The nature of football has made it possible to
have many deja Vu moments and that is quite understandable.
But when a certain result keeps happening over many years,
people start getting curious and begin attributing it to omens and curses.
In club football, many of such curses exist. Think of the curse
of Bella Gutman on Benfica and you may find yourself believing in such omens.
The world cup is no different. Many trends have been seen and attributed
to curses but we are here to highlight a few of them that have been broken at Qatar 2022.
You wouldn't believe how long some of them have actually stood for.
Number one: An African team breaking the Brazil curse.
Brazil are and will remain the very best at world football.
The sheer amount of talent they have produced throughout the history of football is outstanding.
And when it comes to the world cup, no team has been as successful as they have,
winning the Mundial on five different occasions.
It is therefore no surprise that they are a bogey team for a lot of countries.
Yet still,a few teams have been lucky enough to outwit them when it matters.
Before the 2022 world cup in Qatar, no African nation was among these lucky teams.
In fact, teams from the continent have tried seven times.
None had even managed to come away with a draw.
But apparently, no one told Vincent Aboubakar of Cameroon.
He had just scored the goal of the tournament against the Serbs and was in no mood to show
respect to the five time winners in the last match of the group stage.
He had to wait till stoppage time when
a crisp Mbekeli cross found him between two Brazilian defenders.
He nodded past Ederson and went his merry way,
taking off his shirt and drawing a second booking to be sent off.
It didn’t matter to him that Cameroon were still out of the tournament.
He didn't care. He has made history and has shattered one of the biggest
curses African teams have faced in the world cup.
This is only the second time Brazil has lost to an African side throughout history.
In 31 games, they have won 27 times and drawn just twice.
Their other loss was also at the hands of the Cameroonians during the 2003 Confederations cup.
Number two: Messi scoring in the knockout stage
For a player who once scored 91 goals in a calendar year,
Messi sure has a rotten goals return in the world cup.
Since making his debut at Germany 06,
he had only mustered a measly 6 goals in four world cup tournaments.
To make matters worse, none of these 6 had ever come in the knockout rounds-
a painful record he shares with arch-rival, Christiano Ronaldo.
To critics, the duo have simply been cursed by the football gods for their outstanding club careers.
When the latest instalment of the tournament began, everyone knew
that for Argentina or Portugal to reach the final, this curse would have to be broken.
And as predicted, the PSG attacker has been the first one to deliver.
While Ronaldo was dropped in their round of 16 match against Switzerland,
Messi took centre stage in an enthralling tie versus Australia.
The Socceroos defence had been resolute for much of the first half but they could only watch as
Messi latched onto a loose ball from Otamendi and placed it beyond the reach of Matt Ryan.
For the fans, the deadlock had been broken and Argentina could begin to
dream about the quarter-finals. But for Messi, a heavy load has
been lifted off his shoulder and the demons of his previous world cups have been exorcised.
Finally!
Number three: France breaking the defending champions curse
The defending champions curse was just a myth when Italy got
dumped out of the 2010 world cup in South Africa.
Most of the players who won it in 2006 had retired so it didn't come as much
of a surprise when they failed to make it out of the group in 2010.
Spain's failure,however, in 2014 raised a lot of eyebrows
considering that not only were they the defending champions of the world,
they were also the reigning European champions for two tournaments running.
As soon as they failed to overcome the challenge of Netherland and Chile in group B,
parallels were beginning to be made connecting what happened to Italy.
By 2018, everyone was sure that a curse was in place as Germany were booted out
from a far easier group than the one they faced when they won in 2014.
This year, the France team were put under the
microscope as whispers of the curse got louder and louder.
First, N'golo Kante and Paul Pogba pulled out due to injury
Then Karim Benzema got hurt in the last training session before the world cup.
In their opening game, Lucas Hernandez suffered
a horrible injury on the way to Australia scoring the first goal.
Confirmed!
The curse had been activated on the defending champions.
But then something no one expected happened. Adrien
Rabiot of all people took the game by the scruff of the neck.
In just 5 minutes, he had equalised and then set up Olivier Giroud for a second.
By the end of the game, France had run riot with 4 goals to 1 and have not looked back since.
Another comfortable win over dark horses,
Denmark sealed qualification for them with a game to spare.
In doing so, they are only the second team to beat the Champions curse after Brazil did so in 2006.
They have also gone further than 2002 when they failed to make it to the knockout stage
as holders from 98. Number 4: An asian team
beating both Spain and Germany
This world cup has served us with upset after upset
but none has been as impressive as what Japan did to Germany and Spain.
For many decades, the world cup has been a toss
up between the European and South American heavyweights.
Try as they might,
Africa and Asia' representatives have always had a tough time against them.
For Japan to do what they did against Die Mannschaft and La Roja, it almost felt like
a spell had been broken and the gap between the top teams and the lower ones had been closed.
Sure enough, South Korea followed up with a surprise win over Portugal
while Cameroon did their thing against Brazil.
The elites have been rocked and international football
may never be the same after this tournament.
We at goal 90 can't wait to see what other curses are broken before the world cup is over.
Will CR7 get his knockout goal?
Will France win it back to back?
And to the most important question.
Is it crazy that we think that these world cup curses are actually real?
Let us know in the comments.
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