World Cup 2014 tricky to predict

THE 2014 WORLD CUP will this weekend enter into its knock-out phase and many soccer pundits are still uncertain on the likely possible winner of the world’s most lucrative football event. It has also become very difficult to predict who might win the golden boot at this World Cup with goals spread across a number of attacking players. Germany Striker Thomas Muller was the Golden boot winner at 2010 World Cup in South Africa with a better tally of assists than other strikers at the tournament. The 24-year-old Germany international and Bayern Munich player is currently among those who have scored many goals in Brazil so far, and he provided a clinical assist against Ghana where team-mate Mario Gotze scored to bring Germans back into the game. Perhaps before the tournament starts coaches should always search for materials like Muller who can search for goals from all angles of the field. Teams like Cameroon, Ghana, and Ivory Coast among others who have faced early exit should learn from Germany tactics as one of the most successful nations at the World Cup. Many teams have been eliminated whereas others have gone without a single point out of possible nine points. These shows how difficult football as a sport has become. Cameroon had to get a loan to clear allowances for their World Cup representatives but ended up with 0 point and was faced with early exit. Of course Cameroon has many experienced professional players in the team with the likes of Samuel Eto’O, Pierre-Webo, Jean Makoun, Stephane Mbia, and Joel Matip among many others. They had been placed in a seemingly tricky group with the likes of host nation Brazil, Mexico and Croatia. On paper Cameroon had more experienced and popular football professionals than his opponents Mexico and Croatia. But the West African nation could not match the tactical and technical ability of its opponents that prompted defeat from their opening two group games. All group opponents have an open game style and perhaps the indomitable lions should have developed a game style to counteract them. Cameroon conceded 9 goals during their three group games with an average of three goals per game. This also made them concede more goals than any other team during the preliminary phase of the world cup with only 1 goal scored. Surprisingly Coach Volker Finke is among a few managers who have not resigned from their position despite of poor performances at the event. Volker Finke lost tactical battles in all three games but against Croatia Alex song red card contributed to the misery of his performance where they lost 4-0. Before the red card, they were already 1 goal down. Discipline is among top aspects in football that should be handled by the coach, a disciplined team will in most cases present with high determinative power and courage. Such teams are usually well organized, had to break defensively with good coordination, they do not easily lose and even if they lose can retaliate before end of the game. Cameroon never shown good fight back in all their three games and where even lucky not to concede three goals during their opening game against Mexico where two goals from Giovanni Dos Santos where controversially disallowed. The same scenario applies to Ivory Coast coach Sabri Lamouchi who has already resigned from his position after a very poor performance against Greece. Against Greece, Ivory Coast played individual player football with very poor coordination and wrong tactical approach to the game as compared to their opening two games of the competition. Otherwise Ivory Coast does possess players who can compete with every team on this planet as seen on their balanced battles against Colombia. Currently Germany, Brazil, Argentina, Holland, and Colombia are among the favorites to win the competition where as surprise packages like Costa Rica, Mexico possess have an outside chance to win the competition. All the five mentioned teams are very well organized tactically and look strong in every part of the game. Only Argentina seems to have more weaknesses in the defense and midfield that might affect its further progression in this tournament.