Two losing semifinalists of a major international tournament especially world cup soccer usually have broken hearts. Making them play against each other may be injustice done to the team that loses. After a great world cup may be they have to bear the ignominy of two defeats in a row. We find much logic in Louis van Gaal questioning about it. Till this point Holland had a wonderful world cup .They won all matches excepting the semifinal against Argentina which they lost only on penalty tie breaker. Gaal rightly suggested it to scrap. The tie of tears can bring genuine joy for those who beat the other losing semi-finalist, as Sweden and Croatia showed in 1994 and 1998 respectively, returning home to rapturous receptions, but otherwise it is a pointless sideshow, simply a sop to broadcasters.
Brazil and Holland will appear in the play off in Brasilia on early morning of Sunday Bangladesh standard time. Brazil must be still leaking their wounds for hugely shocking defeat by the Germans. They have a point to calm the burning hearts of their adoring fans. But for the Dutch it may be tricky. A loss will mean they have to go back home with two back to back defeats after 5 wins in a row. But nevertheless the teams would go through the motions and wave to their fans when really their hearts are broken, their legs weary and they just want to head off for a break after a season that for some began 50 weeks ago.
Brazil fans will definitely hate to lose again and will not spare to pass on caustic comments to the Brazilian boss Luiz Felipe Scolari and some of his underperforming boys. For some Dutch senior players like Robin and Robben it may be their last world cup appearance. The two coaches can have look at their reserve players giving them taste of world cup . There may be some young players who waited anxiously for the entire duration of the world cup warming the bench. For them it will mean great if the team boss give them an opportunity to add to their credential a world cup appearance. Still it is in world cup format. Win and loss will maker to FIFA ranking. Unfortunately players aspiring for golden boot are not in two sides otherwise it would have mattered. Brazil winning may create more heart sore for its fans. Same may be true for Dutch fans as it will only make the uhh, aah louder. FIFA off course will have commercial interest as they will earn through ticket sales and TV rights.
Whatever happened to Brazil in the Semi Final against Germany happens once in a millennium to a team of Brazilian standing. It was a day when nothing went right for Brazil. Starting without two key players they made a major mistake of throwing all their ammunitions into attack before stabilizing their own new look defence. It could serve them well if they could manage to squeeze out an early goal from that strategy. But after absorbing the early shock when Germans counter attack, which is their main strength an untested Brazilian combination of center backs got caught. School boyish mistake led them concede the first goal. Opportunists Germans then punished them scoring four more in 6 minutes before Brazilian defence could regroup. The match was over within thirty minutes of the first half. We are sure such thing will never happen to a team like Brazil in our living memory at least. We wondered how a very experienced coach like Scholari could fail to assess the comparative strength of the two teams and play to the tune of the Germans. First Brazil did not have Neymar to score from even half chances, second Dante and David Luiz did not have opportunity to settle before being raided by German sharp shooters and opportunist goal hunters. World now knows what followed. Anyway all that is part of history and will be discussed for ages as German heroics in Brazilian backyard.
Scholari and his charge must have to forget that bitter memory and try to get up from the mat. Inspiring a shell shocked team may be a huge challenge. But his charge must have to play for the pride and play for their billions of adoring fans.
For the Dutch it will be a different challenge. Unlike host and hot favorite Brazil they were not peaked in the tournament. Rather many thought that they will be first round causality from a group having reigning champion Spain and red hot Chile. They ignited the world cup with a massive 5-1 Spanish heart break and went on to top the group beating Chile and Australia. Although they struggled a little bit in pre quarter and quarter finals they competed equally with Argentina in the semifinal. Penalty kick offs ultimately caused their heart break. We are sure that they will leave nothing unturned to give the host tough time and may return home with something for their Orange devotees.
BDST: 2015 HRS, JUL 11, 2014
