As fans of soccer, we appreciate the theater, drama and storylines that call us to develop personal opinions. The game is as much about heroes and tribes as it is about common enemies and villains. There are some things we all love to hate. If you can’t admit that, well, you’re just afraid of your own primal instincts.
2015 gave us Sepp Blatter, Jose Mourinho and Gonzalo Jara. 2016 looks set to provide us with its fair share of scoundrels.
3 Things We’ll Love To Hate In 2016
1: CONCACAF + CONMEBOL
The Copa América Centenario promises to be a month-long tournament of infuriating refereeing, shameful theatrics and some brilliant football. Internet warriors, this tournament is going to be a gold mine.
The 2015 CONCACAF Gold Cup featured a Jamaican players’ strike, Cuban visa issues, poor playing surfaces, intensive traveling, controversial penalty decisions in both the quarter-finals and semi-finals and an utterly underwhelming display from the cohosts, the United States.
The 2015 Copa América featured a player who lead his country to victory and made the team of the tournament after being jailed for driving under the influence during the tournament, on-pitch brawls, attempted headbutts and a cheeky poke in the anus, comically resulting in a sending off for the victim.
Add the two federations together and what’s the result? The 2016 Copa América Centenario! It’s going to be a glorious mixed bag of everything that's right and wrong with the world, a microcosm of morality itself.
2: The German National Team
Remember the glee that Spain’s capitulation at the hands of the Netherlands was met with in 2014? What about Germany’s dismantling of Brazil’s darlings in the semi-finals?
It’s inevitable, the winner’s of the 2014 FIFA World Cup have reached a level of elite dominance that makes them the adversary of all who support the underdog or hope for an unpredictable EURO 2016.
Spain’s tiki-taka style became the bane of everyone’s existence during the 2012 European Championships. This wasn’t due to any particular fault of Spain’s, neutrals simply revel in Greek tragedy, the fall from grace of the overwhelming favorites.
Germany aren't particularly villainous, only too good. Thomas Muller, Manuel Neuer, Mesut Özil and Toni Kroos will become infuriating to the general public if they continue to dominate all challengers.
Germany’s Group C opponents, Ukraine, Poland and Northern Ireland, will be keen to become national heroes by upsetting the world champion Die Mannschaft. The Dutch put five goals past Spain in 2014, maybe Robert Lewandowski can do the same to Germany? Just imagine the Twitter storm.
3: Pep Guardiola
If he signs for Manchester City or Manchester United, Pep Guardiola is going to sign for one of the most derisive clubs in English football. While the sides certainly polarize opinion and have a massive global reach, ensuring that he’ll have his fair share of supporters as well, there’s no doubting that many neutrals will be hoping for the philosophy of Pep to go sour in England.
David Moyes and Louis van Gaal, in tandem, have provided Manchester United haters more delight than Alex Ferguson granted them over the course of 26 years. The thought of Guardiola returning United to their former glory is enough to make any fan of the parity throughout the 2015/16 Premier League season worried.
The prospect of Guardiola at Manchester City is another situation that many would be quick to loathe. Backed by the limitless wealth of the Abu Dhabi Group and already boasting a formidable squad, there’s no reason to think that Pep wouldn’t dominate England in the fashion that Bayern Munich have dominated Germany during his tenure.
Surely the physicality of the Premier League, along with trips to the Britannia, will foil the plans of ‘the Philosopher’? We’ll all be savagely hoping for it, because, admit it, there’s an inner troll in all of us.
