No room for form book in Brazil

There are some things that are predestined. They are supposed to happen and they happen. That includes some results in football. Except in Brazil 2014. See, the Selecao were to flog Croatia, but they relied on an “Angel from Japan” as the Brazilian press would say. Then there is Uruguay, Ivory Coast and others. Teams fancied to win easily struggle. England did put up a show in what by far has been the best game of the tournament—forget the Netherlands-Spain game for now—but they were undone by lack of a creative forward. With Wayne Rooney, Raheem Sterling and Danny Welbeck all made to roam around the wings, it meant the Three Lions played without a playmaker directly roaming the 18-yard arc. That is what Pirlo was doing and it made all the difference as the English had to make every attacking move from the wings. Tonight, Group G of Germany, Portugal, Ghana and USA square it out. There was no draw so far by the time of going to press. This is so unlike World Cup. Seems every team has thrown caution to the wind and are daring to go for the win. Germany versus Portugal is a rematch of Euro 2012 when the two met in the third-place playoff, with Germany easily beating Portugal. But this will be an interesting game. Rooney is yet to score a goal in WC in three tourneys, Messi has just a single goal—barring what happened before we went to press—and Cristiano Ronaldo has two, one from the spot, in his third tourney too. They all want to break the duck. Miroslav Klose, too, will be keen for a mark as he chases World Cup goal record. Ronaldo da Lima urged Brazilians to use whatever powers they got in shrines to stop Klose from scoring. I will be bold. Germany always starts on a high. An easy win. Ghana-USA will be a draw.

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No room for form book in Brazil