One hundred days to go. When Spain bored Holland into submission, and defeat, almost 4 years ago Brazil 2014 seemed like it would be in another lifetime. And we all thought....Brazil...how wonderful is that going to be? How could it go wrong? This is the country that owns football. All that would have to happen is that the world shows up to play. How hard could it be?
I guess we forgot to factor in the whole organization of a major event thingy. Stadiums had to be built, plus hotels airports, roads.......And all of this amongst all the now so sad and common rumours of local football officials, construction companies and probably a few Fifa characters looking out for themselves. In the end we hope the stadiums all have seats, the grass grows, the roofs don't fly off and that the Brazilians are happy. It wasn't all like this in 1982.
My conscious life started in 1982, in June 1982. Sure, there may be memory flashes of toys played with and waves washing me up on beaches (!) but it is that summer of which I can recall specific events. Espana '82. It was fun. Everybody around me talked about the "World Cup". And there was no corruption, no politics, no locals protesting about being ignored. No, there was Cameroon, Ziggy Boniek, Paolo Rossi, the eyes of Marco Tardelli and Dino Zoff and Brazil. Dino was my idol, until I was converted, not allowed to like those mean Italians anymore. But more importantly there was Brazil, THAT Brazil.......Zico, Eder, Falcao, Socrates, Junior, Cerezo. They had the exotic names and every night that they played it was an event. And I was in awe. Yes, this world cup thingamabob was fun. I wanted to watch this every summer.
Too young to worry about end of year school exams, this was the summer of being every Brazilian player for a few hours outside every evening until "the match" started. I didn't know, or wouldn't have cared less if there was any controversy. Sure, the Falkland's War had just ended and the Argentinian and English fans didn't really like each other, but what did I know about that. I only knew about Kevin Keegan's bad back, or was it Brooking? Or did Brooking have something else wrong with him? Bryan Robson scored after 27 seconds against France (England are going to win the World Cup!). I thought Northern Ireland were good. They beat Spain even though the referee tried to give Spain a second chance to score a penalty. Controversy? Yes, I learned about that too, but only on the pitch. The Kuwaiti Prince ordered his team off the pitch because he thought it unfair that the French were better than them. Harold Schumacher wasn't sent off for knocking that poor guy out cold? Germany and Austria agreed that Germany would win 1-0. I didn't really get that one for a while.
All of that made it even more wow! This is great stuff. When do they all do this again? Four years? Ah well, at least we can watch Brazil for a couple more weeks. Even that new superstar, Maradona, couldn't stop them. Only Dino. And he did. And Paolo Rossi scored 3 and Brazil were gone. What did I care that Bryan Robson's 27 second goal didn't automatically mean that England would be champions. The disaster was that the Harlem Globetrotters of football were beaten by the oh so boring Italians who didn't even win a match in the first round. They had a "system", apparently. The Brazilians didn't. They just had Zico et al. And it all seemed so unfair.....another lesson I learned.
So Italy went on and won the whole thing. Rossi scored a few more. And Marco Tardelli's arm waving, eyes bulging goal celebration stuck in my head. Did these players make millions at the time? Were there wives and girlfriends celebrities? Did they have to choose between their personal sponsor's boot and the team's? Did they care more about playing for their club or country? Did Fifa insist that only their sponsors' logos were visible? I don't know and I didn't care. But I did know that Marco Tardelli scored a goal to win the World Cup for his country and he was very, very happy.
And the best team doesn't always win........
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