What will this World Cup be remembered for?

I kept looking at the scoreline at the top left corner of the screen. The list of scorers had to be scrolled up to fit within the pre-set graphic. It felt surreal to see Brazil getting hammered so emphatically last Tuesday.

Twitter went beserk. There were enough witty messages to flood the entire internet. Here's My favourite tweet:

Is this a real game? I feel like I'm watching my nephew play FIFA #worldCup against my mom on play station.

— Lolo Jones (@lolojones) July 8, 2014

Even before the semi-final, this tournament would have been considered as one of the best ever. Goals galore, monstrous goalkeeping, entertaining matches, and luckily very little negatives such as violence on or off the pitch. All this, as we are still heading to the final showdown on Sunday evening.

Here’s my personal list of reasons why this world cup what be remembered for:

Selfies

In Brazil, where the squads had to travel endlessly between their training bases and the different stadia they were playing in, players had time to kill. Which is why photos of bus rides and flights were the most common on social media. In reality, in between noble thoughts for some feel-good initiative (slipped in by the zealous PR officer) and a nice word for a colleague, the most interesting – or amusing – messages online were those which really captured the moment.

Protocol abandoned..

Germany’s Lukas Podolski managed admirably well. With adrenaline still running high following their drubbing of Portugal, he managed a selfie with none other than Chancellor Merkel. She actually half-smiled, not knowing whether this was a good idea in the first place. Way to go Lukas! Pity he was on the bench against Brazil. Who would have been worthy of a selfie then to beat the one with Merkel? The Pope? Perhaps, if he were still German...

US Vice-President Joe Biden paid a visit to the team’s dressing room just after they had beaten Ghana. He had a chat with the still-sweaty ab-packed lads as they were preparing to shower. His visibly embarrassed daughter trailed him sheepishly. It proved to be good PR though, to the extent that it was streamed on the White House Youtube channel.

England, before they missed the bus...

Shaving foam anyone?

We had already seen it in use here in Malta during the European Under-17 Finals. Admittedly, referees' use of spray to mark the distance players ought to keep was impressively fluent. Some did it so fleetingly you would have thought they had been rehearsing the swift movement. 

The practice proved effective. UEFA has already confirmed that it will be adopted in the Champions' League. Lucky him who came up with the idea. Although it looks like shaving foam, it is really biodegradable spray from vegetable oil derivatives. 

There was also the novelty of the goal-line technology, which felt like the World Cup was being played at Wimbledon. I’m sure there will be more and more debate on this subject before it becomes common practice.

Van Gaal and his keepers

The Dutch coach substituted his keeper seconds before the final whistle going into penalties. Some think it was a stroke of genius. Some said it was disrespectful for the first keeper. I say Van Gaal had a go at trying to shift the focus hoping the move would destabilise the Costa Ricans psychologically.

Ok, it worked and it grabbed all the media headlines. It could have equally gone wrong. But you have to give it to Van Gaal for coming up with the idea and for having the courage to give it a shot. I was eager to see whether he would have done it a second time. The test came only a match later against Argentina. He stuck to his first (and excellent) keeper, even because he had already made all three substitutions. The Netherlands lost. In any case, Man Utd fans have a lot to look forward to.

The Maltese World Cup

We heard the bar owners grumbling because Italy and England were eliminated too quickly. You can’t blame them really. Admittedly, there is a hefty chunk of Maltese for whom the World Cup revolves around the Italy vs England banter (and carcades). They had THE ideal match to savour right at the start, but I'm sure they would have preferred to leave the fixture for later... much later. 

Liverpool fans had to come to terms with having a chronic biter in their team. (Ed's note: no longer, say outraged Facebook spotters). Luis Suarez proved to be decisive for Uruguay both on the pitch and through his absence following his suspension for 'falling into [drama-queen] Chiellini'.

Conclusion: with both Italy and England crashing out of the tournament so early, the World Cup lost some of its spice locally.

[By the way, according to a cheeky comment I came across, Germany scored more goals in 18 minutes against Brazil than England managed to score in the last two World Cups combined.]               

My favs

Time for verdicts. Here are my favourites:

Best player - James Rodriguez of Colombia

Best keeper - too many to choose from. Skip. (Ok, Neuer)

Best goal - Tim Cahill for Australia against The Netherlands. Rodriguez's strike in Colombia vs Uruguay comes close second.

Most disappointing – Spain

Surprise team of the tournament – Costa Rica

Priceless moment - England keeper getting hysterical claiming the ball ‘gently’ from the ball boy during the match against Italy. Closely followed by the England physio getting injured before starting to make himself useful during the tournament.

Great to watch - the Mexico manager celebrating a goal.

Biggest fail – Honestly, can Rooney take a simple corner kick?