CORDILLERA Binnadang Football Club (CBFC) and Baguio City High School Coach Aries Bocalan sees a “very exciting and highly unpredictable” World Cup with key victories by underdog squads in the group stage.
Several unpredictable winners of the first elimination rounds are Uruguay, which defeated Egypt; Japan, which defeated Colombia; Mexico defeating reigning world champion Germany, and Croatia, edging first runner-up Argentina.
Bocalan said Germany’s defeat to Mexico, however, was one of the most shocking happenings during the elimination rounds since The “Mannschaft” is the defending champion.
“Malaking upset ang pagkatalo ng team Germany dahil defending champion sila. However, hindi pa rin natin masasabi na wala na silang possibility na manalo. Sa previous years naman, may mga natalo na teams sa first elimination rounds pero nagchampion pa rin sa huli,” said Bocalan.
Adding to the fans’ excitement in this year’s World Cup is the possible early exit of Argentina after losing 3-0 to Croatia.
The team is on the brink of elimination and needs to win against Nigeria and have to better Iceland’s result against Croatia.
Bocalan said a match-up between Argentina’s Lionel Messi and Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo maybe farfetched from this time if Messi’s team gets booted out after the group stage.
However, Bocalan claimed between the two star players, Ronaldo seems to be performing better this year compared to Messi who notably missed the chance on a penalty shoot out which led to his team’s loss.
Despite this, Bocalan hopes that Argentina will be able to redeem their position so the match between the two will take place.
Overall, Bocalan said the rise of the underdogs in this year’s World Cup stirred up the enthusiasm of football fans around the world.
He added that having a video content analysis creates a good impact to the audiences since it can eliminate the possibility of having controversial goals like that of Maradona in 1986.
“Fair na ang decision ng lahat at mawawalan na ng doubts ang audience sa validity ng goals at sa mga nagiging decisions ng referee,” Bocalan explained. (Zoe Ramores/UP Baguio)