Script turned on its head

Four fields featuring four contests that confounded the critics. Who would have it any other way? Uncertainty is a good thing in sports. If the results were known beforehand,why bother to go to the stadium or to switch on the television at all hours of the day and night? The Dutch players probably did not think much of their chances at halftime on Friday,when they trailed,1-0.

Wesley Sneijder and Arjen Robben said that the players in the locker room saw no way that they could advance to the next round. Not after being dominated in every way by Brazil for a half.

Dutch courage

What changed that,Sneijder said,was the realisation that nothing would be gained by staying timid. Dutch courage,maybe Brazilian overconfidence and certainly a foul that resulted in a red card for Felipe Melo of Brazil turned things around. But the key to Brazils elimination was that they were not true to their traditional flowing style.

Their coach,Dunga,tried to make Brazil more like Germany bigger,stronger,more efficient and less flamboyant. Brazil fell between the two approaches,and on Sunday,Dunga was fired for that. Relying on their rhythm and creativity,Brazil play the best game on earth; attempting to emulate the style of a European team,Brazil did not scare the Dutch.

Argentina took the opposite approach. Knowing that their defence was poor,they pushed everything forward,giving this World Cup more thrills during the first three weeks than any other team. That strategy failed against Germany,who knew exactly how to beat such an unbalanced team: take advantage of their weakness,crowd out Lionel Messi,and never let Argentinas attacking offence get any momentum.

It was absolute class, Germany Coach Joachim Loew said of Saturdays victory. We analysed their games and expected that Messi would drop into midfield. We managed to take him out of the game,keeping him under pressure without fouling him.

He added: I told my players,You are younger,faster,more enduring. We were able to put Argentinas defence under pressure and take it apart completely.

Germanys rising stars

Full marks for thoroughness. Yet Loew is still auditioning for his job at this World Cup. A month ago,the German federation was not prepared to give him a contract beyond 2010.

How could they or Loew have known a few months ago that Thomas Mueller,then just a young prospect with little experience at the international level,would burst into this World Cup like a star? How could Loew be sure that Sami Khedira,Jerome Boateng and Mesut Oezil would bring to Germany a youthful self-confidence that would make them not only powerful as a unit but pleasing to watch,too?

The joy of putting them in and finding out is part of this World Cups revelatory essence. The fall of presumed powers like England,France,Italy and Brazil is quite the opposite. And it is not only teams that are going home without fulfilling their potential.

The exit of Englands Wayne Rooney,Portugals Cristiano Ronaldo and now Messi was shocking. They came into the tournament hailed as the heirs to the legacies of players like Pelé,Diego Maradona and Zinédine Zidane. They are,by anyones estimation,the three current outstanding individual stars in soccer,both on the field and in its marketing.

Rooney and Ronaldo did nothing to enhance their reputations. Messi did,until he was neutralised by Germany. Maradona,now Argentinas coach,would seem to be a man with a singular insight about star players and perhaps why they fail. When his own tears were spent on Saturday,he said he felt as if he had been flattened by a punch from Muhammad Ali.

Spectacular collapse

Verbal punches were thrown at him from all angles. Was Maradona responsible for Argentinas collapse? Surely he accepted what Germanys players had said beforehand,that Argentines were nothing but temperamental artistes?

Maradona,now almost 50,said in effect that he was the father of this team,that he would go home defending them,that he was proud of them. He,and they,knew no other way to play. He may quit,but he says he will first consult his family and friends. But it was when he was asked why the great players had not demonstrated greatness here,had not risen to World Cup glory as he had done in 1986,that he gave his most interesting response.

I think we were more selfish,and now players are more collective,more team players, he said. They want to do everything with their team mates. He added,Before,perhaps it was a matter of being selfish players who had the rest of the team working for us.

How interesting,and how perceptive that answer was. Maradona had succeeded as a player on this stage,but was perceived as little more than a cheerleader masquerading as a coach in this edition of the tournament. Messi was the only player on the Argentine roster whose talent approached that of Maradonas,yet when Messi tried to run through Germany the way he had through previous opponents,he was rebuffed.

The inquests will be relentless,the taunts cruel,and they will start in South America. But the Latin Americans are not done with this tournament. There is still Uruguay against the Netherlands on Tuesday,and Spain,the European Latins,waiting for Germany on Wednesday.

A prediction? No chance. Surprise is this tournaments lesson.