Editorial
Curtain drawn on football razzmatazz
A brilliant Spanish coup
SPAIN'S clean and compact football finally triumphed over the Dutch firepower and agility, after a long fight that looked like being drawn into the penalty shootouts. Spanish midfielder Andres Iniesta scored the winning goal just four minutes before the end of extra time, leaving a frustrated Netherlands with very little to do, especially when they were reduced to ten men.
The match was very much unlike the Spaniards' neat encounter with the Germans in the semifinal when they managed to strategically outplay their fiercely counter-attacking rivals. The Germans could not play their natural game, allowing the Spanish to dominate the show right from the beginning. Nevertheless, it was clean and highly technical football, every bit of which was enjoyable. But the final, which had generated so much enthusiasm, appeared to be rather antithetical, with rough tackling by the players making it more of a brawl at times than deft maneuvering for the possession of the ball.
The Spanish had a slight edge but most of their moves fizzled out due to poor marksmanship. Maybe, the teams were under tremendous psychological pressure as the expectations of their fans were huge. The spectators were disappointed with the way the strikers failed to make anything out of the dangerous looking situations.
Refereeing in this World Cup left much to be desired. England was deprived of a sure goal in their match against Germany. And Mexico was the victim of a wrong decision when they lost to Argentina. Human errors are perhaps not easy to eliminate altogether. So, the FIFA bosses should think seriously whether they could install electronic devices to make sure that gross mistakes by the referees do not botch up important matches. It is not enough to apologise after throwing a team out.
This World Cup will be remembered for many reasons. Spain has won the title for the first time and the continent of Africa has organised it for the first time too. South Africa has proved that as a country it is capable of organising any big event. Finally, Europeans have reason to be happy as they prevailed over the Latin soccer powers and took the first three positions.
For us here in Bangladesh, it has been a month of watching and speculating about football, though the exit of Argentina and then Brazil left the local fans in a state of shock. Nevertheless, the true lovers of the game did not give up, they enjoyed the game till the very last minute. Football today is more than a sport, it is bringing people from all the continents close to each other.
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