Poor start for Brazil and Argentina
Both Argentina and Brazil started their 2018 World Cup Football campaign with defeat by the identical margin of 0-2 goals on last Thursday, which the critics did not consider as surprise. The South American countries being almost equal in skills and technique, it is mental power that decides the fate of the matches in most cases. Both the countries now lag behind on that point.
However, Argentina will stage a come-back, devising new plan, but it may not be possible for Brazil unless the following reformations are done, say observers.
1) Appointment of a European coach, 2) search for talent like Garincha, 3) fair selection of players and officials, and 4) picking up of a senior player as team captain.
On this column before start of the World Cup Football 2014, it was written that Brazil may disappear as a football playing nation in case of failure to win the sixth title at home. The apprehension is on the way to materialization. I shall not be surprised of Brazil fail to cruise into the final round of the World Cup Football 2018 to be held in Russia. Will the Brazil Football Confederation note our warnings carefully?
Khurshida Haque
Dhaka
Was it an intentional mistake?
Iran has not yet reacted strongly against the landing of four Russian Cruise Missiles designed for hitting anti-Assad forces in Syria. Conversely, the Russian government has denied the charge, however, in a soft language.
“Intentional or unintentional”, a friend of me said, “The target was the Iranian Uranium Enrichment Centre.” I stared in his face for few minutes and said,” How do you assess that?” He said, “After the incident, the Iranian government has softened its call for unity with Russia. Contrarily, Russia and the USA have agreed to coordinate bombing of the ISIL strongholds in Syria.
What I think is that Russia did what the USA and its allied could not do in last four years. Iran paid its price heavily, which ultimately strengthened the hands of Israel only.” The Muslims will never learn politics.
Ameer Hamzah
Dhaka
