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The past year was, pardon the cliché, full of highs and lows. The underdogs captivated us with their magical runs while the elites, though challenged, continued to rule the roost. Atletico had a dream season – they finishd with a league title and a UEFA Champions League runner-up trophy, while Real Madrid finally won the much coveted La Decima.Post-Ferguson Manchester United were in shambles, while their noisy neighbours pipped the impressive but ultimately unlucky Liverpool to the title. The year also saw “The Special One” return to his old stomping ground, albeit a bit mellowed down after his experience at Madrid.The year was also, on many levels, more of the same. Bayern dominated the Bundesliga, while their closest rivals Dortmund ended the year in the relegation zone, making it one of the most one-sided leagues. Juventus dominated in Italy and so did PSG in France.The kings of the game – Messi and Ronaldo – continued to be a cut above the rest, and the pretenders to their throne – Bale and Neymar – had to play second fiddle to them. Barring England and surprisingly Spain this year, the major Leagues were one-sided affairs.Then along came the FIFA World Cup, the one time in four years when everybody is a football fan, chanting names of superstars.The demise of Spain was a sorry sight but then again, no one wants to see one side monopolize the game like what Australia did a few years back in cricket. But this was no underdog story. The Germans were no pushovers and their decade-long work behind the scenes finally paid dividends at the grandest stage.For all us Indians, the ISL was the icing on the cake, giving us a glimpse of glamorous football. 2014 may well be looked back as the year when India made its presence felt in the world of football.But enough of reminiscing. Let us look forward to 2015, and here is a list of things we football fans can, or should, expect in the new year.
#1 Homecoming for Shakhtar Donetsk
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Come rain, hail or storm, football lives on. Despite facing political turmoil and having been forced to move away from home, Shakhtar Donetsk have continued to march on. They are the only team in the Champions League that play all their matches away from home.
Despite all their victories and impressive performances at the Champions League, they unfortunately never get to share it with their fans in their city. The Russian annexation of the Crimean region has meant that the troubled city engulfed in the midst of a war cannot host any of the matches of its team. Instead, Shakhtar have had to play all of their home games more than 600 miles away – in Arena Lviv.
It was heartening to see that despite the speculation of many wanting to leave the club due to unrest, the players have stayed back and shown solidarity at such a testing time. Luiz Adriano’s five goal haul and the club’s subsequent qualification for the knockout rounds of the Champions League were rare moments of joy and a tribute to people from a city where there are not many things to be optimistic about.
Let’s hope this year the Crimean region regains peace and Shakhtar can head back to their fortress. If they are so dangerous away, imagine their performances in front of their own crowd. This is more than just hope; rather, it’s a prayer that people in this region can have their joy back, because some things are bigger than football, even if still an integral part of it.
#2 Someone needs to try and take the mantle from Ronaldo and Messi
It is a sign of their genius that Messi and Ronaldo still set the benchmark year after year. For more than five years, they have been at the top, and the debate about the world’s best player still revolves around them.
It has indeed been a long wait for the next batch of starlets to stand up and challenge them for the so-called position of the best player currently. Gareth Bale, Eden Hazard, Neymar and James Rodriguez are the usual suspects, and one only hopes that this will be the year that they truly explode and show what they are capable of.
Hazard, for all his pace, trickery and ability to intimidate opponents, still lacks the prolific streak of the aforementioned duo. One only hopes Mourinho will get out the best from this prodigious talent at his disposal. Bale has the quality to be the go-to man at Madrid but finds himself in the same team as Ronaldo. His excellent performances in the final of the Copa del Rey and the Champions League showed the world that he can deliver when it matters the most.
Neymar too is in a similar position at Barcelona, overshadowed by the towering Messi, but this season he has shown glimpses that he is as good, if not better, than the Argentine – he has scored crucial goals for the Blaugrana and looks to be the future of a Barca side in transition.
Rodriguez was the revelation of the World Cup which earned him his dream move to Madrid. Though now deployed in a deeper position, he will eventually be moved to his favoured position and many have even tipped him to be the next in line for the throne after Ronaldo. And who can forget the prodigious German Gotze, who scored in the final and has gone on to be a vital part of the dominant Bayern team.
We hope that 2015 will be the year that these players step up and end the Ronaldo-Messi duopoly.
#3 The return of Serie A
It is hard to believe that only a decade back, teams from Italy were a force to be reckoned with. The late 80s, 90s and a major part of the early 2000s were dominated by Italian teams, with AC Milan alone winning five Champions League titles during that period and Juventus a further two. The Italian league set the benchmark for football during that period, boasting of some of the greatest players on the planet.
Fast forward 10 years, and the Serie A is a shadow of what it used to be, rocked by the Calciopoli scandal and incompetent ownership. Juventus are a dominant side domestically, but they have been exposed in Europe.
The signing of players like Adel Taarabt from QPR, who is basically a watered down Kaka, and some players mostly from the smaller teams in the Premier League, show the dearth of funds available to major clubs in Italy like AC Milan. Even the high profile players signed by teams like Napoli, Juventus and Roma were surplus to requirements at their respective clubs.
It is high time that the heads of the Italian football federation and the clubs come up with a plan to raise the level of the game and stop the exodus of their top stars to bigger clubs abroad. Football today is definitely lacking the classic Italian pragmatism and one can only hope that 2015 will bring about a change of fortunes in Italy.
Maybe an unlikely Champions League victory for Juventus will do the trick?
#4 Borussia Dortmund turn things around
Ah! The team that made a dominant Bayern Munich look like a bunch of amateurs in the DFB Pokal final in 2012. They even won back to back Bundesliga titles and gave Bayern a run for their money for the next two years. But the departure of key players, especially to their direct rivals Bayern, has meant that Borussia Dortmund haven’t been able to mount a sustained challenge this year.
The departure of Lewandowski was the last straw, but not even the most cynical pessimist would have envisioned Dortmund lurking in the relegation zone. The new signings have failed to convince while the back line has been plagued by injuries, which brings into focus the lack of depth in their squad. With each defeat that they suffer, German football suffers more.
From being a two-horse race, it now seems like there is only one horse running. No disrespect to the other sides, but none of them possess the ability to go pound for pound with Bayern. Even Bayern’s players have admitted it is bad for German football as a whole.
Jurgen Klopp has welcomed the winter break as a relief, and we hope to see Dortmund fight their way back like a wounded lion looking for redemption.
#5 A Bayern Munich vs Real Madrid Champions League final
Everyone loves an underdog story. Watching relatively smaller teams like Dortmund and Atletico reach the Champions League final made for endearing stories – stuff that inspirational movies are made of.
But let’s be realistic for a moment. Football, after all, is an exhibition of the best talent on display. As a neutral, watching two of the greatest sides fighting it out for the coveted trophy is an enticing prospect – no backs-against-the-wall stuff as epitomised by Chelsea’s triumph. And what would make a bigger exhibition of football than watching the mighty Germans under the meticulous Guardiola face the guile of Ancelotti and the expensively assembled machine that is Real Madrid.
Watching a team which thrives on keeping the ball till the opponents give in, against the most lethal counter-attacking side in the world right now – this would be a final pitting two distinct styles that dominate modern football being exhibited by the teams that execute them the best. Let last year’s humiliation not fool you, as Bayern have learned their lessons and will be better prepared this time around, while Madrid have an array of new stars who could adapt to any style of play.
This will be a final for the aficionados who love football for the art that it is, not influenced by allegiances or background stories.
#6 The resurgence of Fernando Torres
Even an eternal optimist must have lost faith in Fernando Torres by now. Once one of the most feared and coveted strikers on the planet who just narrowly missed out on a Ballon d’Or, Torres has come a long way but unfortunately, in the wrong direction.
The prodigious talent who broke through the ranks at Atletico Madrid and earned heroic status at Liverpool was never the same after he joined Chelsea for 50 million pounds. The weight of the hefty price tag and injuries meant he could never justify his cost and it was evident in his play, which reeked of a lack of confidence. His list of trophies (he has a lot) are a bit deceiving as barring Euro 2008, he has hardly been the difference maker.
His two-year loan move to AC Milan proved to be the wrong choice and six months later, he finds himself back at his boyhood club. Maybe life has come full circle for him and the romantic in us makes us believe that the club where he first flourished will be the place where he ends his career in a flourish.
He deserves it. A player once so lethal deserves to have a better legacy than someone who peaked for a few years and faded into ignominy.
#7 Manchester United turn over a new leaf
Was it ‘the Reds go marching on’ or ‘Ferguson goes marching on’ – that was the question on everyone’s mind after Sir Alex left United. Moyes’ inherited team looked nothing like the team under Sir Alex and it seemed that the team was built more around Sir Alex’s persona and ability to churn out results rather than the talent inherently present in the team.
After a shambolic season under a manager hand-picked by Sir Alex, they placed their faith in Louis Van Gaal – an accomplished manager who had achieved success at clubs like Barcelona and Bayern Munich and recently led an inexperienced Dutch team to a third place finish at the World Cup. To show their intent to reclaim their place among the elite, they made a slew of high-profile signings, with the most prominent being Angel Di Maria’s £59.7 million move from Real Madrid and Falcao’s loan move.
Despite initial hiccups and constant tinkering with the backline due to injuries, United have slowly but surely started churning out results, reminiscent of the team under Ferguson. The team is still a work in progress with many players yet to return from injuries, but once the players return and the team chemistry improves, Manchester United will be a fearful prospect for most teams.
With emerging youngsters like Januzaj and Wilson in attack, all Manchester United need is a good centre back, and their team will be complete. Fans should expect Manchester United to be challenging for top honours come next season.
#8 The FIFA clean-up
John Oliver, the comedian and presenter of the ‘Last week Tonight with John Oliver’, had famously said that football feels a lot like religion – people are obsessed with it, those in power are unaccountable, and yet it unites all the people come festive season. The dissenting voices against the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) are not new, but Sepp Blatter refuses to budge, declaring that he will be fighting the next elections as well.
The awarding of the World Cup hosting rights to Russia and Qatar in 2018 and 2022 respectively have been hotly debated and riddled with corruption charges. With all the hullaballoo already created, FIFA further lost credibility when former US prosecutor-turned-ethics-investigator Michael Garcia resigned as a sign of protest against the shoddy dealings.
The credibility of FIFA has taken a nose-dive this year, and noises are emanating from some sections that the major footballing nations could even leave the organization and form a new one.
But enough of the inner going-ons and all these bureaucratic mumbo jumbo. All the fans really want is to see is players at their best and that, dear Mr. Blatter, will not be possible if you keep sending the footballers to play at places with soaring temperatures like Qatar in summer, or who knows where next.
Not that we’re against it. We as fans just want the people we idolize to be playing in conditions that are best suited to football, and not risking their lives in the process. FIFA should be like background music while the football takes centre-stage.
#9 Younger stars at the ISL
2014 marked the start of a new era for Indian football. Granted, India have further slipped down the ranks to a lowly 171, but renewed optimism has arisen from the “Let’s Football” brigade, the Indian Super League. The tournament earned rave reviews for the massive turnouts and the unpredictable nature of the matches which reminded one of the English Premier League.
The marquee players who were supposed set alight the tournament only showed their class in glimpses and it was apparent that some were past their best. Although it is a good thing that such big names are being brought to create more buzz around the tournament, it would also be great if we could attract youngsters from elite European Clubs.
The way forward is for the ISL teams to sign up with the Arsenals and the Manchester Uniteds like Atletico de Kolkata did so well, and devise a manner to bring some of their academy graduates to play here. It would be a win-win situation for both sides. The youngsters would get an opportunity to prove themselves while we would be able to witness matches of even better quality, which in turn would help the Indian players too develop better.
Being the tournament with the fourth highest turnout in the world and the biggest in Asia, it would not be hard to convince a few starlets to play here for a few years before moving to bigger things.
