: 1147 HRS, JUL 18, 2014