Entertaining, Exciting, Exhilerating, Inviting ….naah… those cant be the words I can use for the current edition of the biggest show on earth. On the contrary, the words that easily come to my mind are – SHOCKING & SURPRISING. And trust me the match that epitomized those 2 words for me was the “awful” tie between Portugal and Brazil! Surprising as I couldnt believe so much talent was not enough to conjure up a goal and shocking to see a lack of desire to win a match from the topmost professionals in the game! Someone give me an explanation please!!

From the vuvuzelas to the jabulanis! From the Italians to the French! From Maradonna’s Masters to Capello’s Crusaders! Ahhh! I could write pages and pages on the week gone by! But let me try and fill in as much as this blogpost can hold!

Starting out with the biggest losers so far in the tournament – France and Italy met with their fateful end and in my eyes, inevitable end. In the French case, they didnt even deserve to be a part of the final 32 teams given Theiry Henry’s last gasp handball goal against the Irish. Their exit proved two clear facts – 1) the French squad and management are in total disarray and 2) you cant get away with cheating in broad day light – may be God heard the Irish! But to be really honest, I am not going to miss the French at all in the next round. And I have the same sentiments for the Italians as well. Apart from Andrea Pirlo, I saw no one who did anything worthwhile on the pitch for them. The squad just dint have the legs to out-run their opponents and the over-dependance on the old guns final brought them down!

Next the contenders – Brazil breezed through their group but neither with the flair nor with the authority that I had expected. Spain, the odds-on favourite (and my bet too) suffered the shock of the tournament in their opener against the Swiss. But they did recover in time to win their next 2 games and show glimpses of their caliber on their way through. Still not convincing enough. But if you wanted “convincing” performances, well you could look upto only one team – ARGENTINA. Just like their manager, this team wants to weave their magic all over and they surely have lived upto that ambition. At this stage, they are the only team you could say can be worthy world champions.

The challengers – the less we speak about England the better – they have let themselves down so much – only a win against Germany can now instill some confidence back into the 3 lions. Germany too on the other hand have been patchy in their performances.

The dark horses – not a huge surprise but surprise nonetheless – the South Americans have looked like they mean business. Paraguay, Uruguay & Chile have gone beyond what a majority have expected out of them. But trust me, they look extremely confident, settled and completely prepared for big challenges ahead. My pick are Uruguay – in Forlan and Suarez they got goals in abundance and their defence didnt concede a single goal in the group stages. Watch out!

The pace is slowly but surely picking up. Now the teams cant play for a draw or points. You win or go home! And I hope the stars who were to shine finally show their class. Rooney, Kaka, Torres, Ronaldo – have all disappointed so far!

My heart is still behind England, my money was already on Spain, but my mind is set on Argentina now!
Lets see who has it in them to go all the way through!!

Cheers~~
KS