FIFA World Cup 2010: A Short Reflection

So the fever is in the air and soccer becomes the most watched sport in the whole world. Coming from a soccer fanatic country, sure this is going to be the best part of my year.  Waking up to a soccer game after another, some beer and all – but only after my baby girl goes to daycare!

Nothing like some nice finger/snack foods on the table, a nice TV, a bunch of people in their national jerseys and off course a cold beer on our hands! Feels like good old times back in Portugal!

 Having lived in Portugal for most of my life, off course my heart goes to the Portuguese team. So boys make me proud.  However, let’s face it, this world cup has proved to be extremely surprising so far. The weaker teams are showing us there are not as weak and the teams we all expect to see in the next level have been having some hard time.

We are seeing all the stronger teams such as Italy, Portugal, England, and Spain (which just lost against Switzerland) all of them having a really hard time passing through this group round. What does this mean? Well, talking to my fiancé we have come to the conclusion that this year, the big title might be staying in Africa.

One thing that I have noticed with Portugal and other big teams is that, they are underestimating the weaker links. Portugal started playing nice and too laid back, it almost seemed like they went into the game saying “this is going to be an easy 3 points”.  I mean, I got to a point in the game that I was wishing for a 0-0 score, and didn’t care for any goal anymore. Ivory Coast had a very strong defense line and let’s face it, Portugal was struggling. This is probably the trendy strategy this world cup: defense, defense, and defense! Maybe Portugal should learn a little from that, since they almost suffered a few goals by Ivory Coast.

This has been happening with almost all the strong teams. They have to understand that this year the weaker teams (or should say, the ones that are usually eliminated early) are tired to be labeled as weak and all they want is to show the world they can take on Spain, England, Portugal, Brazil and any other favourite.

Playing beautiful, as it is the Brazilian style, won’t take any major team too far in the game, so better start taking all these African and Asian teams real serious because they’re not here to play, they’re here to win.

Later on today is South Africa vs. Uruguay, I have a feeling it will a very interesting game and results will be unexpected, but then again every single game this far has been like that.

One thing that is killing me is the Brazil vs. Portugal game, on June 25. Couldn’t they see each other much later in the world cup? As my fiancé said yesterday, “there will be many divorces that day”! Now, I think to even things out, Portugal should score at least two goals right at the beginning of the game. Brazilians usually start playing beautiful for the fans so it would be smart to cut them right at the beginning, plus they get extremely frustrated and lose control when the opponent scores and shows confidence. It might be the way to go, but who am I to say anyways.

...does FIFA make shirts in which one half is one country’s flag and the other half is another country’s flag? It would be very helpful, for the little ones (the kids) who have parents of different nations! I mean, my fiancé wants my daughter to wear South Africa’s shirt, but I want her to wear Portugal’s shirt. A half and half shirt would be useful, hein!!

So there’s my little reflection on the games so far. In this world cup, people have to forget a little bit about the history of teams’ performance. It doesn’t mean much this time around. Surprises are everywhere and this world cup sure is full of them.