WORLD CUP 2014: THE GOOD, THE BAD… AND THE UGLY

The FIFA World Cup 2014 has drawn to a close with Germany lifting the trophy for the fourth time, and the tournament has certainly had everyone talking! Here are highest highs and the lowest lows of the competition, which is officially the most talked about event ever on Twitter.

THE GOOD

This year’s World Cup saw tremendous success for the national teams from Africa, with countries like Algeria and Nigeria performing better than teams such as Portugal and England. Then there was Tim Howard, the goalkeeper for the US who became an Internet sensation with his amazing performance throughout the tournament. He won man of the match for the US’s 2-2 draw with Portugal, and smashed the record for most goals saved in the US/Belgium game. He saved sixteen goals and in the process single-handedly inspired a generation of young Americans to take up the sport.

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FIFA also introduced goal-line technology to avoid ghost goals, meaning there would be no repeat of the controversy in 2010 when Frank Lampard’s goal was disallowed despite it clearly going over the line. Of course, this wouldn’t be repeated exactly due to…

THE BAD

England being embarrassingly knocked out at the group stage. We all expected England to be knocked out at some point during the competition, but with a little pizzazz. We imagined them going out in the quarter-final following a great big controversy and some excellent theatrics, not rather limply, like a sparkler in the rain.

Brazil also suffered a rather embarrassing defeat. Germany, England’s constant football rivals, qualified for the tournament’s final for the eighth time by steamrolling the Brazilian side with a 7-1 win. This is the biggest defeat in Brazilian history since 1920. While the home fans were utterly horrified by their knock out, it did lead to some great interactions between fans; a crying Brazilian fan gave away his copy of the FIFA trophy to a young German fan, and many Brazilian fans went on to support Germany, so impressed were they with the German team’s performance during the match.

THE UGLY

The ugly? Well, there’s only really one thing that comes to mind…