The 2014 FIFA World Cup has finished, with Germany deserved winners. The tournament has restored my love of football, which had been well and truly lost.
I am English born and raised, so football has been a massive part of my life. I have fond memories of watching my favourite team, Charlton Athletic, play in the lower divisions of English football in the mid 1980s with my dad.
Meanwhile, the likes of Liverpool were dominating not only English football but Europe too.
I’d play football with my friends come rain or shine, and also played for my school team. I loved playing, watching, reading and listening about it. I’d play football video games and loved nothing better. I also had the elation of seeing Charlton Athletic get promoted to the Premier League and hold their own for some years under the management of Alan Curbishley. I saw them get relegated too, twice.
I moved to Australia around six years ago and my interest started to wane. The A-League at the time was so different, and the sport may never be the number one sport in Australia. But the one thing that was putting me off football was the diving and cheating we’d see week in, week out.
Then came the 2014 World Cup, and my love for the game is back. This was one of the best World Cups we’ve seen. I tuned into SBS to watch England versus Italy, and when England scored through Daniel Sturridge, I jumped out of my couch, punching the air in delight – to the bemusement of my wife and two young children. I hadn’t done this for years. The passion was back!
This was the moment when I knew I’d do whatever it took to watch as much of this World Cup as I could. Boy am I glad I did. The performances of James Rodriguez, Lionel Messi and Thomas Muller had me hooked.
The goalkeeping of Guillermo Ochoa, Tim Howard, Keylor Navas and Manuel Nueur was refreshing. And what about Costa Rica? A quarter final appearance we’ll be talking about for a long time.
The shock of Germany destroying Brazil in the semis and the way the country reacted to Neymar’s injury prior to the match brought a whole new drama to proceedings.
The general level of play has been fun to watch. The extra times and penalty shoot-outs built genuine tension. If your team happened to be in them, fingernails were lost and heartbeats skipped.
I’m now looking forward to the start of the English Premier League season a little over a month from now, but I’ll also make more of an effort to watch the A-League too.
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