World Cup 2014 awaits more surprises

Football fans and players after living through tears and smiles are now heading to ride a turbulent roller coaster of breathless emotions as the eight teams are about to wage a World War from Friday with intense excitement, fervour, energy and fierce competition. The eight warriors, Brazil, Colombia, Netherlands, Costa Rica, France, Germany, Argentina and Belgium, will shape up the quarter-final to determine the semi-final and then the winner of the trophy.
We will witness the thrills of victory and the agonies of defeat in the next few days. We will see a player consoling his teammate after losing a game.  We surely will find players collapsing in despair after missing their chances to score. This time, Argentina's Lionel Messi may show his full tongue if he can manage a goal against Belgium. Last time, Messi winked after scoring a goal that gave his team a dramatic 1-0 win over Iran on June 21.
It is difficult to predict who will do what. Still, based on their immediate past performances during the last two weeks one may guess the outcome to the tune of not more than 50 per cent.
On July 04, Friday, France will face Germany at Estadio do Maracanã, Rio de Janeiro. France was stout and they did not need to play an extra time to trounce Nigeria and seems to be in perfect form while Germany had stuttered a lot after demolishing Portugal in the opening game by 4-0. Was not Germany's slow inertia exposed by Algeria? Algeria missed the victory but the spectators didn't miss the weak sides of Germany. It may not be a surprise if Germany is beaten by France. Karim Benzema, Antoine Griezmann, and Mathieu Valbuena can exploit the shaky Germans. France has a fair chance to progress.
In the next game on the same day Brazil will face Columbia at Estádio Castelão, Fortaleza. This is going to be a million-dollar bet. I sincerely hope Brazil defeats Columbia and thereby saves thousands of Bangladeshis from premature heart attacks. But if you ask me to bet money for this game I will have a stake of US Dollar 100 in favour of Columbia. Brazil hardly made it out of the second round after a dreary performance from Fred and Oscar. Well, Neymar is there; but, remember, he failed to score in regulation time. Of course, he nicely managed to score Brazil's winning penalty. On the flip side, don't you still hear those aggression and ferocity of Colombian lions? They displayed their classy styles against Uruguay. Expect James Rodriguez to show his wizardry. So brace yourselves for a shock.
On July 05, Saturday, Argentina will unsheathe their swords to attack Belgium at Estádio Nacional Mané Garrincha, Brasilia. Both teams didn't show anything for which we have now to shout in ecstasy. They could not dazzle us with their shining swords at all during normal time, and had to drag the game to extra time to eke out a win. Unless the stars enjoy a good night's sleep they may again drag us beyond 90 minutes. The match may end 0-0 draw.
Well, Argentina has an advantage, not for Messi, but for something mystical. Pope Francis was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He may surreptitiously pray for Argentina. Plus, my grandson Raahil Khan is a blind fan of Argentina. Well, I am allowing Argentina to win 5-4 on penalties.
On the same day in the afternoon, the Netherlands will lock their horns with Costa Rica at Arena Fonte Nova, Salvador. It would be the most exciting game of "Counter Attacking Football" versus "Counter Attacking Football". Costa Rica showed their magical prowess. But unless God intervenes Costa Rica may find Arjen Robben, Robin van Persie, and Wesley Sneijder too much hot to handle. Remember, the Netherlands didn't have to go through extra-time and penalties.
Not in my watch, at least at this moment, I am finding Germany, Brazil, Belgium and Costa Rica. You may take the wind out of my sails if in the first game Germany can beat France. Forgive me, then. I have a tendency to sail under false colours.
But I can bet my bottom dollar that we will continue yelling at referees for their gross mistakes and will be cursing many goalies for missing to grab easy (easy only to us) balls.
The World Cup history is full of howlers.  Diego Maradona's Hand of God goal against England in the 1986 quarter-final, refereed by Ali Bin Nasser, a Tunisian, will never be forgotten in the next thousand years. It will equally be hard to forget England's controversial third goal in the 1966 final that was awarded by Tofik Bakhramov, an Azerbaijani linesman.
On the opening day of the World Cup 2014 Yuichi Nishimura, a referee from Japan, gave Brazil an extremely generous penalty and denied Croatia a fair equaliser. The following day Wilmar Roldán, a Colombian at his first senior international tournament, and his two assistants, both also Colombian (the fourth official, Norbert Hauata, was from Tahiti), wrongly disallowed two Mexico goals in an artificially narrow 1-0 win over Cameroon. On Monday, Switzerland had a perfectly good goal disallowed for an offside by the Uzbek referee, Ravshan Irmatov - with the aid of assistants from Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. And then the Mexican grudge against the Portuguese referee.
Referees and goalies are going to be vilified for sure. They will have to tolerate the rage of fans and nations. Poor referees! Poor goalies!
The tragedy is nobody ever thanks these two communities of referees and goalies as much as they deserve when they do their jobs excellently. They are remembered for a few errors and failures, not for their stupendous successes. Do we still remember Raïs M'Bohli, the amazing goalie for Algeria in the 2010 World Cup who stopped strike after strike from the U.S., basically keeping his team in the game? Referees have worse fates.
Who cares to remember a referee or the linesmen if they did their job perfectly? If they referee a perfect match, people will forget they were even there in the field.
Players are also heroes as long as they live up to our expectorations. One mistake by a sterling player condemns him to the dustbin of football history. Roberto Baggio is perpetually condemned for sending his shot far over the cross bar and into the stands in the 1994 final against Brazil, losing the Cup for Italy in that one instant.
Disgusted with the errors and mistakes of the referees fans are now crying to introduce in football the latest technology like video replay etc. Goal-line technology has already been introduced from this World Cup. Are we happy?
Will we really enjoy football if technology overpowers human referring? Football is a game of speed and flow -- and also emotion. Technology must not be allowed to freeze the magic of football. In that case, it would be better to play a video game inside a bedroom than watching a live football on a stadium, or at best a football game on a grassy field by those robots.
Human referees may err. But, such an error has some regal beauty that gives us food for pains. There are always some pleasures in pains. If there is no error by a referee or a miss by a goalie who will we then yell at? After all, we need some tales and foibles like that of Maradona's Hand of God to narrate to our grandchildren when they will be pestering us about bedtime storytelling.
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