Looks don’t matter in World Cup, skills do

On the arrival of Portugal’s main forward Christiano Ronaldo at the Port Elizabeth stadium, one could figure he was a little uneasy and definitely nervous. Being the captain, he seemed less excited in comparison to his fellow mates.

Ivory Coast entered the field with blinding neon orange jerseys and wore spandex tights in the exact same colour, under their shorts. What was the designer even thinking? On the other hand, Portugal’s jerseys were smart and well designed.

Coming back to Ronaldo, Twinkle Toes failed to move past the well-built defense of Cote d’Ivoire. Guess his fancy footwork wasn’t something they fell for during the entire match. Ivory Coast did play a very rough game and engaged in a number of fouls, but they would have definitely been glad to sacrifice their player’s foul and yellow card to infuriate Ronaldo and cost him a yellow card as well. Ronaldo’s abusive language directed at defender Guy Demel, who fouled him; jeopardised Portugal’s interests in the Cup.

It was tasteless behavior coming from him, being not only the captain, but also an ‘experienced’ player and a negative example for his huge fan following. During the second half of the game, loud cheers heard from all the African supporters at the stadium, prompted the entrance of Chelsea star striker Didier Drogba, in spite of his arm injury. It was the first case of anyone entering into a World Cup match with a cast on.

Portugal was definitely disturbed by this substitution. Ivory Coast was definitely the better team at this match and sent Portugal back with a nil-nil result.

Well, coming back to the other big match of the day, I was eagerly waiting to see Kaka get into the action. But by the time the match ended, I would undoubtedly admit that North Korean team has made a special place in my heart, just for their gutsy effort on the field.

It was a high energy start from both teams and though Brazil had maximum possession of the ball, the North Koreans never gave in and were a very structured defense. Brazil moved very well to the forward and had great co-ordination but were intercepted by the Koreans who foiled all their attempts at the goal. DPRK tried their forward strategy but had extremely tough chances at scoring. At the half-time whistle, Korea had achieved a great deal and sent back a disappointed lot of Brazilians with no goal in their name. Kaka failed to live upto his expectation, though he looked smart as ever.

The second half got all the interest from the crowd with 3 goals coming in. Brazil’s Maicon scored one of the most brilliant goals in the history of the sport. He sure would be one player who loves the Jabulani ball and have no complaints whatsoever. The next goal came from Elano Korea still refused to give up and denied the Brazilians a clean-cut finish. Ji Yun Nam dashed past 2 defenders and scored a record breaking goal over goalkeeper Julio Cesar, who couldn’t get his hands at the ball. Brazilian fans were in a state of shock whilst the bellowing cheers of the North Koreans.
But with Portugal and Ivory Coast, up next, Brazil will need to pull up their socks. May be its time we see more of what Ronaldo and Kaka are known for, their football skills.

Aloka D’Souza is the captain of the Mount Carmel girls football team