6 things fans love to witness in the FIFA World Cup

The moment for which football fans all over the world have waited for 4 years has finally arrived. The next one month will be full of uncertainties, hope, disappointments and excitement for everyone who is involved in the game that is considered to be a Religion.The FIFA World Cup is a stage where all sorts of drama happens on and off the pitch and the adrenaline rush that people go through during the extent of the tournament is unimaginable for folks not connected to the event. It is the single most uniting factor for fans all over the world and will be the biggest event of the year 2014.I have listed out six moments which we see in every edition of the FIFA World Cup and are expected to happen in Brazil too! Hope you enjoy the tournament!Please leave your comments for more such moments in the World Cup!

#1 Revenge

“Revenge is the purest emotion” and what better time to set your records straight against your enemy than on a stage where the whole world is watching you. International teams go head to head in this tournament and look for that one game where they can vindicate their fans trust by defeating their fiercest rivals on a day when it actually matters. That sweet feeling of getting one back on your opponent is what fans look up to during the course of the World Cup.

If you remember Beckham’s penalty against Argentina to avenge the red card from previous encounter and the humiliation that followed after it, you would understand what revenge means. This time around we have Netherlands looking forward to settle the score with the Spaniards in the group stage itself, the England –Italy encounter is also hyped around the English team’s lackluster performance against the Italians in previous international tournaments.

Many such moments will keep you engaged throughout the cup and you will find more reasons to hate your rivals and show your loyalty to the team you support.

#2 Major Upsets

Every edition of the World Cup has few major upsets in the initial stages of the tournament. Whether it was France, bowing out of 2002 world cup in the group stage, or Italy, failing to defend their title in 2010. Major teams even fail to qualify on few occasions for the finals; most notable was Netherlands in 2002 and Sweden this time around. Those who do qualify fail to deliver on the expectations lauded on their shoulders and the pressure of performance burns them out on the big stage.

Every World Cup has a group of death and interestingly this World Cup is expected to have more than just one. The teams most expected to exit from the group stages are England and United States. Both of them face tough competition from their counterparts and if at all these teams manage to qualify, fans of some other teams will hate them for it. So, more than one team is bound to exit at the Group stage and cause their fans a lot of pain by doing so!

The fans have to take the defeats in right spirit and hope for the best in the next World cup. Let us hope that the team we support does not end up being the one who gets out early!

#3 Controversies

A World Cup without controversies is like a Pizza without the toppings!

Fights on the field, red cards, wrong penalty decisions, disallowed goals or the epic “Hand of God”, the list goes on and it keeps on increasing with every game. The passion for the game and the intensity on the field makes these controversies hard to forget for fans and they argue with each other for years. The “Head-Butt” moment from the 2006 Final between France and Italy, or Ronaldo’s suspicious sickness just before the most important game of his life in 98 are all part of this mega event called the FIFA world cup!

The media that covers this tournament picks up on every tiny bit of comment or criticism and rips into the player or team involved. The reverberations of the controversies go on even after the World Cup is over, on one such occasion England fans could not forgive Christiano Ronaldo for “winking” towards his team mates after instigating the referee and getting Wayne Rooney red carded. This led to a national protest against the Manchester United start and almost made him leave the club!

I can’t list out all the controversies that have happened in the past editions, but I am sure about more happening in this one, and fans would eagerly await to see if they land up on the right side of a controversy or not! Good luck!

#4 Underdogs

Behind every major upset is a team who has surprised the world’s stage and proudly taken the tag to be the “Underdogs” of the tournament. Uruguay, South Korea, Croatia, Nigeria, Turkey and so many other countries have done this at some point in their World Cup history. France went on to win the tournament as underdogs and caused a major upset to Brazilian fans all over the world in 1998.

The underdog team as a whole proves to be more than the sum of its parts and tries to challenge the status quo! A lot of people put their money on few teams every year who end up being the “Giant Killers”. Such teams for this edition of the tournament are Belgium, Ivory Coast and Columbia. The fans should expect them to do well and few are even convinced that one of these will cause a major upset in the course of the World Cup.

Everyone loves the underdog story and ends up supporting them against the so called major teams in the later stages of the tournaments. When South Korea ousted Italy in the 2002 edition, football fans from the host nation were elated and went on to adulate the coach Gus Hiddink as a national hero.

The excitement to see a minnow challenge a established team doubles when it does against the rivals of your own team. We expect to see more such underdogs come to light in this World Cup!

#5 Fans

They sing and they dance, they celebrate the success with joy and cry in times of defeat, they turn up to support their team in numbers even though it means to travel half the globe to do so.

The fans are the most important part of this mega event and they are the ones who make it the biggest competition on the whole planet. Whether you are in the stands waiving your national flag or in a sitting in a small town pub along with your friends, the passion and the adulation for football does not change a bit, it thrives on the number of fans this game has all over the world and makes it the most followed sport ever!

Fans can change the course of a game with their songs and chants and encourage players to give more than their 100 percent. World Cup is one such place where people from all over the planet turn up in colorful outfits and weird gadgets to celebrate the religion called “Football”.

Some celebrity fans have promised much more than just their support to encourage the national team. Supermodel Larissa Riquelme promised to strip for the Paraguayan team if they did well at the world cup, these are the extent to which fans can go just to reward their players!

Last time we saw Vuvuzelas create an atmosphere that was difficult to play in and thus saw a ban on a similar instrument called Caxirola by the governing authority, FIFA.

Whatever happens in the next 30 days, we will all watch the game as fans and be part of the crowd that makes the World Cup an "Extravaganza"!

#6 Winner takes it all!

No matter how good you are but if you are not the best among all, no one would remember you in the history of World Cup football.

The only thing that inspires the players and the fans is to have the much coveted trophy and inscribe their name on it for the next 4 years. Every time one team comes so close and ends up clapping for the winners and stand in disappointment for not doing enough to be there on the podium.

The winners of the tournament take home the trophy and the bragging rights for the next 4 years when in due course they come out to defend the title against the whole world.

Spain are the current defending champions and they are one of the favorites to win it. There is a very high level of expectation from the South American teams who will have the crowd on their side for the whole month. Brazil and Argentina will look to challenge the European giants for the World Cup laurels. Germany has a strong team and can surprise all of us with their youthful team and fast paces football.

This time around we don’t have Paul-the Octopus to predict the winner for us but we all will find out who stands tall among 32 teams from all over the world and be the “Champions of the World” for this edition of the FIFA World Cup 2014.