horizonte on july 8 2014 getty imagesneymars spine colombian defender juan zuniga kneed neymar in the back and broke brazils spine in the quarterfinals the flamboyant striker lay prone on the ground in unbearable pain having suffered a fractured vertebrae a couple of inches higher could have paralysed neymar and ended his career for good the fans chanted neymars name and the team held aloft his no 10 shirt prior to the semifinal kickoff against germany but the trauma that followed proved just how much brazil missed their marquee strikerghanaian antics the ghana team refused to train just days before their final group match against portugal because of a row over appearance fees the ghana govt stepped in and sent more than 3 million in cash by airplane to brazil to pay the players ghana expelled two of their players following allegations of physical and verbal attacks in the camp sulley muntari and kevinprince boateng were both suspended by the ghana football associationreferee demoted referee yuichi nishimura was demoted to fourth official after his controversial decisions during the opening game between brazil and croatia nishimura incurred the wrath of the croatians after awarding a soft penalty to the hosts failing to punish a neymar elbow on luka modric with a red card and disallowing what looked to be a perfectly legitimate croatian goaleuro leagues real got the decima in spain while man united went into a freefall in england europe was buzzing all the timela decima finally real madrid earned their 10th champions league title after a wait since 2002 after years of spending fortunes the trophy found its way to the bernabeu it couldnt have been sweeter for cristiano ronaldo he was signed to win this one five years ago and the mystical moment arrived in lisbon where he had burst into prominencereal players celebrate with the trophy following victory in the uefa champions league final against atletico de madrid in lisbon on may 24 2014 getty imagesmessi goes on and on the wizards club form and personal form are running on parallel tracks barcelona ended up trophyless last season and is now chasing real at the winter break but one just cant seem to stop lionel messi from scoring his recordbreaking hattrick saw him surpass the alltime top scoring record in the la liga held by telmo zarra 251 goalsatleti the third force atletico madrid bucked the trend by winning the spanish league snubbing the domination by real madrid and barcelona under diego simeones leadership atletico managed to win the title in front of a packed camp nougoals galore in premier league manchester city and liverpool both ended the 20132014 english premier league season with a goal tally in excess of 100 this was the first time the league witnessed two clubs cross the centurymark in the same seasontransfer high luis suarez and james rodriguez fetched a combined sum of 138 million for their respective clubs the controversies surrounding suarezs appetite for staying out of trouble did