The round of 16 of the 20th World Championship in Brazil is about to start, but the tournament so far reserved more than one surprise. Who could have expected that Costa Rica or Algeria would be among the best 16 teams in the world?

From the 28th of June until the 1st of July the World Cup will see sixteen team face off for securing a spot in the quarters. Brazil-Chile, Colombia-Uruguay, Netherlands-Mexico, Costa Rica-Greece, France-Nigeria, Germany-Algeria, Argentina-Switzerland and Belgium-United States, those are the pairs who are going to be facing in a direct match. In case of a tie, the matches will continue to extra time and, eventually, to penalties.

So far this has been the Championship of surprises and controversies. Already before the kick off some protests spread all around Brazil, but during the first two weeks of the competition under the lens were not the teams, but the referees. Too strict, not strict enough, missed penalties, unnecessary red cards or dubious offside, all combined raised some doubts about the competences of the referees chosen by FIFA.

The downfall of the titans

Italy, England, Spain, Portugal… Four all-stars European teams were eliminated from the competition with very little honour. Spain lost its very first match against The Netherlands 1-5, in a sort of revenge for four year ago in South Africa, and again against Chile. “La Furia Roja” (Spain), after winning almost everything in the last eight years, left in good company. Bento’s Portugal appeared to be just an extra in this competition without any ability to finalize the game. Even the engine of the team, Cristiano Ronaldo, was unable to deliver a solid performance. Together in the “Death Tournament” (as it was called), Italy and England were overwhelmed by their opponents. A lot of polemics arouse about the non qualification of Italy, especially after Suarez, in the match Italy-Uruguay, bit Chiellini and was disqualified for eight matches and forbidden to enter football fields for four months.

Dreaming of the Cup

If some teams were expected to be the main characters in the competition, but failed to perform well, others were the biggest surprise of the tournament. Algeria made history advancing for the first time, along with Greece, to this stage. Costa Rica was able to beat three teams who, put together, won seven World Cups throughout their history and now the Mesoamerican team will face Greece for a spot in the quarters.

American teams on the top

No European team in the entire World Championship history was able to win overseas and eight teams out of sixteen are from the American continent. One of the causes could be the climate and the fields, but the quality (and sometimes the luck) of those teams will speak by itself as the Championship progresses

And the AEGEEans?

The AEGEEans are involved in a parallel competition of betting. Several AEGEEans joined the Facebook group to follow the competition together. After guessing most of the results, the competition among AEGEE members is lead by Alessandra Dehò from AEGEE-Brescia, closely followed by Umberto Castiglione (AEGEE-Napoli), Armenak Minasyants (AEGEE-Yerevan) and George Dimitrakoupolous (AEGEE-Patra). Another competition was launched for the round of 16. Who do you think will make it to the quarter final?

Written by Erika Bettin, AEGEE-Venezia

On August 29^th it was clear which teams were going to face each other in this year’s UEFA Champions League (Football) and it was also clear that The AEGEEan had joined forces with the Sports Working Group (SWG) to gather AEGEEans interested in football to follow the prestigious tournament.

The idea was brought by The AEGEEan’s Network editor Marije Arentze already in the spring, after the success of the Eurovision Facebook group. “Yesterday I was watching the Champions League final, and I was thinking that UEFA is something similar to Eurovision: it unites people from all over the continent by cheering for their own ideals. Eurovision by means of music and UEFA by means of football,” was the comment by Marije that started it all back in May.

During the summer the idea was, as many other things in AEGEE, left behind not only because of exhausting exams for the students of the Network but also because that is the time of the year when many of the AEGEE members flee to beaches and other fun activities.

Then, a few weeks ago, the idea was again picked up both in The AEGEEan, as well as in the Sports Working Group (SWG). From the beginning, the idea was to bring the two groups closer. In the end, developed both by Sports Working Group members as well as by members of The AEGEEan – AEGEE’s Online Magazine it is now possible to find a Facebook group of AEGEE members interested in following Champions League together.

This group has a lot of potential since football is a popular sport, and it can lead the SWG to members across the Network interested in sports. Champions League also brings on many different topics such as racism in football or the economy of the teams involved, which can possibly be the focus of the talks between the matches. An even greater success the group can achieve, is leading to events against homophobia and racism which have been some of the main causes in the SWG.

Which team will be the winner of the different matches? Who will be the football player with the most goals? Who will bring the trophy home after the final in Lisbon next year? All these are questions that AEGEE members can try to answer and round by round it will be interesting to see which people, and from where in the Network, know most about the sport. In the end, as in Champions League there will be a winner, not with a trophy, but indeed with a prize. For now the main aim is to have fun and bring the people of the Network closer to each other.

Written by Patricia Anthony, AEGEE-København