4.24 AM Friday, 29 March 2024
  • City Fajr Shuruq Duhr Asr Magrib Isha
  • Dubai 04:56 06:10 12:26 15:53 18:37 19:52
29 March 2024

Time for some humble pie

Roopesh Raj

Published

Oh how the World Cup has humbled us know-it-all commentators!

Purveyors of football insight and chroniclers of the evolution of winning tactics, all humbled.

Nobody, not even me, gave the Germans more than an outside chance of making the final before the World Cup began.

Now, we are all left eating the dust of Thomas Muller and Mesut Ozil’s penetrative runs, wringing our hands at the clinical finishing of the supposedly also-rans, Lucas Podolski and Miroslav Klose.

While the Germans may have even outdone themselves in the manner in which they dismantled the Socceroos, one thing is for sure, they showed up the skewered perspective with which football is viewed and analysed in most parts of the world,  especially the Middle East.

The over-emphasis and over-exposure the region has to the English Premier League, the Spanish La Liga and then (a distant third), the Italian Serie A, means one is lulled into a sense of all-knowing based on this coverage.

There is no doubt that these three leagues in the four years between two World Cups are, for the most part,  the ultimate showcases of football, drawing the best talent from Chile to Seoul and Sydney to Rekyavik.

However, come the World Cup, and generally, it’s rank outsiders and relative unknowns, at least for us in the Gulf, that prove that on this stage, the exception can become the rule.

Germany played simple, well-planned, well-executed football. Nobody showed the dazzling skill of Messi or, carried the weight of the world, in terms of expectations, of a Rooney. Their command of the basics was exemplary.

The result: the most dazzling, commanding, entertaining team performance at the World Cup so far.

Ozil and Muller do not feature in Nike or Adidas ads. Neither do Podolski or Klose spoof it up for Pepsi. Bastian Schweinsteiger will not find his name emblazoned on a team colour sold here in Karama, Dubai. But together, as one team, they are now, suddenly, everyone’s favourites to be in the final.(Needless to say, they need to produce that kind of performance again to show the world it was not a fluke.)

While the majority of us are tethered to our limited vision of the game, force-fed by the hype of mass media, a German performance of the highest order drenches the World Cup in pride that is purely ‘football’ and ‘national’.

To see young players who are not brands play the beautiful game, beautifully, is a refreshing wake-up call for all.

And for some us, a humbling experience indeed.