Wild Wild West(ern Conference Finals)

It's amazing how excited you can get for a match up that up until a week ago, didn't even seem viable. All NBA season seemed to be leading up to a clash between San Antonio and Golden State. The old guard versus the new school. Pop, Duncan and the Spurs trying to come up with answers to a Warriors team who would not stop asking questions. Questions like; will Steph Curry end up taking three pointers from the stands?

And then..

The window was closing fast on OKC. If it was still open at all. That's what I thought anyway. In a Western Conference packed with potential contenders, Oklahoma City would frustratingly just have to be content with waiting. Only with Kevin Durant constantly being linked away from Chesapeake Energy Arena, that might not be enough. Sometimes it's not enough to wait for a chance. You have to take it. That's what the Thunder did against San Antonio.

But they can't beat Golden State can they? Based on what I've seen in the last twelve months, they have a shot. After having just found a real groove and knocking off a team that's just won sixty plus game in the regular  season, confidence will be sky high and will not want to take their foot off the gas now. That's what I find so tantalizing.

Both Golden State and OKC at their best play at such a pace that both teams butting heads at that pace, it looks like we're gonna see an unstoppable force coming up against, well, an unstoppable force. And I don't just mean Russell Westbrook's dress sense. Game 1. Western Conference finals. Can't wait.

World Domination

Not only has the dust settled on it, Brazil 2014 now feels like a lifetime ago. In the last seven days, Phillip Lahm has gone from preparing for the biggest game of his life to the elation of lifting the World Cup and now he's announced his retirement from the national team. A week is a long time in football.

Germany are an easy team to sleep on, not least of all because it doesn't seem to take much for them to reach the latter stages of any tournament. Consistency often gets overlooked and even if this current incarnation isn't quite as robotic as generations past, they are every bit as consistent. What's remarkable for me is that they only really played well over the course of two halves. Their opening bursts against Portugal and Brazil were but glimpses of Germany at their best (and also front row seats to established nations at their worst) which then makes me wonder just how far they can go.

Suggestions of emulating Spain I think are wide of the mark, both in terms of winning tournament after tournament and the kind of impact that they had on the international game. To win the next European Championships would be some achievement, especially given that it's expansion now all but eliminates the threat of a major side missing out. Not only that, France on home soil will be among the favourites and have a particular score to settle with the Germans should they meet. 

No doubt Joachim Löw's team will be well placed for a while. There are still players breaking through and the current generation (the retiring Lahm aside) still have years at the very top. The wealth of good young talent is why many envisage the world game again being controlled by one power so soon after Spain's grip has been broken.

Brazilian Misery

They made it to the semi finals and it wasn't enough. Humiliated though they were, there are nations in the world for whom to go that far is nothing but a far off dream. It's difficult to find the right balance in terms of a reaction. I feel sorry for the nightmare scenario in regard to their own teams capitulation, compounded by the fact that their bitter rivals can be crowned world champions tonight on Brazilian soil. A Germany win will do nothing to restore the pride of a nation, but it will ease the suffering; albeit momentarily.

Whatever happens from here on in, there is a point in history to which success and failure will always be traced back to. Strange things happen in football all the time but to see something unfold that was truly inconceivable was beyond words. Yesterday's game with Holland meant very little, even pride had fallen by the wayside before the half hour mark. If anything, given what had gone on before, it wouldn't have taken too much for that defeat to have been a lot greater. When losing by only three is some sort of consolation, things have definitely gone awry.

So what now? Players will be no doubt be jettisoned. Fred will unlikely wear the yellow of Brazil again, having been made the de facto scapegoat of the entire campaign. Perhaps it is unfair for the weight of the entire squad to be placed upon one man, no matter how wretched a tournament he had. If it is his cross to bare in favour of shielding someone like David Luiz from more warranted criticism and salvage what is left of his international reputation then perhaps some good will come of it.

Though it's no doubt a low point for Brazilian football, they are not alone in disappointment. Spain, England and Italy are in similar need of an upturn in fortunes but the fact that their recent failure has quite literally come so close to home that it resonates so loudly. There is a larger pool of talent there, untainted by what has just happened. After a tournament in which anything other than winning would have been unsuccessful, that burden may be lifted somewhat in Russia. There will always be pressure to do well, but perhaps now is the chance for Brazil to have some fun with their football once more. If they find their smile once again, they may be able to start the healing process.

Entertainment Value

In football, the means almost always justifies the ends. The world "almost" is there merely as a courtesy.  How a team wins is ultimately irrelevant, even if it is deemed entirely unwarranted by all those that were witness to it. We do not love football for it's aesthetics but for the incredible, unparalleled drama created within those ninety minutes.

The entertainment in watching a game of football is inherent, yet fragile. It does not need to be manufactured for the consequences are already well established. Defeat may be harder to swallow in a cup final than in a mundane league fixture but ultimately they are all points along the way in a season long narrative.

Careers in football are dictated by minutiae, moments of seemingly callous variables. Just ask Mauricio Pinilla. As such, managers and players are not bound to any sort of romantic notion of how the game is meant to be played. Their career can depend on being on the right end of a bounce, so it is no wonder that some would look to the so called "dark arts" to negate their opponent.  I do think that there should be some sort of obligation to not actively choose to ruin whatever spectacle that there might be; especially if they have sufficient resources at their disposal to play good football (I'm looking at you Mourinho).  Ultimately however that's idealism and not the pragmatism that those in football simply have to cling to.

As the world cup began to unfold, everyone marvelled at what was on display. I cannot think of any tournament which had such a high level of incident, on what was back then a daily basis. Since the ending of the group stages that has died down noticeably, with teams consistently cancelling each other out.  If at first there was sense of countries showcasing their talents to the world, it has long since disappeared as the necessity to progress has acutely increased.

German Engineering

Prior to a ball being kicked, you would have been playing it safe to suggest that Germany would make it to at least the semi finals. It's just what they do. It didn't matter that they had a tricky group to navigate and then what turned out to be a very difficult test in Algeria, the Germans continue to progress. What's most impressive is that barring that first half against Portugal game, they've barely been out of first gear.

Much has been written about the development of young players and how they are brought up onto the international stage, with Germany often being cited. Having not won a major trophy since 1996 despite consistently reaching the latter stages, their definitive action in 2000 in trying to make their fledgling sides better dwarfs any English attempt, in spite of it being constantly spoken about.

South Africa was in that sense a very big tournament for them. Failure to do well may have provoked a rethink and while elsewhere there may have been little expectation to do well, that they got so far with such a young core has not given them the evidence to allow this blossoming generation of talent to flourish.

For France, this game will hurt. The manner in which that second half was played evoked their biggest stereotype. Harsh though it may be to simply suggest that they "surrendered", there wasn't quite the same fightback that we've seen from other sides so far in this tournament. It could spur them on. Regardless of the result, they still have a very good young core of players. With home advantage in Euro 2016 they will be heavily favoured to win. What happens then will depend very much on how they react to today's defeat.

America the Beautiful

From the outside looking in, it's very easy to become rather indignant with the United States of America. There's a disdain for their lack of devotion toward football which in recent years has become something of a self perpetuating myth. Having not even been consciously aware of their hosting of the world cup in 1994, for me it dates back to 2002. A country gets to the quarter finals and collectively doesn't care. It made no sense. Times have most certainly changed.

For one, there is much more of a realistic chance of success. As much as the last eight represented something in 2002, they were never going to go all the way. It's hard to get a nation whose identity is based around winning to buy into a sport they have little chance in. That's not to say that they had a shot but the gap has most certainly closed. In 2009 they beat Spain in the Confederations Cup and that was followed up by a strong showing in the world cup. To borrow a word from their own media department, now that they believe, we are most definitely into a new phase in American development.

One of the saddest things about their rise is that it's coincided with an absolute nadir in English football terms. Watching them unshackled by fear and unbound by the limitations in terms of player personnel, it's rather sad - given the relationship between our two nations - how far right now we are behind them based on what was on display in Brazil. I'm not at all convinced that Jurgen Klinsmann is even that good a manager, but he certainly has brought the best out of them and it goes to show what team spirit can do.

Another second round game, another underdog vanquished in noble fashion. Had the US found a second goal in extra time last night, it would have perhaps been a watershed moment regardless of the eventual outcome. To come back from two goals down in extra time, it's simply not heard of. Yet they dug in, got one back early and really made you think it could happen. Football fans know that it's not defeat but the hope that kills you. Now America knows it too.

Cheering for Algeria

Sometimes there is no shame in defeat; for the final whistle is only but the beginning of the next challenge. The problem with trying to acknowledge a team that gave it their all but ultimately couldn't quite get over the line is that it's very easy to undermine all that hard work.

I've always admired anyone or any team that goes our swinging. It's very easy to try and play football the "right" way when the odds are in your favour. When facing an uphill task, it's very easy to take shortcuts. To try and kick a team off the park because they have better players or to park the bus and reduce the game to a crawl because the opponent is dangerous in attack. But to ignore all that and insist on playing the same way, that requires a courage of conviction that should be commended. Algeria did not set out to simply frustrate Germany, they wanted to hurt them.

Commentators and media outlets rely so hard on platitudes that following Germany's agonising extra time victory over the ever vibrant Algeria, insult was added to injury. Words like plucky and brave make for a good narrative but also ignore the very real improvements made in Algerian football over the last four years.

By far the best African side in Brazil, every plaudit given to the Fennec Foxes over the last few weeks has been well deserved. Lambasted for their negativity in 2010, the turnaround is one that I hope will continue. Following their draw with Russia that guaranteed Algeria a spot in the next round, I bumped into five fans that had just been watching the game. It was incredible to see just how much it meant to them and very much underlined the idea of football bringing people across the globe together. That I could share in their joy only endeared them to me more.

Losing and winning - as distinct as they both are in their own right - both have shades of grey within them. Just as a team can win without doing much, they can lose having done everything to the contrary. Psychological factors sometimes mean that games are decided before a ball has even been kicked. The right mentality is no guarantee of success. For all the respect and commendation that comes with trying, ultimately it is the victory that will be remembered. In that regard, as good as they've been, I hope this tournament fades into the memory of Algerian folklore. If it stays at the forefront, it would represent a pinnacle and I for one certainly hope there is more to come.