Chances for Argentina to win World Cup 2014

Blue / aquamarine Sky. And white clouds floating there.
Sometimes, when Argentina football team plays, I visualize the whole sky has come down on the ground. The sky reminds me about Argentina’s jersey.
Who am I? I am a Bengali and an Indian. Then why should love & support Argentina? Because Argentina loves and respects the art of football just like Bengali people do. Because Argentina and the whole of Latin America have economically middle class people who are very knowledgeable or skillful like, we Indians are. Because we love Maradona just like they do. Because we are also crazy about Lionel Messi as they are.
I know that India does not have proper infrastructure to play better football and make it to the final rounds of World Cup. So, during FIFA world cup, I look forward to the teams who have rich football culture. During world cup, city of Kolkata gets divided into several parts namely, Argentina, Brazil, Spain, Italy, Germany, etc. These countries will hardly know about our deep passion for their football culture. It may be an one-sided love from us. But after all, it is nothing but love.
So, I was talking about Argentina. Argentna’s win is my win. It is also a win of all the crazy Argentina supporters out there in Kolkata. There is just one game remaining for Argentina to win the world cup 2014. This one game is equivalent to 10 games for the Argentina team. Because the opponent team’s name is Germany. Playing with Germany has been a nightmare for Argentina. In the year of 1990, Maradona’s Argentina lost to Germany in the world cup final. In 2010, Germany crushed Argentina with a 4-0 victory. So, Argentina needs to seriously consider this Germany side which has defeated Brazil with a score line of 7-1 in the last game and Portugal with a 4-0 score! That is not a joke. That is shocking!
Argentina has been one man show in this world cup. That is Messi. Apart from that there are other names like, Sergio Agüero, Gonzalo Higuaín, Ángel di María, Marcos Rojo. But if we forget one goal each from di María and Higuaín, then they have only filled the quota system of 11 players. In the final, they will have to play extraordinary to nullify the attack of the German team. Germans are clever enough to block Messi to score a goal. So, while Messi will take their attention, Ezequiel Lavezzi, Gonzalo Higuaín and Ángel di María (if he is fit to play) have to score goals (yes, it is a must!) for their country. Argentine players have just one match to create history or get abolished from history.
The German side has great names in their team. Mesut Özil, Miroslav Klose, Thomas Müller, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Mario Götze are the players who can penetrate through the opponent defense at any point of time in the game. Argentine player Javier Mascherano will have great responsibility in handling the German attackers. The Argentine defense should remember that earlier 4-0 score and should play ultra-defensive football. They should believe that they are the better team and try to score goals from the counter-attack.
The Argentine side is having a goal-drought in this world cup. And it is raining goals for German side. If these trends get continued till the final, then Argentina will lose the game. But if Argentina gets good number of first-half goals in the match, then German side may choke. Argentina can take the revenge of the previous world cup loss and finish as the new world champion.
Argentina is saying that ‘el Dios’ is on their side. I also believe that God is on the side of Argentina. But to defeat a team like Germany, Messi and his fellow players should remember that God helps those who help themselves.
Best of luck for every player in Argentina national football team before playing the final of FIFA World Cup 2014. Even if they lose the game to Germany, Messi & Maradona will continue to be soccer heroes in my life.
One footnote: I have heard that Argentina will play in a Blue jersey in the final. But I prefer to see them in their Aquamarine-White jersey. I think that colour bears a good luck.

Sports

Beijing Olympics And Football
Beijing Olympics has put a very tough challenge for London. It was well organized and the Chinese officials leaving no stone unturned to make this event a huge success. If you just look at the opening and the closing ceremony then you will understand how the organizers have perfected the art of big event management.
Two big gain from this Olympic was Abhinav Bindra’s winning Gold in Rifle Shooting and Argentina winning gold for male football. Abhinav’s case was India’s first individual gold medal and Argentina again came to spotlight of football after her gold medal. Although a frustrating outcome was Roger Federer’s loss in Tennis Singles (myself a Federer fan and not a Rafa supporter). Kudos to Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt for getting their ‘Legendary’ athlete status at Olympics.
Argentina has been struggling for a long time for winning a championship. Forget about their last world cup performance, even at Copa America cup, they lost to arch-rival Brazil in the final. Great frustration was built after that. But a true champion’s career graph is NOT all about winning, stupid! An emphatic win will hardly teach you anything. You will be surrounded by your fans and nobody will question about your tactical faults and game strategy. But after a Great loss, you will be brutally criticized and some of the criticisms will be positive criticisms. After their unwanted debacle at some championship finals, Argentineans learnt many things and they tried to apply those at Olympics. Thankfully, they are true champions and they know how to come back in the game and how to take Revenge. After Argentina’s 1-0 triumph over Nigeria, one Bengali newspapers’ journalist has written that Argentina won the title due to luck factor and Messi Magic. Luck can give you one goal. But not three goals. Argentina should not be called ‘lucky’ after crushing Brazil 3-0 at Olympics. Actually most of our media persons are Brazilian football supporters. So they disliked or hated Argentina’s victory over football giant Brazil. That’s why they show bitter ignorance to Argentina’s gold winning football team. When Brazil wins any football title, all the TV channels repeatedly show the replays or clippings of the strikers’ goals. But now, I have not seen any match replay on television after Argentina’s historic win. Also, Beijing’s Bird’s Nest stadium’s fans showed the football enthusiasm breaking all geographical boundaries to prove that we are one-football world.
A clever politics: When Brazil wins you will see the photograph of how a Brazilian striker pushing the ball into net and how frustrated the opponent players are after the match.. When Argentina wins, you will see Messi and Ronaldinho shaking hands at the center line before the match started, showing a false picture or creating an image of how Brazilians have always been supportive to Argentina’s football culture. And like due to sympathy and friendly attitude Brazilians gifted the match results in favour of Argentina! Argentina’s win against Brazil clearly proves that Argentina is simply a better team than Brazil at present. And the match was not gifted to Argentina. I don’t say Brazilian football team ‘get’ victory since I don’t want to show disrespect to Brazilian football fans’ emotions. But I must mention that Argentinean football team knows how to ‘earn’ victory and ‘achieve’ success. Football legend Maradona’s followers get yet another feet to celebrate. Whatever be the opposition from football playing rival countries and ignorance from media persons, Argentina will continue to be world’s one of the greatest superpowers in the game of football. Long live Maradona, long live football!