The Beautiful Game

The world cup is on, and on this steamy day in July, the day after the second semi-finals were played, it seems almost sacrilegious to feel the need to point out that it is football, or soccer, that we are talking about. Holland playing the defending champions Brazil was a feast of color, as clockwork orange battled to stem the overflowing yellow tide that was the Brazilian attack. Millions of VCRs began recording at 12:30pm EDT as Dennis Bergkamp, Jaap Stam and company fought it out with Ronaldo, Roberto and Bebeto.


Brazil out-shot the Netherlands in penalties - an uncomfortable end to a brilliant game. The head-to-head is now 2-1 in favor of Brazil: Brazil and Netherlands had met each other twice before in the world cup. On 3 July 1974 in Dortmund (GER), the Dutch won 2-0 in a 2nd round match. Their second meeting took place on 9 July 1994 in
Dallas (USA). Brazil scored 3 times with Romario, Bebeto and Branco, while the Netherlands put the ball in the net only twice (Bergkamp and Winter).


New-comers Croatia nearly gave the world a second shock as they took first lead against France in their semi-final encounter.
But the hosts made it to the final as all good hosts are expected to, I suppose. And so on this, the day after, we sit breathing ragged, fidgeting with tension, eschewing small talk, and building towards Sunday.


As a historical footnote, Brazil beat Denmark 3 goals to 2 when the two teams played in the quarter finals on the 3rd of July. That day 15 male children were born in Albania, all fifteen were christened Ronaldo. Followers of the Beautiful Game may be well advised to save a few bucks to wager on Albania in the 2018 version of the greatest spectacle on earth - the World Cup.