A FOURTH CUP

The 20th FIFA World CUP, which has focused the attention of the entire planet on Brazil's pitches for a month now, has ended. The fans observed interesting matches, surprise results, the resignations of coaches as well as the appearance of new stars on the football horizon.

This festival of football ended with a splendid final by the German and Argentinian teams, in which the European team won one nil. The Bundesteam won a fourth world cup.  The Argentinian team were awarded silver medals, while the Netherlands team, in the match for third place, did not leave the championships' hosts any chance, sending the ball through the Brazilian goal posts three times.

"The German machine!"

As the legendary Gary Linneker once said, "Football is a game in which 22 lads put every effort for 90 minutes, or perhaps for 120 minutes, but the Germans always win the game."

It was the third world championship for Germany and Argentina. In 1986 it was the Argentinians who celebrated winning, led by the legendary Diego Maradona, but four years later, in 1990, the German squad was the stronger.

Fairly tense and interesting football was observed in the finale of the World Championship-2014. The leader of the Argentinian team Lionel Messi put in every effort to breach Neuer's defence. In the first half of the game alone Messi missed two chances at a goal. But he did not leave him and Gonsalo Higuain alone. In the second half, Messi could have upset the German team a couple of times - but his tries missed the goal posts. Moreover, in the Bundesteam they did not stay on the defensive - the ranks of the South American full-backs made short work of Schuerrle, Mueller, Klose, and Ozil. As a result, the 90 minutes did not yield a winner and the teams continued the game for an extra 30 minutes. In the 97th minute Rodrigo Palacio could have become Argentina's hero, if he had managed to score a goal after the outcome of a one to one with Neuer. But Palacio missed his chance and here the well-known football principle proved true: "If you miss a goal, they miss you".

In the 117th minute Mario Goetze, who had replaced Miroslav Klose, managed to put a goal into Argentina's goal posts. That goal allowed Germany to become the world champions for the fourth time. Germany became the first European team to win the world championship on the American continent. 

Before the final many wanted Messi to win the title of world champion - the only award that he had still not received. But Messi is not Maradona, who could carry the team all on his own. Although he played some brilliant football at this world championship, scoring four goals and making one worthwhile pass, he did moreover score very important goals for his team, but that turned out to be insufficient to counteract the "German machine".

To be fair, it has to be said that Germany's victory was deserved. Top notch in all their matches, the Bundesteam showed that they deserved to be world champions. Juergen Klinsmann, who brought Lahm, Klose, Schweinsteiger and others into the team laid the foundation for this "golden team back in 2004. Joachim Loew was able to make the team even stronger. At this championship the German team scored four goals against the Portuguese, to which there was no response, and in the semi-final, they left no stone unturned, winning a humiliating 7:1 against the world championship hosts. . 

So, in the next four years Germany will bear the title of world champion. In September Argentina will get the right to moral revenge for the lost final in a friendly.

The best player in Mundial - Messi?

Based on the results of the World Cup FIFA has selected the best players in the six nominations. Argentinian captain Lionel Messi has become the best player in the World Championships and has been awarded the "Golden ball". Thomas Mueller (Germany) was name the second in this nomination and Arien Robben (Holland) the third. 

The best striker in the tournament was the Colombian James Rodriguez, who scored six goals. He was awarded the "Golden boot". T. Mueller came second in this category with five goals and the Brazilian Neimar came third with four goals.

The goal keeper of the newly announced world champions, Manuel Neuer, was awarded the "Golden Glove" for best goal keeper. Mario Goetze, who scored the winning goal, was proclaimed the best player in the final match. The Frenchman Paul Pogba was the best young footballer of the championship. The Colombian team were awarded the Fair Play prize for committing the least number of breaches of the rules.  

At the same time, many did not agree with the choice of L. Messi as the best player and thought that this was FIFA's consolation prize. James Rodriguez' star was lit at the World Championships. Everyone remembered the dynamic passes and swift dribbling of Robben who put a lot of effort into achieving Holland's win and who deserved the "Golden Ball". But the supreme football body took a different decision, with which the world press did not agree. 

The celebration of football in Brazil

Although there were some problems with the organisation, the World Championship-2014 did turn into a real festival. In spite of the protests by the public there and the unfinished state of one stadium, the world championship can be assessed positively.

If England is regarded as the home of football, it is precisely in Brazil that it has been nurtured. Firstly, the tremendous results of the games held should be noted - 171 goals were scored in 64 matches at the World Championship. This figure is a repeat record of the 1998 championship held by France. The large number of goals made football even more spectacular. Sensations occurred in the very first stages of the World Championship. The reason for the poor performance of Spain, England, Italy and Portugal is still being reviewed by the experts. Brazil's defeat with a score of 1:7 in the game against Germany has gone down in black letters in the history of the championships' hosts.

Scolari's "black Tuesday"

No-one expected or could even have imagined Brazil's defeat with a score of 1:7 in the semi-finals.  The German team took advantage of practically every moment they could and turned the Brazilian's life into a nightmare. This is the biggest defeat in Brazil's entire history. Here it is the team's coach, Luiz Felipe Scolari, who is to blame for not selecting the right members of the team, for some members of the team were not properly physically fit. If a team let's five goals through in 30 minutes, that means that there are serious problems, the main one among them being a weak line of defence. When the German team scored its first two goals, Brazil's supporting half-backs occupied the wrong position, and those out on the wing could not prevent the sallies As a result, on the following day after the defeat, all the newspapers came out in a black colour, symbolising mourning. Immediately after the World Championship had ended, the Football Federation of Brazil fired Scolari from his position as the team's coach.   

The last champion's failure

The 2010 world champion, the Spanish team, was not even able to progress beyond the group stage. Having lost to Holland (1:5) and Chile (0:2) Vincente del Bosque's team became the author of its own sensation at the World championship. But, in spite of this, the Football Federation of Spain signed a new two-year contract with the coach.

Championship discovery

The main discovery at the championship is regarded as the Costa Rican team, which became a headache for all its rivals and could have come out in first place in the group of the grandees of world football, with the teams of Uruguay, Italy and England.

The teams of Uruguay, Chile, Mexico, and Algeria, which won the sympathy of the fans, played a good, well sustained game. The 23-year-old Colombian footballer James Rodriguez attracted the attention of the leading clubs in Europe. The leadership qualities and beautiful style of play of the Uruguayan Luis Suarez 

The harshest punishment

Suarez has incidentally attracted the attention not only by the way he plays, but also because he bit the Italian Giorgio Chiellini. Suarez is known to have managed to bite another five football players. As a result FIFA has compelled  him to leave football for four months and banned him from being part of a team for the next 10 matches and has been fined 82,000 euros.

A trauma "racking" Brazil

The hosts' main hope, Neymar, was injured during the Brazil-Colombia game. He received a blow to his spine from the Colombian Sunigi. As a result Brazil played in the semi-final with Germany without its forward. Neimar will need six weeks to recover. But the Brazilian himself thinks he has been lucky. "If Sunigi's blow had been 2 cm lower, I would have spent the rest of my life in a wheelchair. But I'm not angry at him. He rang me and said he was sorry for what he had done."

The referee's mistakes

The World Championship will also be remembered for the referees' mistakes. There were off-side goals and, on the contrary, "clean" goals scored that were not counted. Unfair penalties were exacted, and sometimes the referee's whistle did not sound even when there were violations in the penalty areas. The chairman of the FIFA's referee committee, Massimo Busacco, reported that of the 1,756 referee decisions at the World Cup, about 200 were wrong. Automatic technology recording exactly when the ball crosses the line of the golf posts was used for the first time at this championship. The referees also used a vanishing spray for fixing where the ball was and the sides when a penalty blow occurs. These innovations will incidentally be used at the European Champion-ship in 2016. Besides, coaches and referees will be permitted to look at the video recordings twice.

WORLD CUP CONTROVERSIES

This championship was also plagued by controversies. The Spanish press accused Holland of using banned preparations after its team lost with a score of 1:5. FIFA demanded evidence, but the Spanish journalists did not find any. The English press accused FIFA of helping the Brazilian team in order to make them champions. But these accusations turned out to be unfounded

So the festival of football is over, for which Brazil deserves the most complimentary remarks. For 30 days Azerbaijani fans fought back sleep for the sake of watching the beautiful games (the matches began late at night Baku time).

Now the sleepless nights can end, and we are waiting for the next World Championship in 2018, which is to take place in Russia.

FROM THE HORSE'S MOUTH

 "Our team was formed 10 years ago. It was precisely at that time that Yuergen Kliesmann took on Lahm. Schweinsteiger, Klose and Podolskiy. We have long been progressing towards success with these footballers, and now, we have attained out goal today. I would like to thank the players for the fact that we have become the first European team to win a championship in South America. I am proud of the fact that we have become champions at the Maracana stadium in Brazil."    

Joachim Loew, head coach of the German team