Big Phil! Neymar!

Day -923. ‪WorldCup2018‬.

I always feel the end of the weekend needs a happy story. This one didn't quite have the fairytale ending, but it may still happen. It's is also not directly related to Russia, or the World Cup. But is inspired by events at a previous World Cup and at a current Fifa event.

Fifa's Club World Cup is happning in Japan right now.  The European and South American champions always enter at the semi-final stage. In the quarter finals Guangzhou Evergrande, the Asian champions from China beat the CONCACAF champions, Club America. The prize for the Chinese team is a dream match againt Barcelona. That is only a small part of the stoy. Guangzhou Evergrande's coach is Luiz Felipe Scolari. Scolari may have to figure out how to stop Neymar, who was on a great goalscoing run until his recent injury. At the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, Big Phil was the coach, and Neymar the star player, hoping to win a home world cup. It all ended in tears with Neymar leaving in the quarter final with broken back veterbrae and Big Phil slipping away into what the world thought would be humiliating oblivion after the historic 7-1 semi-final defeat.

But Big Phil is back. He is the man in China, or at least in Guangzhou. Neymar may not recover from his latest injury to play the semi-final but I am looking forward to an emotional reunion. Neymar and Big Phil had a dream together. Scolari was the coach brought in to save Brazil from what was looking like it would be a disastrous World Cup, and Neymar was to be what Maradona was to Argentina in 1986: a player head and shoulders above the limited talent around him who would single-handedly win the World Cup for his country. It didnt happen. Who knows what could have been if Neymar played in that semi-final.

Now they may meet on a football pitch again, on opposite sides. To mark the possible occassion, allow me to take you back to those crazy Brazilain summer nights.

 http://dinoworldcup.blogspot.ca/2014/06/hey-messiwhere-are-brazil.html