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.
Justin Twell
Roar Guru
Thanks for the response Stevo, when I moved to Australia it was a mixture of the coverage of the sport here and the diving and cheating that would happen regularly in England and Europe as I would sit up to the early hours (before kids came along) to watch, mostly Premier League football. The A-League coverage does seem to be improving though, albeit slowly?
Justin Twell
Roar Guru
Thanks guys. I'd still put NFL/American Football as my favourite sport, but really looking forward to watching plenty of Football in the upcoming Premier League and A-League seasons. I heard the Asian Cup is starting down here soon too?
Stevo
Roar Rookie
Very interesting perspective Justin and glad to read of your 'plight' and now happy re-association with football. But I'm a little confused. Your interest in football started to wane once you'd moved to Australia. Did you find the 'diving anf cheating' a problem back in England or only in Australia? I can understand a waning in interest when coming to Oz because the intensity of coverage here must be a fraction of what it is in England and Europe. Just take a moment and think of those of us here in Oz who have been fed on a meagre diet of football yet have looked forward to the day when it would feature prominantly in local mass media. We are getting there. Cheers.
striker
Guest
Welcome back Justin to the best and biggest sport in the world.
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
Welcome back to the family, Justin Twell. And, as with all families, football ain't perfect. There will be drama. There will be days when football will frustrate you, annoy you & anger you: refs will make mistakes, players will make mistakes, players will try to win fouls by conning the ref, players will attempt to waste precious seconds when they're leading, etc. But, there will also be joy, excitement and ecstasy. If you love your family, you always accept them: the good, the bad & the ugly. England's Euro2016 campaign will start in 8 weeks - a tricky away match to Switzerland, who impressed me tremendously at WC2014. WC2014 is over. Time for 208 nations to try to catch up to Germany.
Bondy
Guest
Nice read. Apart from not being English that's pretty much how I saw the World Cup too. The local A League is not bad either ..