First published by Ace Magazine online, June 2014.

One game in of this 2014 World Cup and already there will be cynics of F.I.F.A. who might teasingly suggest that the straight line drawn by the Japanese official to mark out the 10 yards for Croatia to stand behind for a free kick was one of the very few acts in the game that didn’t have the whiff of something crooked about it.

The World Cup is the one event in where arguably every fan on the planet looks to a foreign country and hopes for a feast of football, dazzling displays, high emotion and great personal stories, as well as outrageous skill, plenty of goals and a really deserving champion. The opening game of the 2014 tournament between hosts Brazil and Croatia certainly had plenty of goals, it arguably should have had one more for Croatia and even more probably one less for the team struggling to live up to the enormous pressure placed upon it by a public that wants them to succeed but doesn’t want it staged in the country.

Outside the stadium opinions were voiced, stones thrown at the media boxes, police placed on alert and the game perhaps suffered because of it. Inside the Arena de São Paulo, the beautiful game, preached so often by truly great Brazilian sides, by footballers who any fan across the globe would just be pleased to shake their hand for a moment and talk wildly and with passion of what they thought of the poise, skill and playing ability of their heroes, died a little, not terminally but with enough frustration to feel that you might need to take time off to nurse the sick patient for a while.

The beautiful game; played so well by legends such as Zico, the legendary Socrates, Juninho, Alberto and of course Pele didn’t seem to be on the agenda at all. Nothing wrong with that, what the people of Brazil needed first and foremost was a win under their belt to get the momentum going; nobody would have begrudged Brazil a hard fought win against Croatia if it meant they played with the certain elegance in places that many love of the Brazilian national side. This though was not elegant, it was only really hard fought because with the possible exception of Oscar, the team looked ragged, crumpled, more dishevelled than an English politician realising he has made the most fundamental of errors by holding up a tabloid newspaper.

Opening matches are notorious for throwing up results that the vast majority of fans wouldn’t expect to see. Even before kick-off, the tinge of devilish expectancy would have murmured as Brazilian golden boy Neymar went down during the warm up feeling his ankle. There would have been many Croatians in the stadium who perhaps would have hoped he would have to hobble off the pitch and take no part in the game. That would have been too cruel to contemplate for the young man making his 50th appearance for his country, it would have been unfair on those watching world-wide who tuned in to watch the man who has already made such an impression on the record books.

The Brazilian crowd were in fine voice, as a spectator it may be hard to remember when you last heard a national anthem sung with such passion by the crowd and more importantly by the team. This was stirring stuff; it could only remind you of tournaments past, games in which desire was heard from every quarter, perhaps even as far back as the last time the World Cup was held in South America when Argentina roared like lions. The incentive was certainly there, bring the Cup back home, make up for the disappointment of 1950, of 1982, of 1998, be heroes in your own country. The words were there but throughout Brazil played as if the speed of the game was too much. They seemed too impatient; the overused words perhaps of poise, dignity and confidence lingered too long in the throats and it was really with no surprise that Croatia opened the scoring thanks in part to Brazil’s woeful defence and the unluckiest of touches by Marcelo.

There is a theory that Brazilian footballers don’t hold the same allure as they once did, that far too many have traded genuine enthusiasm and love of football for the riches on offer in Europe. There is nothing wrong with that, every player deserves to be paid well for they do, especially when as world class as Neymar is, but is it worth the soul?

What you don’t expect from a Brazil side is the reliance on using tactics that seem alien to the nation. Yellow cards being shown, arguably at least one red should have been placed before Neymar right before he scored the equalising goal, tempers raised and an awkward physicality that doesn’t benefit the Brazilian game.

Croatia deserved their early lead, they were excellent value for it and the width they managed to find most of the evening seemed to undermine the defence and especially goalkeeper Cesar. The Brazilian keeper didn’t look comfortable all evening and should the teams that you expect to progress do so, you can already imagine the hungry looks in the eyes of the Spanish and Argentinian forward lines as they send wave after wave of attack bearing down on goal.

If Croatia were good value for the opener, then the scuffed but ultimately well placed equaliser lifted the Brazilian team and made life for their manager Mr. Scolari easier. Possession is key and the Brazil team had much of it, in English law they would have surely been allowed to keep the ball forever they had it that much. However possession doesn’t always equate to winning group stage matches and had Croatia gone forward more, had they reverted from the set pattern of play they could well have sneaked a second before half time and then hearts all across Brazil would have been beating quicker than if a festival suddenly appeared on the pitch.

Oscar was by far the best player on the night for Brazil, the player who perhaps regained his composure and assuredness quicker than any other Brazilian after going one-nil down. The midfielder beat two men before finding Neymar in space. From there the inevitable would surely happen and even though it was by far the best shot on goal the Brazilian had ever made in his career, it slipped past Pletikosa’s hand and skimmed in off the post.

The teams went in at half time at one apiece, Croatia certainly would have been happy with that, especially if it were to stay the same for the remainder of the game but Brazil were pressing harder, plenty of effort but the conviction lacked something special.

Croatia will no doubt feel aggrieved that Brazil’s second came from a hotly disputed penalty. As the ball arrived at Fred’s feet for some reason he seemed to hit the deck quicker than a pound of spuds being ejected from the back end of a lorry. In a competition in which every decision is vital and need to be seen to be correct, this judgment by the official seemed as way off the mark as an inexperienced actor performing on the first day of run through. Dejan Lovren will still be hurting about the penalty till the day he retires. Stipe Pletikosa got a hand to it but Neymar got his second of the game and astonishingly his 33rd of his short career. For a man of 22, you wonder just how many goals this man will get in the next decade!

If the stuffing wasn’t knocked out of Croatia at that point then what followed surely would have had many scratching their heads at the referee’s judgement as he ruled out what seemed to be a perfectly good challenge on Cesar, a challenge that from every angle seemed innocuous and fair as the keeper certainly didn’t have control of the ball and with the net gaping infront of them, perhaps it would have been justice for the penalty ruling if Croatia would have levelled the game.

All was academic in the end as Brazil’s best player on the night, the redoubtable Oscar, stabbed home from 22 yards a third for the host nation with possibly the best toe-poke you are likely to see at this year’s World Cup. It was no more than Oscar deserved but the same surely cannot be said of Brazil.

In a game dominated by mistakes by the two goal keepers, baffling decisions and the weight of expectancy, it was perhaps fitting that the game was won in such a fashion.

Summing up the mood felt by the Eastern Europeans, Croatia manager Niko Kovac said at the end of the game, “If that’s how we start the World Cup, we’d better give it up now and go home. We talk about respect, that wasn’t respect, Croatia didn’t get any. If that’s a penalty, we don’t need to play football anymore. Let’s play basketball instead, it’s a shame.”

Better teams will play Brazil as the competition progresses, Argentina possibly, Germany, Spain, dark horses Belgium, Italy on their day, Nigeria, all great countries who will give the hosts a bigger shock if they are not careful than plucky Croatia were able to do, or perhaps arguably allowed to do. These other countries will take Brazil apart.  For the good of the game, for the good of Brazil, this needs to be a World Cup remembered fully for all the right reasons on the pitch; it doesn’t need incredibly soft decisions given to the host nation, or indeed any nation, it needs to be transparent, it needs to show the good it can do, or else, whatever your political standpoint, the protestors who will undoubtedly get more vocal as the tournament continues, will see this as a complete vindication of their growing anger at F.I.F.A.

Football has come back to its spiritual home, it needs now to behave with grace and poise, it needs to show the world it can rise above the growing rumours and dedicate itself to be the perfect showpiece. This game was not a good way to begin.

Brazil: Cesar; D.Alves, T.Silva, D.Luiz, Marcelo; Paulinho, L.Gustavo; Hulk, Oscar, Neymar; Fred.

Substitutes: Jefferson, Fernandinho, Dante, Maxwell, Henrique, Ramires, Hernanes, Willian, Bernard, Jo, Maicon, Victor.

Croatia: Pletikosa; Srna, Ćorluka, Lovren, Vrsaljko; Modrić, Rakitić, Perišić, Kovacic; Olić, Jelavić

Substitutes: Zelenika, Pranjic, Vukojevic, Schildenfeld, Brozovic, Rebic, Sammir, Vida, Eduardo, Subasic

Goal scorers: Brazil Neymar: (2), Oscar. Croatia: Marcello (O.G)

Venue: Arena de São Paulo

Referee: Yuichi Nishimura (Japan)

Final Score: Brazil 3-1 Croatia

Man of the Match: Oscar (Brazil)

Ian D. Hall