Most people (in England at least) have been up in arms since the World Cup hosting results were announced but the question that baffles me is why are we surprised by what happened?
When you look at it, Russia winning the 2018 bid isn’t exactly a huge surprise – FIFA have made it known that they want to take the World Cup to new countries and it’s also not a secret that Sepp Blatter wants to win a Nobel peace prize at some point in his life for doing just this. Russia’s bid wasn’t that terrible, they have a good football history winning European Championships in 1960 & making the final again in ’64, ’72 & ’88 as well as finishing 4th in the ’66 World Cup (all as the Soviet Union). They have many players playing around the world and also have recent European pedigree with domestic clubs winning the UEFA Cup in 2005 (CSKA Moscow) and 2008 (Zenit St. Petersburg). People say it’s a tragedy that so many generations have missed out on seeing a World Cup in England but the Russian football fans have never seen a World Cup in their country?
However my point in this blog is to look at the fact that everyone is convinced there is something sinister going on in the background (brown envelops, oil soaked currency being passed around etc) – why is this such a surprise? Since the very early days of football controversy and murky goings on have been normal in football. Arsenal’s promotion to the first division in 1919 was marred in controversy with the club only finishing 5th in 1914-1915 (last season before WWI) in the 2nd division yet somehow being promoted to the newly expanded 1st division (from 20 teams to 22) over teams like Tottenham, who had finished 20th in 1st division the season before (Chelsea finished 19th but were given one of the 2 new places despite technically being relegated) or Barnsley or Wolves who had both finished above Arsenal in the 1914-1915 season. Allegations (unproven) were levelled against the Chairman Sir Henry Norris that he had arranged dodgy backroom deals or out and out bribery to get Arsenal promoted but nothing was ever proven (although Norris left in 1929 under a cloud having been found guilty by the FA of ‘financial irregularities’). I’m not using this to pick on Arsenal, just an example of how even in the early days football started on dodgy dealings and shadowy happenings.
Of course it’s unfair to just pick on Arsenal here especially as nothing was ever proven but nothing will ever be proven regarding this World Cup (FIFA & Blatter to clever/experience for that) but when you look at football today it’s constantly filled with allegations and stories about managers, players and officials being corrupt or dodgy – Sam Allerdyce and the media’s favourite Harry Redknapp are two names that jump to the front when you’re talking about manager that have a grey cloud above them, George Graham of course was found guilty of taking bungs in the transfer of John Jensen . In 2006 then Luton Manager Mike Newell & then QPR manager Ian Holloway both said bungs were rife in football, Jaap Stam famously said that he was ‘tapped up’ by Sir Alex Ferguson in his auto biography and was subsequently moved on from the club. Yet the English media and fans were up in arms saying that clearly there was something fishy with the whole FIFA bidding process and that people had lied to them – no shit?! This happens every day in football, players and managers lie to the media, perform illegal tapping up by talking about other players/clubs in press conference. It’s not just in England either – Italy is a prime example with the Totonero scandals in 1980 & 1984-1986 as well as the recent Calciopoli scandal in 2006, Spain as well has its fair share of controversy with Real Madrid being perceived as having favourable treatment during the Franco regime as they were perceived as the ‘Royal Club’. Barcelona & Real Madrid recently have both been guilty of tapping up with their approaches for Cristiano Ronaldo & Cesc Fabregas (Fabregas of course joining Arsenal in controversial circumstances as well) both being made very public through the Spanish media. In Germany in 2005 there was a refereeing scandal with referee Robert Hoyzer admitting to fixing matches in the 2nd division and DFB-Pokal games. Prior to that there was a scandal in 1971 when several games were ‘fixed’ and a fair number of players and officials were handed long term bans from football as a result.
This is just a few of the examples of scandal and problems in football, if you took a look at FIFA, the so called governors of football the list of allegations against them dates back a lot further than just the Sepp Blatter regime, Sir Stanley Rous (from England) was the leader of FIFA when the Soviet Union had to play Chile in a World Cup play off in 1973 just weeks after the Pinochet led military coup in Chile. Unsurprisingly the Soviet Union didn’t want to play the return leg (they drew 0-0 in the first leg in Russia) in the Estadio Nacional in Santiago which, days before the game, had been used as a prison camp where hundreds of objectors to the military takeover were tortured and executed – the walls were scrubbed clean of the blood of Pinochet’s victims literally hours before the game was due to be played. Protest not just from the Chileans and Soviets but from FIFA members worldwide fell on deaf ears and Rous ordered the game to go ahead, unsurprisingly the Soviets didn’t turn up and Chile were awarded the game. Rous lost the election in 1974 to João Havelange which ushered in a new era away from the ‘pro western’ stance that previous FIFA presidents had taken (as the previous 6 presidents were either English or French bar Rodolphe Seeldrayers from Belgium who was in charge for less than a year) because part of the problem with Rous (and previous presidents) was he just ignored African football – and they ended up voting him out of office.
Whilst it is right for the media to question the ethics of FIFA, something the ‘FIFA Ethics committee’ seem unable to do, perhaps they should take a look closer to home before criticising FIFA – how can we criticise corruption and shady deals in football when it runs rampant through this country anyway? And how can we criticise FIFA when we have helped create the monster to start with? Blatter isn’t the first dodgy president, the ExCo panel aren’t the first dodgy voting board interested in lining their own pockets and telling fibs to delegates and won’t be the last either – until we can clean up our game closer to home we can’t criticise.
Sadly the system will not change, FIFA are just too powerful for that, which means we can do 1 of 2 things – clean up our attitude and the way we conduct ourselves in football or just not bother running for the World Cup vote again. It’s not an ideal situation but it’s a situation we are partly responsible for creating and after enjoying all the power before we now have to deal with the consequences.
Showing posts with label World Cup. Show all posts
Showing posts with label World Cup. Show all posts
Wednesday, 8 December 2010
Wednesday, 4 August 2010
Time to build
So, Harry Redknapp has a problem with the England game next Wednesday because it's a 'pointless' friendly. He's not the only person that has had a problem with international friendlies in the past; nearly every Premiership manager has had a go at one time or another especially under the reign of Sven, who turned them in to a complete farce.
However this time it’s different, after all the talk and post mortems from England’s world cup campaign this friendly is a real chance for Fabio Capello to stamp his authority on the team and get rid of the let downs and trouble makers once and for all. Although he will be working towards qualifying for Euro 2012 (his last contracted tournament) really he should be focusing on the 2014 world cup and developing a team that will be at its peak then following the leads of Brazil & Italy, both of whom had disappointing campaigns and have overhauled their squads dramatically in the wake of this, although some of Brazil’s players that have been left out (Julio Cesar & Kaka) will make their ways back in.
My point is though they are using this time to try and test other players that are younger, hungrier and more to the point haven’t let the team down time and time again. People like Ganson & Neymar for Brazil and Balotelli & Cassano for Italy have been called up giving a new, fresh feeling to the team and now England need to do the same with certain players needing to be moved aside to make way for upcoming youngsters.
I know every time England crash at a major tournament we hear the usual ‘more investment in young players, there’s not enough youth coming through’ but the fact is there are some great youngsters coming through, just look at the recent records of the younger teams, the U-17 (winning the European Championship’s in 2010 beating Spain in the final) U-19 (reaching European Championship’s semi finals and losing to Spain) and U-21 (finishing runners up in 2009 also in the European Championship’s losing to Germany) which clearly isn’t the record of a team not producing young & talented players.
If you look at this current generation of players (since 2000) they have all struggled on the national stage, Euro 96 was an excellent tournament for England even if you could argue that home advantage was a factor, but even in France ’98 the team was exciting and only lost on penalties to a strong Argentina team. However after that the record is pretty awful, and the supposed spine of the team (also called the ‘golden generation’) have always failed to perform when it’s really mattered. David James seems to have called time on his career by joining Bristol City but the other players, people like Terry, Carragher, King, Gerrard , Lampard, Barry, Wright-Phillips & both Cole’s all made their names in the team & debuts in and around 2003/2004 so 6 years, or 4 major tournaments (3 as they couldn’t qualify for Euro 08) is enough time for the them to have reached their peak and done their best for England and after reputedly showing us they can’t do it the only one from that list that should still be guaranteed in the starting XI is Ashley Cole. I’m not saying none of them should play for England ever again; however I think there is a case for most of them becoming squad players and bench warmers.
For years we have heard about the Gerrard/Lampard problem and how can they work together and most recently we heard that Capello had solved it by shunting Gerrard out on the left in a 4-2-3-1 formation that had solved the problem, although for a few games (Croatia at home springs to mind) it did seem possible it wasn’t to be as usual they failed miserably in the World Cup, Gerrard having a good half against the U.S then falling silent & Lampard repeating 2006 up till the Germany game when he had one of his best games in an England shirt but no one else really turned up. This discussion has to stop now and Capello has to be the one to stop it by dropping one, if not both, from the England team and making way for Jack Rodwell who can play either as a defensive or attacking central midfielder although after seeing him against Germany (U-21 game, 1-1 22/6/09) in the defensive midfield role I think he could well become the player England needed this summer but of course it’s all down to where he plays for his club as there’s no point in playing him out of his usual position.
I’m suggesting dropping 3 central midfielders so obviously you’ll have to look at other options and another option, in my opinion would be Lee Cattermole. It’s easy to forget he’s only 21 yet was so highly sort after when he left Middlesbrough and again when he left Wigan. Whilst he’s by no means a finished article and certainly has a lot to learn on the pitch I think he is the sort of player England could do with, whilst like Rodwell he’s a defensive midfielder he doesn’t have the elegance or style or Rodwell he certainly is a tough tackling customer who is always 100% committed and works his socks off through 90 minutes and could be the ‘water carrier’ that England have been lacking (except when Owen Hargreaves is fit) almost being the ‘dirty player’ that a team needs like Van Bommel or Busquets both of who did excellent at their ball winning/pass to a better player jobs in the World Cup. Cattermole can tackle with the best of them and is certainly a more defensive minded player that Gareth Barry who was our answer in this role at the world cup, his injury being hyped to almost Beckham (’02) and Rooney (’06) levels of importance for a player that’s average at international level.
The other midfielder I think should be included is Jack Wilshere. Yes he’s only 18 but so what? Age was never an issue with Rooney or with Owen so why should it be with Wilshere? He spent a good second half of last season playing regularly with Bolton and in pre-season he’s been pretty good according to reports and highlights and Wenger has already ruled out a loan deal because he plans on using Wilshere more. He would be the attacking part of the midfield and the creative player adding a bit of the attacking flair that hopefully Wenger will help nurture and develop. I think if Dennis Bergkamp ever ends up on the Arsenal staff he would help Wilshere’s development massively and would hopefully see a player develop to his full potential but that’s all it is at the moment, and I think experiencing the taste of international football right now would only help develop a player who is used to training at that level with Arsenal’s squad and would certainly better prepare him for 2014 when, at 22, he will surely be a member of the squad.
The key thing this footballers have all shown is good footballing brains, Rodwell is able to play in many positions as he’s shown at Everton and for England youth playing as a centre back, defensive or attacking midfielder all to an excellent level whilst Cattermole has developed an excellent reading of the game and has great positioning as a result and can time a tackle pretty well making him a great ball winner whilst Wilshere posses great anticipation of the game around him for someone at such a young age, able to read the movement of both his team mates and opposition very well for someone so young. Whilst I think these guys can all start together against Hungary they don’t have to, and I don’t really expect them to, but starting 2 of them along side Gerrard or Lampard would be a great way to bring them in to international football.
The set up at the back is another area to come under scrutiny for reasons both on and off the pitch. Capello’s decision to bring Jamie Carragher out of international retirement was worrying and he never looked confident or up to scratch at the back and the same can probably be said for Matthew Upson who is a player that can do a job at a certain level but against a truly top team he is exposed and this has been the case to many times. I think Phil Jagielka certainly deserves a call up after allying fears over his fitness since recovering from a cruciate ligament injury, playing the 2nd half of last season for Everton and playing well.
Another name on the defensive side that I feel should no longer be on the list is John Terry who shot himself in that infamous press conference, expecting the support of his team mates by naming them and then being humiliated as they all denied anything to do with it, some reports saying certain players were angry at him doing this, and also seen in some sections as making a play for the captains armband again, an issue which apparently he’s never got over. Other than an OK game against Slovakia (one despairing diving header doesn’t make it a good game) which in hindsight was a game that was given more credit than it deserved doesn’t justify another guaranteed run in the England shirt. Rio is another one who’s time could be limited, depending on what his injuries and form are like in the coming season, although if he plays like last season I think he will have problems justifying his place as he is another one who it could be said has had enough chances. Ledley King would probably be an excellent choice but his injuries on top of his ongoing knee troubles don’t really seem the hassle as his performances in an England shirt have never really justified the trouble. I’d certainly say Dawson is worth a look as a starting centre back, if he can show the form he’s shown at Spurs then he can certainly be considered a starter and I think another one that should be considered is Gary Cahill who was cruelly robbed of the chance to lay his claim to a world cup spot with a blood clot in his arm. Back to full fitness he has become a key player at Bolton and has been linked with top teams, he’s certainly shown a number of times he deserves to be at a team challenging for a European place and I’m sure Man City probably wish they bought him instead of Lescott.
Whilst Ashley Cole is probably the only player that came out of the World Cup with his reputation intact he’s not getting any younger and it might be worth giving a younger left back some experience as well, Kieron Gibbs at Arsenal is certainly worth a call as he can also play on the left side of midfield as well and at 19 has shown a lot of progress so far for Arsenal, and if it wasn’t for injury some say he might have displaced Clichy as left back already.
In goal David James international career has to be considered over, he certainly won’t be in consideration in 2012 at 42 and definitely not 2014 so why carry on with him now? Rob Green will probably only be in the squad as there isn’t anyone else that can lay claim to the 3rd slot except maybe Scott Carson who seems to have under gone a pretty solid rehabilitation at West Brom, although it remains to see how he’ll cope in the premiership. Joe Hart should finally be given the No 1 shirt, if anything to strengthen his case for the City No 1 shirt or at least be allowed to move on if he’s going to be Shay Given’s understudy again and also given that on last season’s form he is one of the best keepers in the EPL, certainly English keeper. Ben Foster should be given another chance in the squad I think, his move to Birmingham should kick start his career and I think being under less pressure at club level will help him develop as well, sadly like most other young English keepers he made the jump to a big club to early in his career and the fact he’s still in the premiership at a top 10 team is a testament to his ability.
Players like Adam Johnson, Theo Walcott and Bobby Zamora should come in as well, Theo will have learnt a valuable and painful lesson from missing out on the world cup squad and I think this will help him improve as a player whilst the same tournament was too early for Johnson now is the time for him to step in to the squad and Zamora would probably have made the squad over Heskey had it not been for his injury. I think bringing these players through now will help set the team up towards the next world cup, and like I said I’m not suggesting dropping all the players I listed at the start, in fact other than James & Terry I think most of them should stay in the squad as their experience could be useful to the other players and they will also help take the pressure off, but we have to move away from this reliance on players that can’t perform at the highest level. My starting XI would play as a 4-5-1 and be Hart, G.Johnson, Dawson, Jagielka, Cole; A. Johnson, Gerrard, Rodwell, Wilshere, Lennon; Rooney
Just as a last thought I still think the idea of Mikel Arteta playing for England shouldn’t be written off, yes he’s not able to get in the Spain team but that’s because the players in front of him are superior and not because he’s a bad player, but that will never happen
However this time it’s different, after all the talk and post mortems from England’s world cup campaign this friendly is a real chance for Fabio Capello to stamp his authority on the team and get rid of the let downs and trouble makers once and for all. Although he will be working towards qualifying for Euro 2012 (his last contracted tournament) really he should be focusing on the 2014 world cup and developing a team that will be at its peak then following the leads of Brazil & Italy, both of whom had disappointing campaigns and have overhauled their squads dramatically in the wake of this, although some of Brazil’s players that have been left out (Julio Cesar & Kaka) will make their ways back in.
My point is though they are using this time to try and test other players that are younger, hungrier and more to the point haven’t let the team down time and time again. People like Ganson & Neymar for Brazil and Balotelli & Cassano for Italy have been called up giving a new, fresh feeling to the team and now England need to do the same with certain players needing to be moved aside to make way for upcoming youngsters.
I know every time England crash at a major tournament we hear the usual ‘more investment in young players, there’s not enough youth coming through’ but the fact is there are some great youngsters coming through, just look at the recent records of the younger teams, the U-17 (winning the European Championship’s in 2010 beating Spain in the final) U-19 (reaching European Championship’s semi finals and losing to Spain) and U-21 (finishing runners up in 2009 also in the European Championship’s losing to Germany) which clearly isn’t the record of a team not producing young & talented players.
If you look at this current generation of players (since 2000) they have all struggled on the national stage, Euro 96 was an excellent tournament for England even if you could argue that home advantage was a factor, but even in France ’98 the team was exciting and only lost on penalties to a strong Argentina team. However after that the record is pretty awful, and the supposed spine of the team (also called the ‘golden generation’) have always failed to perform when it’s really mattered. David James seems to have called time on his career by joining Bristol City but the other players, people like Terry, Carragher, King, Gerrard , Lampard, Barry, Wright-Phillips & both Cole’s all made their names in the team & debuts in and around 2003/2004 so 6 years, or 4 major tournaments (3 as they couldn’t qualify for Euro 08) is enough time for the them to have reached their peak and done their best for England and after reputedly showing us they can’t do it the only one from that list that should still be guaranteed in the starting XI is Ashley Cole. I’m not saying none of them should play for England ever again; however I think there is a case for most of them becoming squad players and bench warmers.
For years we have heard about the Gerrard/Lampard problem and how can they work together and most recently we heard that Capello had solved it by shunting Gerrard out on the left in a 4-2-3-1 formation that had solved the problem, although for a few games (Croatia at home springs to mind) it did seem possible it wasn’t to be as usual they failed miserably in the World Cup, Gerrard having a good half against the U.S then falling silent & Lampard repeating 2006 up till the Germany game when he had one of his best games in an England shirt but no one else really turned up. This discussion has to stop now and Capello has to be the one to stop it by dropping one, if not both, from the England team and making way for Jack Rodwell who can play either as a defensive or attacking central midfielder although after seeing him against Germany (U-21 game, 1-1 22/6/09) in the defensive midfield role I think he could well become the player England needed this summer but of course it’s all down to where he plays for his club as there’s no point in playing him out of his usual position.
I’m suggesting dropping 3 central midfielders so obviously you’ll have to look at other options and another option, in my opinion would be Lee Cattermole. It’s easy to forget he’s only 21 yet was so highly sort after when he left Middlesbrough and again when he left Wigan. Whilst he’s by no means a finished article and certainly has a lot to learn on the pitch I think he is the sort of player England could do with, whilst like Rodwell he’s a defensive midfielder he doesn’t have the elegance or style or Rodwell he certainly is a tough tackling customer who is always 100% committed and works his socks off through 90 minutes and could be the ‘water carrier’ that England have been lacking (except when Owen Hargreaves is fit) almost being the ‘dirty player’ that a team needs like Van Bommel or Busquets both of who did excellent at their ball winning/pass to a better player jobs in the World Cup. Cattermole can tackle with the best of them and is certainly a more defensive minded player that Gareth Barry who was our answer in this role at the world cup, his injury being hyped to almost Beckham (’02) and Rooney (’06) levels of importance for a player that’s average at international level.
The other midfielder I think should be included is Jack Wilshere. Yes he’s only 18 but so what? Age was never an issue with Rooney or with Owen so why should it be with Wilshere? He spent a good second half of last season playing regularly with Bolton and in pre-season he’s been pretty good according to reports and highlights and Wenger has already ruled out a loan deal because he plans on using Wilshere more. He would be the attacking part of the midfield and the creative player adding a bit of the attacking flair that hopefully Wenger will help nurture and develop. I think if Dennis Bergkamp ever ends up on the Arsenal staff he would help Wilshere’s development massively and would hopefully see a player develop to his full potential but that’s all it is at the moment, and I think experiencing the taste of international football right now would only help develop a player who is used to training at that level with Arsenal’s squad and would certainly better prepare him for 2014 when, at 22, he will surely be a member of the squad.
The key thing this footballers have all shown is good footballing brains, Rodwell is able to play in many positions as he’s shown at Everton and for England youth playing as a centre back, defensive or attacking midfielder all to an excellent level whilst Cattermole has developed an excellent reading of the game and has great positioning as a result and can time a tackle pretty well making him a great ball winner whilst Wilshere posses great anticipation of the game around him for someone at such a young age, able to read the movement of both his team mates and opposition very well for someone so young. Whilst I think these guys can all start together against Hungary they don’t have to, and I don’t really expect them to, but starting 2 of them along side Gerrard or Lampard would be a great way to bring them in to international football.
The set up at the back is another area to come under scrutiny for reasons both on and off the pitch. Capello’s decision to bring Jamie Carragher out of international retirement was worrying and he never looked confident or up to scratch at the back and the same can probably be said for Matthew Upson who is a player that can do a job at a certain level but against a truly top team he is exposed and this has been the case to many times. I think Phil Jagielka certainly deserves a call up after allying fears over his fitness since recovering from a cruciate ligament injury, playing the 2nd half of last season for Everton and playing well.
Another name on the defensive side that I feel should no longer be on the list is John Terry who shot himself in that infamous press conference, expecting the support of his team mates by naming them and then being humiliated as they all denied anything to do with it, some reports saying certain players were angry at him doing this, and also seen in some sections as making a play for the captains armband again, an issue which apparently he’s never got over. Other than an OK game against Slovakia (one despairing diving header doesn’t make it a good game) which in hindsight was a game that was given more credit than it deserved doesn’t justify another guaranteed run in the England shirt. Rio is another one who’s time could be limited, depending on what his injuries and form are like in the coming season, although if he plays like last season I think he will have problems justifying his place as he is another one who it could be said has had enough chances. Ledley King would probably be an excellent choice but his injuries on top of his ongoing knee troubles don’t really seem the hassle as his performances in an England shirt have never really justified the trouble. I’d certainly say Dawson is worth a look as a starting centre back, if he can show the form he’s shown at Spurs then he can certainly be considered a starter and I think another one that should be considered is Gary Cahill who was cruelly robbed of the chance to lay his claim to a world cup spot with a blood clot in his arm. Back to full fitness he has become a key player at Bolton and has been linked with top teams, he’s certainly shown a number of times he deserves to be at a team challenging for a European place and I’m sure Man City probably wish they bought him instead of Lescott.
Whilst Ashley Cole is probably the only player that came out of the World Cup with his reputation intact he’s not getting any younger and it might be worth giving a younger left back some experience as well, Kieron Gibbs at Arsenal is certainly worth a call as he can also play on the left side of midfield as well and at 19 has shown a lot of progress so far for Arsenal, and if it wasn’t for injury some say he might have displaced Clichy as left back already.
In goal David James international career has to be considered over, he certainly won’t be in consideration in 2012 at 42 and definitely not 2014 so why carry on with him now? Rob Green will probably only be in the squad as there isn’t anyone else that can lay claim to the 3rd slot except maybe Scott Carson who seems to have under gone a pretty solid rehabilitation at West Brom, although it remains to see how he’ll cope in the premiership. Joe Hart should finally be given the No 1 shirt, if anything to strengthen his case for the City No 1 shirt or at least be allowed to move on if he’s going to be Shay Given’s understudy again and also given that on last season’s form he is one of the best keepers in the EPL, certainly English keeper. Ben Foster should be given another chance in the squad I think, his move to Birmingham should kick start his career and I think being under less pressure at club level will help him develop as well, sadly like most other young English keepers he made the jump to a big club to early in his career and the fact he’s still in the premiership at a top 10 team is a testament to his ability.
Players like Adam Johnson, Theo Walcott and Bobby Zamora should come in as well, Theo will have learnt a valuable and painful lesson from missing out on the world cup squad and I think this will help him improve as a player whilst the same tournament was too early for Johnson now is the time for him to step in to the squad and Zamora would probably have made the squad over Heskey had it not been for his injury. I think bringing these players through now will help set the team up towards the next world cup, and like I said I’m not suggesting dropping all the players I listed at the start, in fact other than James & Terry I think most of them should stay in the squad as their experience could be useful to the other players and they will also help take the pressure off, but we have to move away from this reliance on players that can’t perform at the highest level. My starting XI would play as a 4-5-1 and be Hart, G.Johnson, Dawson, Jagielka, Cole; A. Johnson, Gerrard, Rodwell, Wilshere, Lennon; Rooney
Just as a last thought I still think the idea of Mikel Arteta playing for England shouldn’t be written off, yes he’s not able to get in the Spain team but that’s because the players in front of him are superior and not because he’s a bad player, but that will never happen
Friday, 16 July 2010
Review of the World Cup
So the World Cup is over, like a summer holiday it has come and gone to quickly and we are left with nothing but the memories - another French revolution, a failed English revolution, South Americans crumbling, Injuries and controversies left right and center. Here i plan to look at the good, the bad and the down right ugly
Highlights
One of the main highlights, for me anyway, was seeing Spain finally confirming themselves as the best International team on the planet, becoming 3rd team in history to hold the Euro & World cup and the 2nd to do it this way round (Germany Euros '72 & World Cup '74) & France (World Cup '98 & Euros 2000). I read many articles and comments about how Spain were boring and how they weren't playing entertaining football, i thought the only problem with the Spain games where the fact that every team seemed to adopt the same approach which was sitting deep and trying to hit Spain on the counter, which clearly didn't work. Torres lacking fitness was a problem as they wanted to use him in tandem with Villa but Torres looked sluggish through out the tournament and clearly wasn't at his sharpest & fittest and broke down in the final to prove this, although an interesting little fact was the only time Villa didn't score was when Torres didn't start.
Another highlight for me was Uruguay, a team who i greatly admire for their history, surprising quite a few people and getting to the Semis and being part of a cracking game against Holland. I said they would be dark horses at the start of the tournament and really lived up to it, playing some very nice football and the attacking qualities of Forlan & Suarez were one of the joys of the tournament, Forlan rightfully picking up the Golden Ball for the best player and i think that's pretty justified. They also had some excellent fans, some quality players in Lugano, Godin, Fucile & Pereira and one of the best national anthems at the tournament.
Their was also quite a few cracking goals scored in the World Cup, and the tournament started off with a cracker, Siphiwe Tshabalala scoring a beautiful left footed thunderbolt from just inside the area, Oezil scored another long range shot in the Germany v Ghana game from just outside the edge of the area teeing himself up lovely with a little touch then powering the ball home. The last good goal from the group stage, that i can think of anyway, is the 2nd Italian goal against Slovakia by Fabio Quagliarella, the ball falls to him about 25 yards out and with the most sublime chip manages to dink it over the keeper and drag Italy back into the game. After the group stage we saw another cracking goal from Tevez against Mexico, he actually lost the ball trying to play a pass to Messi, the ball bounced off a defender and back to him and he hit a lovely shot combining power and accuracy to unleash a near 25 yard shot in to the keepers top left corner. In my opinion the only other 2 goals to be considered are the Van Bronkhorst strike against Uruguay, he was pretty much on the left wing about 35 yards out, took two touches to cut inside and let rip, the ball flying past everyone and crashing into the goal off the post and the other goal would be Forlans in the 3rd/4th place play off, a lovely cross came in and Forlan caught it on the volley on the edge of the area, thumping the ball into the ground and the bounce fooling German keeper Butt as the ball sailed past him into the goal. I personally think Van Bronkhorst's is the best goal at the World Cup closely followed by Tevez's against Mexico.
My final highlight was the lack of predictability at this years world cup, yes i know Spain won and they were one of the favourites but the fact is they are still the first European team to win outside of Europe which is a big achievement. Aside from that i look at the Semi finals and never saw any of the teams, bar maybe Spain, being there - i was expecting 1, maybe 2 South American teams but never expected the only one to be Uruguay, it was also nice to see Holland their and i never expected Germany to get that far. Even the Spanish had a surprising result losing to Switzerland in the first game although i think that provided them with the kick they needed to realise they couldn't just turn up and expect to win no problem. No one saw Algeria drawing with England, New Zealand being the only unbeaten team all tournament, Italy losing to Slovenia and finishing bottom of their group, the French blowing up so spectacularly, South Africa being 2 goals away from going through, Brazil struggling to beat North Korea or a German missing a penalty.
Yes it may not have started off at a blistering pace but come the semi finals i was really enjoying things and will genuinely hold fond memories of this world cup.
Special mentions - Robbie Earle & his participation in getting 30 scantily clad women in to a game, Paul the Octopus (but not the other animals that tried to steal his crown), John Terry eating humble pie & the giant dung beetle during the opening ceremony
Another highlight for me was the 'mute' button on my T.V remote which got a frequent work out thanks to a mixture of abysmal punditry teams & commentators or that horrible noise of Vuvuzelas. Just to make one thing clear, i have absolutely no problem with African culture or what they want to do at their football games but this notion of 'its part of their culture' is absolute crap. The Vuvuzala came to prominence in 2002 - yes, that's right 8 years ago, and was only really used at Church's before this so no its not part of the African 'football culture' that Sepp Blatter told us it was vital to, the reason he said this? What a shocker, the vuvuzelas all have FIFA logo's on them meaning FIFA get a percentage of the money made from these sails, his exact quote was "we should not try to Europeanise an African World Cup ... that is what African and South Africa football is all about — noise, excitement, dancing, shouting and enjoyment" correct me if I'm wrong but isn't that what football all around the world is about?! Somehow its managed for over 100 years with out them and I'm pretty sure football will carry on OK without them......
Moving on from annoying monotone sounds to....annoying monotone sounds this time provided by T.V coverage from the wonderful BBC & ITV pundits & commentators. Starting with the BBC which i thought was the lesser of 2 evils, Gary Lineker was nothing special but his usual steady self on air although he does need to stop acting like Alan Hansen & Alan Shearer are just his mates and we the viewer are eavesdropping on their conversation. Hansen was the same guy he's been for the last 15 years, offering good defensive insight into the game but not really offering anything we haven't heard before. Shearer is just boring and monotonous, the more i listen to him the less interested i get in what he has to say. Those where the main pundits, we also had to endure the ramblings of Emmanuel Adebayor who made sense about 1 in 10 words - the guy made no sense at all and the only thing that stands out about him was his phone going off whilst he was talking in the Japan v Cameroon game, he should never be allowed near a microphone again. Lee Dixon is another one who seems to just make up the numbers, offering nothing insightful or beneficial to the discussions and pretty much stating the obvious and just generally agreeing with anything people like Hansen & Shearer would say (especially in the final).
However the BBC had two ace's up their sleeves with Clarence Seedorf & Jurgen Klinsmann who genuinely offered insightful thoughts & observations which were very useful in both setting expectations and pointing out things to watch out for during the game but sadly these guys were rarely used, as Holland & Germany progressed these guys should have been used more often but instead Seedorf was used at half time & full time for quick comments and Klinsmann just seemed to vanish, probably back to the U.S. Roy Hodgson was another one that was very good although he returned to England after the group games and it was interesting to see a current manger offering insightful thoughts to the game although this shouldn't be taken as a given, Mick McCarthy showed that not all managers make good pundits/commentators as he was awful, in the Nigeria Argentina game he seemed to loose his rag on air at a T.V crew & in the Brazil Ivory coast game he said 'i wish someone would just elbow somebody' personifying just whats wrong with the English attitude towards football. It was a shame to see Motty used sparingly, i understand he's not doing live commentary anymore although if he's out their he should do it because he's sorely missed, but still if your dragging someone out the South Africa given them more than 5 mins at the end of the show. I would talk about commentators but as most of the games i had the T.V on mute i wouldn't be able to say much!! Actually thinking about it, that's a lie - i had the audio on for Argentina v Germany and it took Mark Lawrenson about 20 mins to spot the fact that the reason for Germany's first goal was because the Argentinians didn't have anyone on the front post, so I'm guessing i didn't miss much in the way of insightful observations. Colin Murray was also a good host of the highlights show, proving both interesting and witty yet serious when the situation called for it and was certainly a refreshing break from Lineker & Chiles and it is surly a matter of time before he starts getting bigger roles
The ITV team was easily the most annoying though, a mixture of inaudible English provided by Edgar Davids (so bad he was relegated to James Cordons rubbish show) or Marcel Desailly (although hats off to him, his reactions in the Ghana games was excellent)and rubbish pundits starting with Andy Townsends awful insight which provided the viewer with no extra information and Gareth Southgate who is so boring i don't know what he provides (except constant ribbing about penalty shoot outs). Kevin Keegan wasn't to bad but i only saw him for one match. Again their was one gem in the dirt, Lucas Radabe offered some useful insight into the African mentality and what the whole thing meant to not only South Africa but Africa as a continent, although the highlight must have been Robbie Earle, who's mysterious disappearance from TV screens was explained when the story broke about the Bavarian beer trying to ambush advertise with a number of scantily clad women - turned out they used Earle's complimentary tickets to get in to the ground, somehow Robbie Earle managed to get nearly 50 free tickets a game?! He was delt with swiftly to avoid any FIFA action against ITV, but this is still the highlight of ITV's trip out to South Africa for me. Adrian Chiles went to ITV because he wanted to become a main presenter and proved BBC's decision to let him go was right by being one of the most boring presenters ever, nothing seemed to raise him from his boring flat tone and its no surprise that the BBC coverage of the final was more watched, the numbers nearly being 3-1 in BBC's favour
Although ITV's commentary team did show something that could be taken forward, when before the Holland v Uruguay semi final Jim Beglin was taken ill with an ear infection leaving Clive Tyldesley to commentate on his own and i found it much more beneficial, mainly because i believe Beglin brings nothing to the input, but also because having one voice making statements and observations was better than the game of '1 better' or 'I'll have the last word' we frequently see between commentators. Although i didn't like ITV's idea of having one of Southgate or Townsend commentating as well as being pundits, either to one job or the other we don't need your idiotic thoughts in both formats. The highlight for ITV though was missing Gerrard's first goal against the USA game on there HD channel, the first of 3 high profile blunders (Earle/Ticket scandal & Tyldesley being left on his own). To conclude the nightmare that was ITV after every evening game you got to endure 30 mins of James Cordons 'ego trip' which was just a very boring, very flat program - the guy was sub Tim Lovejoy and that's something.
My one final moan is at the players themselves, FIFA had a big push on the 'fair play' and 'spirt of the game' but this was not evident through most of the tournament and a few teams stood out in this respect, pretty much all the major teams disgraced themselves with petulant behaviour both on and off the pitch, the two major examples of this being France & England. The way the French players behaved during the world cup was disgraceful, any dressing room disagreement between a manger and a player should stay in the dressing room, yes these things get leaked out but to show such petulant behaviour was both a disgrace to football and their country & it will be interesting to see how Laurent Blanc & the FFF react to this when the next squad naming comes around. Although the England players are perceived as a disgrace for their attitude on the pitch & their lack of work ethic you can't criticise them for simply not being good enough, its not their fault its the system they've come through & ultimately this should lay at the feet of the F.A and EPL. However their is one clown who should be singled out for his behaviour and that is John Terry, more specifically the moronic press conference he held where he tried to stage a coup although I'm not quite sure what of, if he really thinks Capello will ever consider him for being captain again then he really is an idiot and I'm not quite sure what else he expected with that press conference. Either way he completely undermined the team spirit, the current captain & vice captain and at the end of the day Capello delivered him a bitch slap that resulted in him having to publicly come out and back down and more than anything he seemingly made Capello stick to his guns more than ever. I said before the world cup that Terry was a liability and if reports are to be believed his attitude during and after this press conference just drove a bigger split in the camp and it wouldn't surprise me if Capello either left him out the next squad or called him up and then made him sit on the bench to prove a point.
It's not just these 2 examples though, the Ivory Coast against Brazil were an absolute disgrace and Kaka's red card was just a joke along with the behaviour of their players, if they weren't rolling around feigning injury they were injuring the other teams players. Mark Van Bommel was another one, clearly the pace of the top games was beyond him so his answer was to kick the other players and somehow got away without a booking until the semi finals when he got booked for time wasting! The final was an example with Spain, the only team that really tried to play football in every game they where in, against a Holland team who's solution to the problems with the ball was to not worry about the ball and just kick the opposition up and down the pitch, then have the cheek to complain about the ref afterwards - for what? not sending De Jong off for showing Xabi Alonso his latest kung fu moves? or because Robben was very lucky not to get a second yellow? either way it showed the petulant nature of the whole tournament because the moment the players failed on the pitch it was everyone else's fault - Brazil are another example, complaining about Melo's red card for a very clear stamp on Robben, then Melo complains saying it wasn't a red card?
Despite the fact i will come away with more positive memories about the tournament it is a shame that the behaviour of certain players, teams & managers have tarnished the memory of this World Cup, and i get the feeling these problems won't go away overnight!
Thanks for reading
Highlights
One of the main highlights, for me anyway, was seeing Spain finally confirming themselves as the best International team on the planet, becoming 3rd team in history to hold the Euro & World cup and the 2nd to do it this way round (Germany Euros '72 & World Cup '74) & France (World Cup '98 & Euros 2000). I read many articles and comments about how Spain were boring and how they weren't playing entertaining football, i thought the only problem with the Spain games where the fact that every team seemed to adopt the same approach which was sitting deep and trying to hit Spain on the counter, which clearly didn't work. Torres lacking fitness was a problem as they wanted to use him in tandem with Villa but Torres looked sluggish through out the tournament and clearly wasn't at his sharpest & fittest and broke down in the final to prove this, although an interesting little fact was the only time Villa didn't score was when Torres didn't start.
Another highlight for me was Uruguay, a team who i greatly admire for their history, surprising quite a few people and getting to the Semis and being part of a cracking game against Holland. I said they would be dark horses at the start of the tournament and really lived up to it, playing some very nice football and the attacking qualities of Forlan & Suarez were one of the joys of the tournament, Forlan rightfully picking up the Golden Ball for the best player and i think that's pretty justified. They also had some excellent fans, some quality players in Lugano, Godin, Fucile & Pereira and one of the best national anthems at the tournament.
Their was also quite a few cracking goals scored in the World Cup, and the tournament started off with a cracker, Siphiwe Tshabalala scoring a beautiful left footed thunderbolt from just inside the area, Oezil scored another long range shot in the Germany v Ghana game from just outside the edge of the area teeing himself up lovely with a little touch then powering the ball home. The last good goal from the group stage, that i can think of anyway, is the 2nd Italian goal against Slovakia by Fabio Quagliarella, the ball falls to him about 25 yards out and with the most sublime chip manages to dink it over the keeper and drag Italy back into the game. After the group stage we saw another cracking goal from Tevez against Mexico, he actually lost the ball trying to play a pass to Messi, the ball bounced off a defender and back to him and he hit a lovely shot combining power and accuracy to unleash a near 25 yard shot in to the keepers top left corner. In my opinion the only other 2 goals to be considered are the Van Bronkhorst strike against Uruguay, he was pretty much on the left wing about 35 yards out, took two touches to cut inside and let rip, the ball flying past everyone and crashing into the goal off the post and the other goal would be Forlans in the 3rd/4th place play off, a lovely cross came in and Forlan caught it on the volley on the edge of the area, thumping the ball into the ground and the bounce fooling German keeper Butt as the ball sailed past him into the goal. I personally think Van Bronkhorst's is the best goal at the World Cup closely followed by Tevez's against Mexico.
My final highlight was the lack of predictability at this years world cup, yes i know Spain won and they were one of the favourites but the fact is they are still the first European team to win outside of Europe which is a big achievement. Aside from that i look at the Semi finals and never saw any of the teams, bar maybe Spain, being there - i was expecting 1, maybe 2 South American teams but never expected the only one to be Uruguay, it was also nice to see Holland their and i never expected Germany to get that far. Even the Spanish had a surprising result losing to Switzerland in the first game although i think that provided them with the kick they needed to realise they couldn't just turn up and expect to win no problem. No one saw Algeria drawing with England, New Zealand being the only unbeaten team all tournament, Italy losing to Slovenia and finishing bottom of their group, the French blowing up so spectacularly, South Africa being 2 goals away from going through, Brazil struggling to beat North Korea or a German missing a penalty.
Yes it may not have started off at a blistering pace but come the semi finals i was really enjoying things and will genuinely hold fond memories of this world cup.
Special mentions - Robbie Earle & his participation in getting 30 scantily clad women in to a game, Paul the Octopus (but not the other animals that tried to steal his crown), John Terry eating humble pie & the giant dung beetle during the opening ceremony
Another highlight for me was the 'mute' button on my T.V remote which got a frequent work out thanks to a mixture of abysmal punditry teams & commentators or that horrible noise of Vuvuzelas. Just to make one thing clear, i have absolutely no problem with African culture or what they want to do at their football games but this notion of 'its part of their culture' is absolute crap. The Vuvuzala came to prominence in 2002 - yes, that's right 8 years ago, and was only really used at Church's before this so no its not part of the African 'football culture' that Sepp Blatter told us it was vital to, the reason he said this? What a shocker, the vuvuzelas all have FIFA logo's on them meaning FIFA get a percentage of the money made from these sails, his exact quote was "we should not try to Europeanise an African World Cup ... that is what African and South Africa football is all about — noise, excitement, dancing, shouting and enjoyment" correct me if I'm wrong but isn't that what football all around the world is about?! Somehow its managed for over 100 years with out them and I'm pretty sure football will carry on OK without them......
Moving on from annoying monotone sounds to....annoying monotone sounds this time provided by T.V coverage from the wonderful BBC & ITV pundits & commentators. Starting with the BBC which i thought was the lesser of 2 evils, Gary Lineker was nothing special but his usual steady self on air although he does need to stop acting like Alan Hansen & Alan Shearer are just his mates and we the viewer are eavesdropping on their conversation. Hansen was the same guy he's been for the last 15 years, offering good defensive insight into the game but not really offering anything we haven't heard before. Shearer is just boring and monotonous, the more i listen to him the less interested i get in what he has to say. Those where the main pundits, we also had to endure the ramblings of Emmanuel Adebayor who made sense about 1 in 10 words - the guy made no sense at all and the only thing that stands out about him was his phone going off whilst he was talking in the Japan v Cameroon game, he should never be allowed near a microphone again. Lee Dixon is another one who seems to just make up the numbers, offering nothing insightful or beneficial to the discussions and pretty much stating the obvious and just generally agreeing with anything people like Hansen & Shearer would say (especially in the final).
However the BBC had two ace's up their sleeves with Clarence Seedorf & Jurgen Klinsmann who genuinely offered insightful thoughts & observations which were very useful in both setting expectations and pointing out things to watch out for during the game but sadly these guys were rarely used, as Holland & Germany progressed these guys should have been used more often but instead Seedorf was used at half time & full time for quick comments and Klinsmann just seemed to vanish, probably back to the U.S. Roy Hodgson was another one that was very good although he returned to England after the group games and it was interesting to see a current manger offering insightful thoughts to the game although this shouldn't be taken as a given, Mick McCarthy showed that not all managers make good pundits/commentators as he was awful, in the Nigeria Argentina game he seemed to loose his rag on air at a T.V crew & in the Brazil Ivory coast game he said 'i wish someone would just elbow somebody' personifying just whats wrong with the English attitude towards football. It was a shame to see Motty used sparingly, i understand he's not doing live commentary anymore although if he's out their he should do it because he's sorely missed, but still if your dragging someone out the South Africa given them more than 5 mins at the end of the show. I would talk about commentators but as most of the games i had the T.V on mute i wouldn't be able to say much!! Actually thinking about it, that's a lie - i had the audio on for Argentina v Germany and it took Mark Lawrenson about 20 mins to spot the fact that the reason for Germany's first goal was because the Argentinians didn't have anyone on the front post, so I'm guessing i didn't miss much in the way of insightful observations. Colin Murray was also a good host of the highlights show, proving both interesting and witty yet serious when the situation called for it and was certainly a refreshing break from Lineker & Chiles and it is surly a matter of time before he starts getting bigger roles
The ITV team was easily the most annoying though, a mixture of inaudible English provided by Edgar Davids (so bad he was relegated to James Cordons rubbish show) or Marcel Desailly (although hats off to him, his reactions in the Ghana games was excellent)and rubbish pundits starting with Andy Townsends awful insight which provided the viewer with no extra information and Gareth Southgate who is so boring i don't know what he provides (except constant ribbing about penalty shoot outs). Kevin Keegan wasn't to bad but i only saw him for one match. Again their was one gem in the dirt, Lucas Radabe offered some useful insight into the African mentality and what the whole thing meant to not only South Africa but Africa as a continent, although the highlight must have been Robbie Earle, who's mysterious disappearance from TV screens was explained when the story broke about the Bavarian beer trying to ambush advertise with a number of scantily clad women - turned out they used Earle's complimentary tickets to get in to the ground, somehow Robbie Earle managed to get nearly 50 free tickets a game?! He was delt with swiftly to avoid any FIFA action against ITV, but this is still the highlight of ITV's trip out to South Africa for me. Adrian Chiles went to ITV because he wanted to become a main presenter and proved BBC's decision to let him go was right by being one of the most boring presenters ever, nothing seemed to raise him from his boring flat tone and its no surprise that the BBC coverage of the final was more watched, the numbers nearly being 3-1 in BBC's favour
Although ITV's commentary team did show something that could be taken forward, when before the Holland v Uruguay semi final Jim Beglin was taken ill with an ear infection leaving Clive Tyldesley to commentate on his own and i found it much more beneficial, mainly because i believe Beglin brings nothing to the input, but also because having one voice making statements and observations was better than the game of '1 better' or 'I'll have the last word' we frequently see between commentators. Although i didn't like ITV's idea of having one of Southgate or Townsend commentating as well as being pundits, either to one job or the other we don't need your idiotic thoughts in both formats. The highlight for ITV though was missing Gerrard's first goal against the USA game on there HD channel, the first of 3 high profile blunders (Earle/Ticket scandal & Tyldesley being left on his own). To conclude the nightmare that was ITV after every evening game you got to endure 30 mins of James Cordons 'ego trip' which was just a very boring, very flat program - the guy was sub Tim Lovejoy and that's something.
My one final moan is at the players themselves, FIFA had a big push on the 'fair play' and 'spirt of the game' but this was not evident through most of the tournament and a few teams stood out in this respect, pretty much all the major teams disgraced themselves with petulant behaviour both on and off the pitch, the two major examples of this being France & England. The way the French players behaved during the world cup was disgraceful, any dressing room disagreement between a manger and a player should stay in the dressing room, yes these things get leaked out but to show such petulant behaviour was both a disgrace to football and their country & it will be interesting to see how Laurent Blanc & the FFF react to this when the next squad naming comes around. Although the England players are perceived as a disgrace for their attitude on the pitch & their lack of work ethic you can't criticise them for simply not being good enough, its not their fault its the system they've come through & ultimately this should lay at the feet of the F.A and EPL. However their is one clown who should be singled out for his behaviour and that is John Terry, more specifically the moronic press conference he held where he tried to stage a coup although I'm not quite sure what of, if he really thinks Capello will ever consider him for being captain again then he really is an idiot and I'm not quite sure what else he expected with that press conference. Either way he completely undermined the team spirit, the current captain & vice captain and at the end of the day Capello delivered him a bitch slap that resulted in him having to publicly come out and back down and more than anything he seemingly made Capello stick to his guns more than ever. I said before the world cup that Terry was a liability and if reports are to be believed his attitude during and after this press conference just drove a bigger split in the camp and it wouldn't surprise me if Capello either left him out the next squad or called him up and then made him sit on the bench to prove a point.
It's not just these 2 examples though, the Ivory Coast against Brazil were an absolute disgrace and Kaka's red card was just a joke along with the behaviour of their players, if they weren't rolling around feigning injury they were injuring the other teams players. Mark Van Bommel was another one, clearly the pace of the top games was beyond him so his answer was to kick the other players and somehow got away without a booking until the semi finals when he got booked for time wasting! The final was an example with Spain, the only team that really tried to play football in every game they where in, against a Holland team who's solution to the problems with the ball was to not worry about the ball and just kick the opposition up and down the pitch, then have the cheek to complain about the ref afterwards - for what? not sending De Jong off for showing Xabi Alonso his latest kung fu moves? or because Robben was very lucky not to get a second yellow? either way it showed the petulant nature of the whole tournament because the moment the players failed on the pitch it was everyone else's fault - Brazil are another example, complaining about Melo's red card for a very clear stamp on Robben, then Melo complains saying it wasn't a red card?
Despite the fact i will come away with more positive memories about the tournament it is a shame that the behaviour of certain players, teams & managers have tarnished the memory of this World Cup, and i get the feeling these problems won't go away overnight!
Thanks for reading
Friday, 25 June 2010
World Cup group stage review
So the groups have come to a close and what started off as a boring World Cup actually ended up with a few surprises and some very good closing match's
Group A
The biggest surprise wasn't the fact that France got knocked out in the group stage but the spectacular way in which they imploded, after a 0-0 draw against Uruguay they didn't look like a team likely to reach the final but they did seem to have something about them, especially keeper Hugo Lloris who is the only french player to leave this tournament with any creditability. Obviously what happened next has been very well documented and has seen French football descend into total and utter chaos with Anelka being sent home (just one of a long list of players he's fallen out with including Trezeguet, Pires, Giuly, Coupet) players striking then the French prime minister demanding answers. Patrice Evra refused to attend the press conference with Domenech after the final South Africa game saying he will hold a press conference at a later date to reveal all, and the public wait with baited breath. As if this wasn't enough Domenech the proceeded to cover himself in glory by having a stand up row with Carlos Parreira over a comment the South African coach made months ago.
South Africa actually put up a much better account of themselves than most predicted, actually finishing on the same number of points as 2nd place Mexico but going out on goal difference - their victory over France will be fondly remembered for years no matter how much disarray the French where in. Group A was exciting with only the opening days games a slight disappointment
Group B
Most people were waiting to see how Argentina performed and they didn't disappoint with attacking, flowing football that was both good on the eye and leaving them open defensively as proven by the howler they conceded against South Korea. One of the main talking points was how Maradona was going to get the best out of Messi and get him to repeat his performances with Argentina that he has done with Barcelona and it seems Maradona has solved it the simplest of ways - stick Messi in the hole behind the strikers and have all the play run through him. He has easily been one of the stand out players in the group stages and i fully expect him to keep performing as long as Argentina are left in the competition. Nigeria were absolutely awful and probably one of the worst teams that got to the World Cup and part of this will be blamed with the management change after the African Cup of Nations which left Lars Lagerbäck with very little time to develop the team and build his ideas into them, clearly his usually strict discipline didn't work with these guys following the red card against Greece. Greece themselves where nothing special although their proudest moment will be winning a game in a World Cup ever & their first win in a major tournament outside Euro 2004 beating the Nigerians 2-1. The other team in the group, South Korea, were exactly what we've come to expect from them, organised, disciplined & hard working fully deserving their place in the last 16
Group C
This group was interesting to say the least with most people expecting England to finish top and USA finish 2nd - but as with most things involving England it could never be that straight forward. After the opening games and that howler from Rob Green things looked pretty much as you'd expect with England & USA drawing but then came the 2nd round of games, with England turning in one of the worst performances seen under Capello, and probably their worst performance since losing to N.Ireland under Sven whilst in the other group game the USA had to come from 2-0 down at half time to draw 2-2 with Slovenia which left the group wide open and the usual last game pressure England so love to put themselves under. As per usual England just scrapped through thanks to some last ditch defending and the USA scored a last minute winner to go through on top of the group. Obviously its the getting through the group stage that matters but England's performance against Algeria was absolutely dire & the performance against Slovenia wasn't much better but now they can focus on the task ahead and worry about facing the Germans
Group D
This group provided surprises from the start with Germany's resounding thumping of Australia in the first game all the way through to Australia upsetting the odds and defeating Serbia in the last game. Ghana, who many people wrote off after Essien's injury sneaked through to the 2nd round and with a very tough defence, a hard working midfield & a very good attack they could really give the USA a run for their money in the 2nd round. I thought Serbia would get 2nd place and after beating Germany i honestly thought they had it but Australia had other ideas, themselves having on eye on 2nd place outplaying the Serbians in the final group game allowing Ghana to sneak through on goal difference - the same Australia team that looked so awful after the first game against Germany when they got hammered 4-0. Ultimately the 2 teams that deserved to go through managed to go through but it certainly was an unpredictable round of games
Group E
The Netherlands were always going to top this group, despite Robben's injury they still have a strong team over all and looked very efficient and technically sound with solid players all over the pitch. The real battle in this group would be for 2nd place, at the start i honestly thought all 3 teams left had a chance although after their poor showing in the warm ups i must admit i had written Japan off slightly but the display they turned in beating Cameroon 1-0 in the first game showed that whilst they don't have an outstanding attack what they do have, like most of the Asian teams, is an incredible team spirit and work ethic, personified by Keisuke Honda who has been outstanding for them at the heart of the midfield. Sadly for Cameroon the Eto'o v Milla fight proved to be a distraction as well as having the seemingly inept Paul Le Guen as manager. The final game between Japan & Denmark i thought would be a tight affair but Denmark failed to turn up and the Japanese made it through quite comfortably due to 2 good free-kicks combined with mistakes by Thomas Sorensen let the Japanese securing their passage through to the knockout stages, a special mention to Jon Dahl Tomasson who equalled the Danish goal scoring record in this game.
Group F
Another group that saw a traditional European super power struggle and ultimately crash out early on with Italy performing way below expectations - most people think that there squad was to old but considering England have the highest average age of any of the squads at the tournament this can't really be considered a reason for failure although Canovarro did show his age a couple of times being out paced and at fault for a few of the goals. Paraguay were the solid team in this group, not losing a game and playing some solid football. Slovakia did very well considering they are one of the smallest nations at the world cup, the highlight easily a 3-2 beating of Italy in the game that got them through the the 2nd round and knocked the Italians out - although Fabio Quagliarella scored an incredible goal which will more than likely be one of, if not the, best goals of the tournament (this was later matched by David Villa's first goal against Chile).
The highlight of this group though, and in my opinion the tournament so far, was New Zealand who no one gave a chance of getting a point let alone finishing 3rd in their group and remaining undefeated in all group games, and by all rights they should have beaten Italy had it not been for a very soft penalty decision against them. What really impressed me about New Zealand was the fact they didn't rise to Italy's gamesmanship when the Italians had to resort to diving and play acting when they were in danger of a humiliating defeat. New Zealand can leave the competition with their heads held high and an air of dignity on their performances, it will be interesting to see how they kick on from this performance and with Australia now in the Asia qualifying zone i expect to see them back at the next world cup
Group G
The so called 'group of death' failed to really live up to expectations, with Brazil comfortably qualifying top of the group and the game that everyone was expecting to be a thrilling encounter, Brazil v Portugal, being one of the biggest let downs so far. This can partly be blamed on a very fussy & card happy ref along with Brazil not having Kaka and choosing to rest their other main creative outlet in Robinho whilst Portugal's tactic of hoof it to Ronaldo and hope didn't really work out very well. Another team that failed to live up to expectations where Ivory Coast who suffered a draw in the opening game against Portugal which hindered them to start with, combined with Drogba clearly not being 100% they didn't live up to the bill of challenging Portugal or even being the best team from Africa and this was shown in the Brazil game where they had to resort to play acting, fouling and general poor behaviour in an attempt to get an advantage. By the time this worked and they got Kaka sent off with some of the most disgraceful play acting ever seen (at least Rivaldo had the ball hit at him in 2002 even if it wasn't in his face) it didn't really matter with Brazil already 2 goals up. North Korea gave a very good showing themselves in the first game against Brazil but in the 2nd half against Portugal they fell appart and where subject to a humiliating 7-0 loss. The game against Ivory Coast was pretty much pointless for both teams and although it was a more exciting game than the Brazil Portugal game it became a very pointless match. The group of death tag is one that is terribly overused now and i can't wait till people stop dubbing at least one group that way, its almost as over used as the expectation of Brazil playing 'samba football' as this is not the way Brazilian footballers are produced anymore and anyone expecting to see Brazilian teams play as they did through the 60's, 70's & 80's need to wake up and realise that the Brazilians don't play like this anymore.
Group H
The first round of group games produced one of the biggest shocks seen in one game so far this tournament with Switzerland beating Spain 1-0 and opening the group up to begin with, however by the end of the second games it looked very much like Spain & Chile would be going through it was just a question of who would be top and who would come 2nd and this would be decided in the final game which was an exciting game with David Villa scoring an absolutely cracking first goal from about 35 yards after the keeper came rushing out to clear a ball straight to Villa. Iniesta also scored a cracking goal and with these 2 players fully fit Spain, and Barcelona, look like a very formidable opponent for any team. Spain started slowly but i think the game against Switzerland provided them with the kick up the backside they needed to realise they can't just turn up and win the whole thing. Chile are certainly very exciting as they only seem to know how to attack and will keep playing like this as long as their left in the tournament. Honduras were probably one of the worst teams in the tournament (bar France for obvious reasons) not only did they not score a goal but they never really looked like scoring either.
That's my quick review of the group's and now they are out the way we're on the way to the all important knockout stages with some very interesting ties to come. Hopefully we will see less of the play acting, silly refereeing and over all pettiness that has been a really negative part of this World Cup but with teams like Portugal & Spain (more specifically Sergio Busquets) left i won't hold my breath
As usual feedback can be left below, via twitter (Buster_5265) hotmail (buster_5265@hotmail.com) or on the facebook group 'football fan'
Group A
The biggest surprise wasn't the fact that France got knocked out in the group stage but the spectacular way in which they imploded, after a 0-0 draw against Uruguay they didn't look like a team likely to reach the final but they did seem to have something about them, especially keeper Hugo Lloris who is the only french player to leave this tournament with any creditability. Obviously what happened next has been very well documented and has seen French football descend into total and utter chaos with Anelka being sent home (just one of a long list of players he's fallen out with including Trezeguet, Pires, Giuly, Coupet) players striking then the French prime minister demanding answers. Patrice Evra refused to attend the press conference with Domenech after the final South Africa game saying he will hold a press conference at a later date to reveal all, and the public wait with baited breath. As if this wasn't enough Domenech the proceeded to cover himself in glory by having a stand up row with Carlos Parreira over a comment the South African coach made months ago.
South Africa actually put up a much better account of themselves than most predicted, actually finishing on the same number of points as 2nd place Mexico but going out on goal difference - their victory over France will be fondly remembered for years no matter how much disarray the French where in. Group A was exciting with only the opening days games a slight disappointment
Group B
Most people were waiting to see how Argentina performed and they didn't disappoint with attacking, flowing football that was both good on the eye and leaving them open defensively as proven by the howler they conceded against South Korea. One of the main talking points was how Maradona was going to get the best out of Messi and get him to repeat his performances with Argentina that he has done with Barcelona and it seems Maradona has solved it the simplest of ways - stick Messi in the hole behind the strikers and have all the play run through him. He has easily been one of the stand out players in the group stages and i fully expect him to keep performing as long as Argentina are left in the competition. Nigeria were absolutely awful and probably one of the worst teams that got to the World Cup and part of this will be blamed with the management change after the African Cup of Nations which left Lars Lagerbäck with very little time to develop the team and build his ideas into them, clearly his usually strict discipline didn't work with these guys following the red card against Greece. Greece themselves where nothing special although their proudest moment will be winning a game in a World Cup ever & their first win in a major tournament outside Euro 2004 beating the Nigerians 2-1. The other team in the group, South Korea, were exactly what we've come to expect from them, organised, disciplined & hard working fully deserving their place in the last 16
Group C
This group was interesting to say the least with most people expecting England to finish top and USA finish 2nd - but as with most things involving England it could never be that straight forward. After the opening games and that howler from Rob Green things looked pretty much as you'd expect with England & USA drawing but then came the 2nd round of games, with England turning in one of the worst performances seen under Capello, and probably their worst performance since losing to N.Ireland under Sven whilst in the other group game the USA had to come from 2-0 down at half time to draw 2-2 with Slovenia which left the group wide open and the usual last game pressure England so love to put themselves under. As per usual England just scrapped through thanks to some last ditch defending and the USA scored a last minute winner to go through on top of the group. Obviously its the getting through the group stage that matters but England's performance against Algeria was absolutely dire & the performance against Slovenia wasn't much better but now they can focus on the task ahead and worry about facing the Germans
Group D
This group provided surprises from the start with Germany's resounding thumping of Australia in the first game all the way through to Australia upsetting the odds and defeating Serbia in the last game. Ghana, who many people wrote off after Essien's injury sneaked through to the 2nd round and with a very tough defence, a hard working midfield & a very good attack they could really give the USA a run for their money in the 2nd round. I thought Serbia would get 2nd place and after beating Germany i honestly thought they had it but Australia had other ideas, themselves having on eye on 2nd place outplaying the Serbians in the final group game allowing Ghana to sneak through on goal difference - the same Australia team that looked so awful after the first game against Germany when they got hammered 4-0. Ultimately the 2 teams that deserved to go through managed to go through but it certainly was an unpredictable round of games
Group E
The Netherlands were always going to top this group, despite Robben's injury they still have a strong team over all and looked very efficient and technically sound with solid players all over the pitch. The real battle in this group would be for 2nd place, at the start i honestly thought all 3 teams left had a chance although after their poor showing in the warm ups i must admit i had written Japan off slightly but the display they turned in beating Cameroon 1-0 in the first game showed that whilst they don't have an outstanding attack what they do have, like most of the Asian teams, is an incredible team spirit and work ethic, personified by Keisuke Honda who has been outstanding for them at the heart of the midfield. Sadly for Cameroon the Eto'o v Milla fight proved to be a distraction as well as having the seemingly inept Paul Le Guen as manager. The final game between Japan & Denmark i thought would be a tight affair but Denmark failed to turn up and the Japanese made it through quite comfortably due to 2 good free-kicks combined with mistakes by Thomas Sorensen let the Japanese securing their passage through to the knockout stages, a special mention to Jon Dahl Tomasson who equalled the Danish goal scoring record in this game.
Group F
Another group that saw a traditional European super power struggle and ultimately crash out early on with Italy performing way below expectations - most people think that there squad was to old but considering England have the highest average age of any of the squads at the tournament this can't really be considered a reason for failure although Canovarro did show his age a couple of times being out paced and at fault for a few of the goals. Paraguay were the solid team in this group, not losing a game and playing some solid football. Slovakia did very well considering they are one of the smallest nations at the world cup, the highlight easily a 3-2 beating of Italy in the game that got them through the the 2nd round and knocked the Italians out - although Fabio Quagliarella scored an incredible goal which will more than likely be one of, if not the, best goals of the tournament (this was later matched by David Villa's first goal against Chile).
The highlight of this group though, and in my opinion the tournament so far, was New Zealand who no one gave a chance of getting a point let alone finishing 3rd in their group and remaining undefeated in all group games, and by all rights they should have beaten Italy had it not been for a very soft penalty decision against them. What really impressed me about New Zealand was the fact they didn't rise to Italy's gamesmanship when the Italians had to resort to diving and play acting when they were in danger of a humiliating defeat. New Zealand can leave the competition with their heads held high and an air of dignity on their performances, it will be interesting to see how they kick on from this performance and with Australia now in the Asia qualifying zone i expect to see them back at the next world cup
Group G
The so called 'group of death' failed to really live up to expectations, with Brazil comfortably qualifying top of the group and the game that everyone was expecting to be a thrilling encounter, Brazil v Portugal, being one of the biggest let downs so far. This can partly be blamed on a very fussy & card happy ref along with Brazil not having Kaka and choosing to rest their other main creative outlet in Robinho whilst Portugal's tactic of hoof it to Ronaldo and hope didn't really work out very well. Another team that failed to live up to expectations where Ivory Coast who suffered a draw in the opening game against Portugal which hindered them to start with, combined with Drogba clearly not being 100% they didn't live up to the bill of challenging Portugal or even being the best team from Africa and this was shown in the Brazil game where they had to resort to play acting, fouling and general poor behaviour in an attempt to get an advantage. By the time this worked and they got Kaka sent off with some of the most disgraceful play acting ever seen (at least Rivaldo had the ball hit at him in 2002 even if it wasn't in his face) it didn't really matter with Brazil already 2 goals up. North Korea gave a very good showing themselves in the first game against Brazil but in the 2nd half against Portugal they fell appart and where subject to a humiliating 7-0 loss. The game against Ivory Coast was pretty much pointless for both teams and although it was a more exciting game than the Brazil Portugal game it became a very pointless match. The group of death tag is one that is terribly overused now and i can't wait till people stop dubbing at least one group that way, its almost as over used as the expectation of Brazil playing 'samba football' as this is not the way Brazilian footballers are produced anymore and anyone expecting to see Brazilian teams play as they did through the 60's, 70's & 80's need to wake up and realise that the Brazilians don't play like this anymore.
Group H
The first round of group games produced one of the biggest shocks seen in one game so far this tournament with Switzerland beating Spain 1-0 and opening the group up to begin with, however by the end of the second games it looked very much like Spain & Chile would be going through it was just a question of who would be top and who would come 2nd and this would be decided in the final game which was an exciting game with David Villa scoring an absolutely cracking first goal from about 35 yards after the keeper came rushing out to clear a ball straight to Villa. Iniesta also scored a cracking goal and with these 2 players fully fit Spain, and Barcelona, look like a very formidable opponent for any team. Spain started slowly but i think the game against Switzerland provided them with the kick up the backside they needed to realise they can't just turn up and win the whole thing. Chile are certainly very exciting as they only seem to know how to attack and will keep playing like this as long as their left in the tournament. Honduras were probably one of the worst teams in the tournament (bar France for obvious reasons) not only did they not score a goal but they never really looked like scoring either.
That's my quick review of the group's and now they are out the way we're on the way to the all important knockout stages with some very interesting ties to come. Hopefully we will see less of the play acting, silly refereeing and over all pettiness that has been a really negative part of this World Cup but with teams like Portugal & Spain (more specifically Sergio Busquets) left i won't hold my breath
As usual feedback can be left below, via twitter (Buster_5265) hotmail (buster_5265@hotmail.com) or on the facebook group 'football fan'
Wednesday, 23 June 2010
Change of plan.....
So as you've probably noticed writing a blog reviewing all 3 games on the day is something I'm struggling to keep up with, so what I'm going to do is review the groups as they stand now and start reviewing the games from round 2 onwards as its easier to type up one game instead of 3! Today i will start with a quick look at last nights endings to group A & B and previewing group's C & D last games
Group A
Not one to constantly go on about things I've got right in the past but i nailed both this group and group B, the only surprise for me being the fact that France picked up a point & a goal! I had Uruguay and Mexico to finish first and second with South Africa finishing above France, i personally had Mexico finishing clear of South Africa but they finished on level points and i think some credit should go to South Africa for not being steam rolled by Mexico - France deserve no credit at all and deserve to be sent home in disgrace, my favourite quote for the French team was 'their manager is an idiot & man for man they are an embarrassment to their country' i think that pretty much says it all and obviously Domenech covered himself in glory at the end by refusing to shake Parreiras hand and proceeded to have a go at him for something he said many months ago about the French cheating to qualify. 2 observations with this - 1. The French did cheat to qualify so i'm not sure why Doemenech felt the need to try and deny this 2. Is this a French thing given Wengers refusal to shake hands with some Premier League managers?!
I think Uruguay are a team worth watching having not conceded a goal so far and with Diego Forlan & Luis Suarez up front they will always have a goal in them, but i don't think Mexico have enough to get past Argentina (who i still think will win)
Group B
Again, i got the top 2 teams right on this one, although i didn't expect Greece to get 3 points but i thought Nigeria would perform much better than they actually did, seemingly being in winning positions to throw it away both against Greece & South Korea, in both games open goals being missed (special mention to Yakubu last night for a miss that rivals the best misses over see).
Argentina have looked good in their games although South Korea could have made their game 2-2 which might have changed the Argentinian mentality but it was not to be and the Argentinians romped to a 4-1 win. Nigeria's best game was probably against Argentina but they never really looked like threatening to much. The fact that Argentina have so many attacking options just seems to make me think that even if they are in a position where they are 1 or 2 goals down they can always score - even 36 year old Martin Palermo managed to get on the score sheet last night and with both Milito, Tevez & Agurro to score there's just goals bursting out of this team. South Korea provided no real surprises, being the usual disciplined & hard working team we've come to expect and whilst they might be slight underdogs against Uruguay they could prove tough opposition but i just can't see South Korea scoring against Uruguay.
Quick Previews for tonight's game now (i will cover England in more depth in a separate bog) and I'll start with
Group C
England have to win tonight, the only way they could get through if they draw is if its a 2-2 draw against Slovenia & USA draw 0-0 with Algeria, then it will come down to drawing names from a hat (if you believe FIFA). Anything other than this situation or an England win will see England eliminated. I can't see the USA doing anything other than beating Algeria, who are a pretty bad team, which means England have their destiny in their own hands and usually England tend to get the job done, i just wonder if the recent JT outburst might develop problems in the camp. Still i can see both games Ending 1-0 to USA & England respectively
Group D
Things are very interesting, clearly Serbia are expect to beat a very poor Australia team, although the Aussies will have their one hope, Tim Cahill, back from suspension i can't see them scoring or being able to cope with the physicality of a powerful Serbia team. This leaves the Germany v Ghana game to decide the other qualifier from this group. I had Germany and Serbia going through and i still think this will still be the case, despite the Germans being very 'un-German' so far this tournament playing very nice attacking football against Australia, then struggling against a physical team in Serbia which is an area they usually excel in and even going as far as missing a penalty (first one they've missed in a World Cup in 32 years!). The Ghanaians are also a very physical team, especially in midfield, but i think the Germans will have to much despite missing Klose as well as having Podolski seemingly returning to the awful form that has been seen at Koln this season i think they will struggle to deal with Ozil.
So tonight expect to see England, USA, Germany & Serbia leaving Serbia v USA and England facing Germany, and if England don't perform tonight the Germans could batter them in the 2nd round
Thanks for reading, i plan an doing at least one more blog looking at the England situation before the game starts later this afternoon, thanks for reading!
Group A
Not one to constantly go on about things I've got right in the past but i nailed both this group and group B, the only surprise for me being the fact that France picked up a point & a goal! I had Uruguay and Mexico to finish first and second with South Africa finishing above France, i personally had Mexico finishing clear of South Africa but they finished on level points and i think some credit should go to South Africa for not being steam rolled by Mexico - France deserve no credit at all and deserve to be sent home in disgrace, my favourite quote for the French team was 'their manager is an idiot & man for man they are an embarrassment to their country' i think that pretty much says it all and obviously Domenech covered himself in glory at the end by refusing to shake Parreiras hand and proceeded to have a go at him for something he said many months ago about the French cheating to qualify. 2 observations with this - 1. The French did cheat to qualify so i'm not sure why Doemenech felt the need to try and deny this 2. Is this a French thing given Wengers refusal to shake hands with some Premier League managers?!
I think Uruguay are a team worth watching having not conceded a goal so far and with Diego Forlan & Luis Suarez up front they will always have a goal in them, but i don't think Mexico have enough to get past Argentina (who i still think will win)
Group B
Again, i got the top 2 teams right on this one, although i didn't expect Greece to get 3 points but i thought Nigeria would perform much better than they actually did, seemingly being in winning positions to throw it away both against Greece & South Korea, in both games open goals being missed (special mention to Yakubu last night for a miss that rivals the best misses over see).
Argentina have looked good in their games although South Korea could have made their game 2-2 which might have changed the Argentinian mentality but it was not to be and the Argentinians romped to a 4-1 win. Nigeria's best game was probably against Argentina but they never really looked like threatening to much. The fact that Argentina have so many attacking options just seems to make me think that even if they are in a position where they are 1 or 2 goals down they can always score - even 36 year old Martin Palermo managed to get on the score sheet last night and with both Milito, Tevez & Agurro to score there's just goals bursting out of this team. South Korea provided no real surprises, being the usual disciplined & hard working team we've come to expect and whilst they might be slight underdogs against Uruguay they could prove tough opposition but i just can't see South Korea scoring against Uruguay.
Quick Previews for tonight's game now (i will cover England in more depth in a separate bog) and I'll start with
Group C
England have to win tonight, the only way they could get through if they draw is if its a 2-2 draw against Slovenia & USA draw 0-0 with Algeria, then it will come down to drawing names from a hat (if you believe FIFA). Anything other than this situation or an England win will see England eliminated. I can't see the USA doing anything other than beating Algeria, who are a pretty bad team, which means England have their destiny in their own hands and usually England tend to get the job done, i just wonder if the recent JT outburst might develop problems in the camp. Still i can see both games Ending 1-0 to USA & England respectively
Group D
Things are very interesting, clearly Serbia are expect to beat a very poor Australia team, although the Aussies will have their one hope, Tim Cahill, back from suspension i can't see them scoring or being able to cope with the physicality of a powerful Serbia team. This leaves the Germany v Ghana game to decide the other qualifier from this group. I had Germany and Serbia going through and i still think this will still be the case, despite the Germans being very 'un-German' so far this tournament playing very nice attacking football against Australia, then struggling against a physical team in Serbia which is an area they usually excel in and even going as far as missing a penalty (first one they've missed in a World Cup in 32 years!). The Ghanaians are also a very physical team, especially in midfield, but i think the Germans will have to much despite missing Klose as well as having Podolski seemingly returning to the awful form that has been seen at Koln this season i think they will struggle to deal with Ozil.
So tonight expect to see England, USA, Germany & Serbia leaving Serbia v USA and England facing Germany, and if England don't perform tonight the Germans could batter them in the 2nd round
Thanks for reading, i plan an doing at least one more blog looking at the England situation before the game starts later this afternoon, thanks for reading!
Friday, 4 June 2010
Is Rio's injury a blessing in disguise for England?
As everyone has by now heard, Rio Ferdinand is out of the England world cup squad after sustaining a knee injury in what Fabio Capello described as a 'normal tackle' from Emile Heskey (I'm sure the Heskey haters will be using this as further proof he shouldn't have gone but that's just stupid)
Of course its a tragedy that one of the lynch pins of the England defence will be missing but on reflection is it such a bad situation? At least now England have the chance to call up a replacement and there won't be any 'maybe he'll be fit' or 'maybe he's worth the risk' like Beckham in 2002 or Rooney in 2006. It's done and he's out and that is that, but maybe this isn't such a bad thing after all, Rio has only player 13 league games this season (21 in all comps) and in fairness to him hasn't looked the same player he was last year, it could be a bit premature to say that his best years are behind him but at 31 he's not going to get any quicker or develop a much greater understanding for the game and things haven't gone well for Rio since his back problems first started, even in the game with Japan he didn't look the player he once was and him and John Terry both looked a bit lost next to each other. Whilst in 2006 Rio was probably approaching the peak of his game, 2010 could have seen him beaten for pace by some of the faster opposition players that he would face, clearly this is something that has caught Sir Alex's attention at Man Utd, moving quickly to snap up Chris Smalling whilst Rio's injury problems were a major concern especially with something like a back injury that tends to never go away and always takes something away from a player be it outright speed or just basic mobility.
Whilst it is a tragedy losing such a key player as well as an inspirational captain, it might not be the end of the world. In Ledley King, who should be the natural replacement, England have a player that has the potential to be a top quality defender both in Europe and the EPL and could now have the chance to step up and prove this, and this will be something he can relish.
At Spurs this season he probably had his best campaign to date as well and put his body on the line playing key back to back games at a time people doubted his knees could stand it. King has as much pace as Rio, a great reading of the game as well as a great aerial presence and will see this as now another chance to prove people wrong and raise his game even further. Where this season Rio has stuttered and stumbled King has been impeccable, his worst game this season probably being the recent friendly against Mexico and every time a new obstacle is put in front of him he seems to rise to the challange and over come it. If Capello really meant the 'i'll pick players on form not reputation' now is the time to prove it and call King up as the first choice center back, if his knees are an issue he can always be rested in the final game against Slovenia which should be easy enough and then he should have enough of a break between the remaining games to recover. In Steven Gerrard there is also a captain ready to step up and take on the challenge, and whilst his club form has been below par i think he might enjoy the relief of captaining a team where he believes the players around him are as good as him and can all drag the team forward rather than him doing it on his own.
Whilst it is bad Rio will miss out i don't think its as bad as it could have been, but in Ledley King there is a ready made replacement ready to step up and hold the fort and i think he could do a better job than Rio probably could have done at the moment given his record this season.
I'm still working on the World Cup groups blog and will have a review of group A&B up by tomorrow evening and then a review of 2 groups every day after that
thanks for reading, feel free to share any thoughts through the usual means (twitter - Buster_5265 & Hotmail - Buster_55265@hotmail.com or facebook)
Of course its a tragedy that one of the lynch pins of the England defence will be missing but on reflection is it such a bad situation? At least now England have the chance to call up a replacement and there won't be any 'maybe he'll be fit' or 'maybe he's worth the risk' like Beckham in 2002 or Rooney in 2006. It's done and he's out and that is that, but maybe this isn't such a bad thing after all, Rio has only player 13 league games this season (21 in all comps) and in fairness to him hasn't looked the same player he was last year, it could be a bit premature to say that his best years are behind him but at 31 he's not going to get any quicker or develop a much greater understanding for the game and things haven't gone well for Rio since his back problems first started, even in the game with Japan he didn't look the player he once was and him and John Terry both looked a bit lost next to each other. Whilst in 2006 Rio was probably approaching the peak of his game, 2010 could have seen him beaten for pace by some of the faster opposition players that he would face, clearly this is something that has caught Sir Alex's attention at Man Utd, moving quickly to snap up Chris Smalling whilst Rio's injury problems were a major concern especially with something like a back injury that tends to never go away and always takes something away from a player be it outright speed or just basic mobility.
Whilst it is a tragedy losing such a key player as well as an inspirational captain, it might not be the end of the world. In Ledley King, who should be the natural replacement, England have a player that has the potential to be a top quality defender both in Europe and the EPL and could now have the chance to step up and prove this, and this will be something he can relish.
At Spurs this season he probably had his best campaign to date as well and put his body on the line playing key back to back games at a time people doubted his knees could stand it. King has as much pace as Rio, a great reading of the game as well as a great aerial presence and will see this as now another chance to prove people wrong and raise his game even further. Where this season Rio has stuttered and stumbled King has been impeccable, his worst game this season probably being the recent friendly against Mexico and every time a new obstacle is put in front of him he seems to rise to the challange and over come it. If Capello really meant the 'i'll pick players on form not reputation' now is the time to prove it and call King up as the first choice center back, if his knees are an issue he can always be rested in the final game against Slovenia which should be easy enough and then he should have enough of a break between the remaining games to recover. In Steven Gerrard there is also a captain ready to step up and take on the challenge, and whilst his club form has been below par i think he might enjoy the relief of captaining a team where he believes the players around him are as good as him and can all drag the team forward rather than him doing it on his own.
Whilst it is bad Rio will miss out i don't think its as bad as it could have been, but in Ledley King there is a ready made replacement ready to step up and hold the fort and i think he could do a better job than Rio probably could have done at the moment given his record this season.
I'm still working on the World Cup groups blog and will have a review of group A&B up by tomorrow evening and then a review of 2 groups every day after that
thanks for reading, feel free to share any thoughts through the usual means (twitter - Buster_5265 & Hotmail - Buster_55265@hotmail.com or facebook)
Monday, 31 May 2010
Who will get the dreaded phone calls?
So, tomorrow Fabio Capello will face one of the worst jobs any international manager has to do by cutting 7 of his 30 man squad and deciding who will be joining him on the plane to South Africa. There has been much speculation on who will go and who will stay, Capello stated this morning (31/5) that he has finally got his squad narrowed down to the 23 he wants to take. I've decided to chip in with my 2 cents worth and see if my crystal ball can be accurate in seeing who will go
Goalkeepers
Clearly Capello won't be dropping any of the 3 keepers he has already called up so Green, James & Hart will all be on the plane to South Africa although no-one is any the wiser as to who will be number 1 - i personally think Hart should be first choice, he has excelled in the 2 friendlies and against Japan he made 2 top quality saves but Capello will probably stick with David James as his first choice
Defenders
The first choice defenders are already set in stone with A.Cole, Ferdinand, Terry & Johnson being the widely expected starting back 4 but who will go as back up? Jamie Carragher clearly can expect to be on the plane otherwise what would be the point in bringing him out of retirement? This combined with his ability to cover right back as well as center back (and the odd occasion, left back) makes him an excellent choice for back up. I would expect Ledley King to go as first choice back up to Rio & JT especially as his well documented knee troubles seem to be slightly under control having played 4 back to back matches for Spurs at the end of the season, although this in turn opens the door for another center back to act as his cover so i would expect Upson to go over Dawson given Upson has played more games at this level and despite not being a world class center back can still do a job, which is a bit harsh on Dawson given the season he has had at Spurs lining up with King but his push may have come a little to late. I also expect Baines to go as back up to Cole, and i personally think he should have been there over Bridge anyway (although Baines recent admission of home sickness might be an issue).
To get the chop - Warnock & Dawson
Midfielders
This is probably the toughest area to predict, with most of the players thinking they justify a place on the plane. Gerrard & Lampard will certainly make it to South Africa, along with the likely announcement of Barry not being fit for USA game but still making it as he will be fine for the rest of the tournament. I also expect both Walcott and Lennon to go and i think Lennon should be starting on the right wing - he has maybe a tiny bit less pace than Walcott but he has a much better end product and is streaks ahead in the decision making department, a place Walcott seems to struggle with most at the moment.
This of course means that SWP won't be making it as 3 right wingers seems unnecessary especially when you consider Milner is almost certainly going and can play on either wing. I think Scott Parker should be going as he is the only genuine defensive midfielder in the squad but the fact he wasn't used in either of the warm up games seems to give a message that he won't be on the plane. Huddlestone didn't perform especially well in either warm up game meaning Michael Carrick, who's also been poor recently, will probably sneak on the plane despite never really doing it for England. This means the last spot will be between J.Cole & Johnson, and i think Joe Cole's second half performance against Japan will mean he goes on the plane as he showed exactly why we need him as a plan B - he changed things around and seemed to present a different threat, i think Johnson's inclusion in the 30 squad can be justified but people have got a little to over excited about him this season, he's had a good season but against the bigger teams (Man U, Arsenal, Spurs & Liverpool) he didn't do much and maybe this is down to inexperience at playing at a higher level.
To get the chop - SWP, Parker, Huddlestone & Johnson
Strikers
I can't see anyone else but Darren Bent being left behind from the 5 strikers, Rooney & Crouch are already on the plane with Defoe not so far behind them. This leaves the never ending debate about Emile Heskey, we've all heard the 'he doesn't score but he bring so much more to the table' argument, and his miss against Japan was yet further proof you wouldn't want him in a 1 v 1 must score situation but it is true he does bring a tremendous amount to the team and when you see Rooneys face light up talking about playing with Heskey you know the players believe it as well - against Japan for the last 15 min's he was still able to hold up the ball better than any England player had all game.
This leaves Darren Bent who didn't really get a chance against Japan, he worked hard but no one really created anything for him as it was a very poor 45 min's for England as a whole. However when you look at previous games for England he hasn't really done it although he's only made 6 appearances for the national team. I think Darren Bent is the kind of player that excels at the focal point of an average team (Ipswich, Charlton & Sunderland) but can't really be counted on to do it at the very top.
To get the chop - Bent
So that's it, my final seven players to be left behind would be Warnock, Dawson, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Parker, Huddlestone, Johnson & Bent. I think if Capello were to spring a surprise it would be including one of Johnson or Bent - if he chooses to use a 4-4-2 system it would make sense to have a natural wide left player available instead of using Gerrard but this raises the age old 'Gerrard & Lampard together in the middle' problem, and Bent if he wants to be safe and take 5 strikers (although with Walcott in the team he could be used as an emergency 5th striker, or play J.Cole or Gerrard off one main striker).
Despite tinkering with tactics over the friendlies i can see him going with a 4-5-1, 4-3-3 or the 4-2-3-1 formation he has used over the qualifying campaign. Obviously its never nice to have to cut players and ruin their dreams but i think its fair enough to say the only one of these players that is good enough, or could be good enough, for this level of football is Adam Johnson
hope this has provided an interesting read (despite the fact its a little late!) and if you have any feedback please leave it below, or e-mail me at Buster_5265@hotmail.com or tweet me at Buster_5265]
Goalkeepers
Clearly Capello won't be dropping any of the 3 keepers he has already called up so Green, James & Hart will all be on the plane to South Africa although no-one is any the wiser as to who will be number 1 - i personally think Hart should be first choice, he has excelled in the 2 friendlies and against Japan he made 2 top quality saves but Capello will probably stick with David James as his first choice
Defenders
The first choice defenders are already set in stone with A.Cole, Ferdinand, Terry & Johnson being the widely expected starting back 4 but who will go as back up? Jamie Carragher clearly can expect to be on the plane otherwise what would be the point in bringing him out of retirement? This combined with his ability to cover right back as well as center back (and the odd occasion, left back) makes him an excellent choice for back up. I would expect Ledley King to go as first choice back up to Rio & JT especially as his well documented knee troubles seem to be slightly under control having played 4 back to back matches for Spurs at the end of the season, although this in turn opens the door for another center back to act as his cover so i would expect Upson to go over Dawson given Upson has played more games at this level and despite not being a world class center back can still do a job, which is a bit harsh on Dawson given the season he has had at Spurs lining up with King but his push may have come a little to late. I also expect Baines to go as back up to Cole, and i personally think he should have been there over Bridge anyway (although Baines recent admission of home sickness might be an issue).
To get the chop - Warnock & Dawson
Midfielders
This is probably the toughest area to predict, with most of the players thinking they justify a place on the plane. Gerrard & Lampard will certainly make it to South Africa, along with the likely announcement of Barry not being fit for USA game but still making it as he will be fine for the rest of the tournament. I also expect both Walcott and Lennon to go and i think Lennon should be starting on the right wing - he has maybe a tiny bit less pace than Walcott but he has a much better end product and is streaks ahead in the decision making department, a place Walcott seems to struggle with most at the moment.
This of course means that SWP won't be making it as 3 right wingers seems unnecessary especially when you consider Milner is almost certainly going and can play on either wing. I think Scott Parker should be going as he is the only genuine defensive midfielder in the squad but the fact he wasn't used in either of the warm up games seems to give a message that he won't be on the plane. Huddlestone didn't perform especially well in either warm up game meaning Michael Carrick, who's also been poor recently, will probably sneak on the plane despite never really doing it for England. This means the last spot will be between J.Cole & Johnson, and i think Joe Cole's second half performance against Japan will mean he goes on the plane as he showed exactly why we need him as a plan B - he changed things around and seemed to present a different threat, i think Johnson's inclusion in the 30 squad can be justified but people have got a little to over excited about him this season, he's had a good season but against the bigger teams (Man U, Arsenal, Spurs & Liverpool) he didn't do much and maybe this is down to inexperience at playing at a higher level.
To get the chop - SWP, Parker, Huddlestone & Johnson
Strikers
I can't see anyone else but Darren Bent being left behind from the 5 strikers, Rooney & Crouch are already on the plane with Defoe not so far behind them. This leaves the never ending debate about Emile Heskey, we've all heard the 'he doesn't score but he bring so much more to the table' argument, and his miss against Japan was yet further proof you wouldn't want him in a 1 v 1 must score situation but it is true he does bring a tremendous amount to the team and when you see Rooneys face light up talking about playing with Heskey you know the players believe it as well - against Japan for the last 15 min's he was still able to hold up the ball better than any England player had all game.
This leaves Darren Bent who didn't really get a chance against Japan, he worked hard but no one really created anything for him as it was a very poor 45 min's for England as a whole. However when you look at previous games for England he hasn't really done it although he's only made 6 appearances for the national team. I think Darren Bent is the kind of player that excels at the focal point of an average team (Ipswich, Charlton & Sunderland) but can't really be counted on to do it at the very top.
To get the chop - Bent
So that's it, my final seven players to be left behind would be Warnock, Dawson, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Parker, Huddlestone, Johnson & Bent. I think if Capello were to spring a surprise it would be including one of Johnson or Bent - if he chooses to use a 4-4-2 system it would make sense to have a natural wide left player available instead of using Gerrard but this raises the age old 'Gerrard & Lampard together in the middle' problem, and Bent if he wants to be safe and take 5 strikers (although with Walcott in the team he could be used as an emergency 5th striker, or play J.Cole or Gerrard off one main striker).
Despite tinkering with tactics over the friendlies i can see him going with a 4-5-1, 4-3-3 or the 4-2-3-1 formation he has used over the qualifying campaign. Obviously its never nice to have to cut players and ruin their dreams but i think its fair enough to say the only one of these players that is good enough, or could be good enough, for this level of football is Adam Johnson
hope this has provided an interesting read (despite the fact its a little late!) and if you have any feedback please leave it below, or e-mail me at Buster_5265@hotmail.com or tweet me at Buster_5265]
Wednesday, 12 May 2010
World Cup Squads
Rather than running through each individual squad and writing 500 pages i thought i would pick some of the favourite's squads and a few other teams and players.
Argentina
Well Diego Maradona has a few surprises in his squad and left a few players out as well. Leaving out Zanetti & Cambiasso has been seen as a big surprise, especially as Zanetti started the qualifying campaign as captain and Casmbiasso was performing the vital screening role, protecting the fragile Argentinian defence - this position has been filled recently by Mascherano. I am a fan of Mascherano but i think Cambiasso has been excellent in that role all season for Inter Milan certainly much better than Mascherano has been performing for Liverpool. Both players had a key role for the qualifying campaign but this was before Maradona came in, when Basile was coach and had a relatively settled team.
Maradona has also decided to call some players to the squad based on there performance against Haiti which i think is a little strange. He's included Colon defender Ariel Garce, who had won two caps in 2003 as a River Plate player, and made only his third international appearance against the Haitians as well as Juan Manuel Insaurralde of Newells Old Boys who has 2 caps to his name so far. He's also called up midfielder Juan Mercier, who earned a third cap against Haiti, and has been impressive for Argentine title favourites Argentinos Junior. Also in midfield he's called up Sebastian Blanco, Jesus Datolo, Jose Sosa and Javier Pastore (Blanco, Datolo & Sosa have 11 full caps between them, Pastore has only played against Catalonia in an unofficial friendly). Whilst the first XI is still very strong, questions will be raised about the strength and depth in the squad and how there is very little experience or stand out quality in the reserves
Brazil
The Brazil squad was realtivly straight forward for Dunga, some sections of the Brazillian media and fans wanted him to call up Neymar & Paulo Henrique who have been setting the Campeonato Paulista alight with fantastic skills, passes and goals but he resisted this pressure. There was also some pressure, although not as much, to bring Ronaldinho back in as a Plan B incase anything happens to Kaka but he has opted to leave Ronaldinho out of the squad. The only other debate was over Adriano or Grafite and as Adriano's personal demons have raised their head again Dunga has decided to take Grafite along with Nilmar as back up to Robinho & Luis Fabiano with Pato missing out due to his recent injury problems
France
The biggest surprise in the France squad is the decision by outgoing manager Raymond Domenech to leave Karim Benzema out of the squad. Karim's had a disappointing season by his standards, making 14 starts and 12 appearnces from the bench in La Liga but only scoring 8 goals and getting 3 assists, in the CL he made 3 starts, 2 further appearances from the bench but only found the net once which isn't a great return for a £35m player. To rub salt in the wound, Djibril Cisse a player i have never really rated has been called up instead of him along with Jimmy Briand who only has 3 caps and has only scored 5 goals in 22 appearances for Stade Rennes after missing last season and the start of this season with a ruptured ACL. Patrick Viera has also been left out but he hasn't been the same player he once was and wasn't really expected to be included in the squad.
England
The inclusion of Jamie Carragher is a big surprise by Fabio Capello after he retired from international duty 3 years ago and writing some interesting thoughts in his auto-biography relating to international duty. At the time he retired he was unhappy with not playing as center back and being played on the right - this time he's going to be going as back up right back to Glen Johnson & about 4th choice center back. He also isn't the player he was 3 years ago, he's not as fast and has had an average season at best for Liverpool. A couple of other surprises for me was the inclusion of Shaun Wright-Phillips, Adam Johnston, Scott Parker and Darren Bent - players like SWP & Darren Bent have played at international level before and never seem to be quiet the standard you'd want for playing teams like Brazil, Spain and Argentina whilst Johnston and Parker are very inexperienced at this level.
Other Squads that have been announced are pretty much what was expected - Thomas Sorensen has been included in the Denmark squad despite suffering from a dislocated elbow, in Italy Marcello Lippi has discarded Luca Toni in favour for Guiseppe Rossi and left out controversial striker Mario Balotelli. Vicente Del Bosque's biggest surprise was including 5 goalkeepers in his 30 man squad, including Barca keeper Victor Valdez as well as inclduing the injured trio of Torres, Iniesta & Fabregas. Bojan hasn't been included but his Barca team mate Pedro has been along with Osasuna's Cesar Azpilicueta and Bilbao's Javi Martinez. In Mexico Man Utd fans might get a chance to see Javier Hernandez in action after he was included along with Arsenal's Carlos Vela and Serbia included another rumoured United target in Subotic, the Borussia Dourtmund center back who has a formidable partnership with current United centre back Vidic. The US player Charlie Davies did not make the national team squad after suffering a horrific car crash in Washington, he has returned to training despite original doubts over him being able to walk again but the World Cup is just soon for him. The Scottish born Stuart Holden has been included despite only playing 2 games since joining in January.
I hope this has enlightened you a bit more to some of the World Cup squads and thanks for reading! as usual leave any feedback below, or find me on Twitter (Buster_5265) or e-mail me at Buster_5265@hotmail.com
Argentina
Well Diego Maradona has a few surprises in his squad and left a few players out as well. Leaving out Zanetti & Cambiasso has been seen as a big surprise, especially as Zanetti started the qualifying campaign as captain and Casmbiasso was performing the vital screening role, protecting the fragile Argentinian defence - this position has been filled recently by Mascherano. I am a fan of Mascherano but i think Cambiasso has been excellent in that role all season for Inter Milan certainly much better than Mascherano has been performing for Liverpool. Both players had a key role for the qualifying campaign but this was before Maradona came in, when Basile was coach and had a relatively settled team.
Maradona has also decided to call some players to the squad based on there performance against Haiti which i think is a little strange. He's included Colon defender Ariel Garce, who had won two caps in 2003 as a River Plate player, and made only his third international appearance against the Haitians as well as Juan Manuel Insaurralde of Newells Old Boys who has 2 caps to his name so far. He's also called up midfielder Juan Mercier, who earned a third cap against Haiti, and has been impressive for Argentine title favourites Argentinos Junior. Also in midfield he's called up Sebastian Blanco, Jesus Datolo, Jose Sosa and Javier Pastore (Blanco, Datolo & Sosa have 11 full caps between them, Pastore has only played against Catalonia in an unofficial friendly). Whilst the first XI is still very strong, questions will be raised about the strength and depth in the squad and how there is very little experience or stand out quality in the reserves
Brazil
The Brazil squad was realtivly straight forward for Dunga, some sections of the Brazillian media and fans wanted him to call up Neymar & Paulo Henrique who have been setting the Campeonato Paulista alight with fantastic skills, passes and goals but he resisted this pressure. There was also some pressure, although not as much, to bring Ronaldinho back in as a Plan B incase anything happens to Kaka but he has opted to leave Ronaldinho out of the squad. The only other debate was over Adriano or Grafite and as Adriano's personal demons have raised their head again Dunga has decided to take Grafite along with Nilmar as back up to Robinho & Luis Fabiano with Pato missing out due to his recent injury problems
France
The biggest surprise in the France squad is the decision by outgoing manager Raymond Domenech to leave Karim Benzema out of the squad. Karim's had a disappointing season by his standards, making 14 starts and 12 appearnces from the bench in La Liga but only scoring 8 goals and getting 3 assists, in the CL he made 3 starts, 2 further appearances from the bench but only found the net once which isn't a great return for a £35m player. To rub salt in the wound, Djibril Cisse a player i have never really rated has been called up instead of him along with Jimmy Briand who only has 3 caps and has only scored 5 goals in 22 appearances for Stade Rennes after missing last season and the start of this season with a ruptured ACL. Patrick Viera has also been left out but he hasn't been the same player he once was and wasn't really expected to be included in the squad.
England
The inclusion of Jamie Carragher is a big surprise by Fabio Capello after he retired from international duty 3 years ago and writing some interesting thoughts in his auto-biography relating to international duty. At the time he retired he was unhappy with not playing as center back and being played on the right - this time he's going to be going as back up right back to Glen Johnson & about 4th choice center back. He also isn't the player he was 3 years ago, he's not as fast and has had an average season at best for Liverpool. A couple of other surprises for me was the inclusion of Shaun Wright-Phillips, Adam Johnston, Scott Parker and Darren Bent - players like SWP & Darren Bent have played at international level before and never seem to be quiet the standard you'd want for playing teams like Brazil, Spain and Argentina whilst Johnston and Parker are very inexperienced at this level.
Other Squads that have been announced are pretty much what was expected - Thomas Sorensen has been included in the Denmark squad despite suffering from a dislocated elbow, in Italy Marcello Lippi has discarded Luca Toni in favour for Guiseppe Rossi and left out controversial striker Mario Balotelli. Vicente Del Bosque's biggest surprise was including 5 goalkeepers in his 30 man squad, including Barca keeper Victor Valdez as well as inclduing the injured trio of Torres, Iniesta & Fabregas. Bojan hasn't been included but his Barca team mate Pedro has been along with Osasuna's Cesar Azpilicueta and Bilbao's Javi Martinez. In Mexico Man Utd fans might get a chance to see Javier Hernandez in action after he was included along with Arsenal's Carlos Vela and Serbia included another rumoured United target in Subotic, the Borussia Dourtmund center back who has a formidable partnership with current United centre back Vidic. The US player Charlie Davies did not make the national team squad after suffering a horrific car crash in Washington, he has returned to training despite original doubts over him being able to walk again but the World Cup is just soon for him. The Scottish born Stuart Holden has been included despite only playing 2 games since joining in January.
I hope this has enlightened you a bit more to some of the World Cup squads and thanks for reading! as usual leave any feedback below, or find me on Twitter (Buster_5265) or e-mail me at Buster_5265@hotmail.com
Wednesday, 28 April 2010
The birth of a blog
Hello to everyone taking the time to read this blog,
I hope it provides a useful source of information and thought provoking comments to keep you entertained, interested and more importantly coming back!!
I've decided i want to pursue a career in sports journalism after spending 6 years doing my current job, I'll be leaving that in early June and have the fantastic opportunity to watch a World Cup from start to finish which is something I've never been able to do before so i thought I'd help keep people who can't watch it up to date with live tweets (Buster_5265) from all the games as and when they happen as well as providing match reports, reactions and latest news via this blog. up until the world cup i will be blogging on football leagues and competitions from around the world.
I thought I'd make my first blog about the team that i will be following through the World Cup as well as my prediction to win (even putting money where my mouth is!!) Argentina.
As an Englishman it probably surprises you that I'm backing a team who aren't exactly popular amongst England fans but I'm so disillusioned by everything that's wrong with the English national team I've decided to look to foreign shores for my world cup team. don't get me wrong, i will be cheering England on and as my home country but they won't be my No 1 team anymore. So why Argentina? my first memories of watching the World Cup is 1994 and Maradona's celebration in the Greece game they won 4-0 along with Batistuta's hat-trick, and Caggnia's double against Nigeria but what really grabbed me was Maradona. Sadly at the time he clearly wasn't at his best although some of the things he did were still breath taking but all the hype around him along with the references in commentary made me want to find out more. unfortunately no one in my family was that in to football so i had to pester family friends and friends older brothers until i finally got my hands on a home made video of the 1986 World Cup and finally got to see the 2 goals commentators would frequently reference and the second goal, I'm sure like so many before me, took my breath away. Ever since then I've always held a soft spot for South American football and when Brazil won in 1994 i was pleased that a team from my favourite area won the tournament although i was very disappointed with the final because all I'd heard before hand was about how this was going to be an amazing game and it was very dull although being 8 at the time i didn't quite understand why!!
in 1998 i was very excited to see Argentina in action again, especially after the 5-0 thrashing of Jamaica in which Ortega & Batistuta were incredible however in the 2nd round England and Argentina came up against each other in a game remember for a phenomenal solo goal by Owen and that kick out from Beckham, on that night i was an England fan and was devastated to see the team knocked out. In the next round though Argentina came up against a very good Holland team and the game looked destined for extra time until an incredible goal from Dennis Bergkamp sent Argentina tumbling out.
2002 was not a good year, Argentina getting knocked out before the knock out rounds with reports of infighting, bickering and ego's causing problems which showed in below par-performances with a team that should have got further - obviously Beckham's revenge was the key story over in England but Argentinian football took a hammering as a result of 3 poor performances, especially from an attacking perspective which is normally where Argentina excel.
2006 started off much better, especially with the brilliant 6-0 drubbing of Serbia involving one of the best team goals ever seen which had a build up of 24 pass's before Cambiasso finished to score the 2nd goal. Sadly the Argentinians came up against a wall in Mexico, having to wait till extra time before Maxi Rodriguez put them through but sadly they fell at the next hurdle with a draw against Germany before going out on penalties again leaving the tournament feeling they hadn't quite achieved what they should have
2010 could be a different story, with attacking talent like Di Maria, Aguero, Higuain and of course, arguably the worlds best player right now Lionel Messi. Alot of people are saying that for Messi to be considered on the same level as people like Maradona he needs to really step up at this World Cup. what people forget is he is still only 23 - at this age Diego got sent off in the '82 world cup for stamping on a Brazilians goolies!! even if Messi doesn't perform at this tournament his tournament will be the 2014 World Cup when he's 27 - Maradona was 26 at the '86 World Cup so people saying he has to perform at this tournament is a bit over the top, although i still think this stage could well be set for him, his form seems to be getting better and better and really the only man that can stop him being as great as Maradona on the world stage is, ironically, Maradona and only he knows what he has planned for the World Cup.....either way, it's certainly going to be interesting to watch!!
Thanks for reading, let me know what you think via Twitter (Buster_5265) or e-mail me at Buster_5265@hotmail.com, i'll try and write another blog soon discussing the Inter v Barcelona game along with Bayern v Lyon
I hope it provides a useful source of information and thought provoking comments to keep you entertained, interested and more importantly coming back!!
I've decided i want to pursue a career in sports journalism after spending 6 years doing my current job, I'll be leaving that in early June and have the fantastic opportunity to watch a World Cup from start to finish which is something I've never been able to do before so i thought I'd help keep people who can't watch it up to date with live tweets (Buster_5265) from all the games as and when they happen as well as providing match reports, reactions and latest news via this blog. up until the world cup i will be blogging on football leagues and competitions from around the world.
I thought I'd make my first blog about the team that i will be following through the World Cup as well as my prediction to win (even putting money where my mouth is!!) Argentina.
As an Englishman it probably surprises you that I'm backing a team who aren't exactly popular amongst England fans but I'm so disillusioned by everything that's wrong with the English national team I've decided to look to foreign shores for my world cup team. don't get me wrong, i will be cheering England on and as my home country but they won't be my No 1 team anymore. So why Argentina? my first memories of watching the World Cup is 1994 and Maradona's celebration in the Greece game they won 4-0 along with Batistuta's hat-trick, and Caggnia's double against Nigeria but what really grabbed me was Maradona. Sadly at the time he clearly wasn't at his best although some of the things he did were still breath taking but all the hype around him along with the references in commentary made me want to find out more. unfortunately no one in my family was that in to football so i had to pester family friends and friends older brothers until i finally got my hands on a home made video of the 1986 World Cup and finally got to see the 2 goals commentators would frequently reference and the second goal, I'm sure like so many before me, took my breath away. Ever since then I've always held a soft spot for South American football and when Brazil won in 1994 i was pleased that a team from my favourite area won the tournament although i was very disappointed with the final because all I'd heard before hand was about how this was going to be an amazing game and it was very dull although being 8 at the time i didn't quite understand why!!
in 1998 i was very excited to see Argentina in action again, especially after the 5-0 thrashing of Jamaica in which Ortega & Batistuta were incredible however in the 2nd round England and Argentina came up against each other in a game remember for a phenomenal solo goal by Owen and that kick out from Beckham, on that night i was an England fan and was devastated to see the team knocked out. In the next round though Argentina came up against a very good Holland team and the game looked destined for extra time until an incredible goal from Dennis Bergkamp sent Argentina tumbling out.
2002 was not a good year, Argentina getting knocked out before the knock out rounds with reports of infighting, bickering and ego's causing problems which showed in below par-performances with a team that should have got further - obviously Beckham's revenge was the key story over in England but Argentinian football took a hammering as a result of 3 poor performances, especially from an attacking perspective which is normally where Argentina excel.
2006 started off much better, especially with the brilliant 6-0 drubbing of Serbia involving one of the best team goals ever seen which had a build up of 24 pass's before Cambiasso finished to score the 2nd goal. Sadly the Argentinians came up against a wall in Mexico, having to wait till extra time before Maxi Rodriguez put them through but sadly they fell at the next hurdle with a draw against Germany before going out on penalties again leaving the tournament feeling they hadn't quite achieved what they should have
2010 could be a different story, with attacking talent like Di Maria, Aguero, Higuain and of course, arguably the worlds best player right now Lionel Messi. Alot of people are saying that for Messi to be considered on the same level as people like Maradona he needs to really step up at this World Cup. what people forget is he is still only 23 - at this age Diego got sent off in the '82 world cup for stamping on a Brazilians goolies!! even if Messi doesn't perform at this tournament his tournament will be the 2014 World Cup when he's 27 - Maradona was 26 at the '86 World Cup so people saying he has to perform at this tournament is a bit over the top, although i still think this stage could well be set for him, his form seems to be getting better and better and really the only man that can stop him being as great as Maradona on the world stage is, ironically, Maradona and only he knows what he has planned for the World Cup.....either way, it's certainly going to be interesting to watch!!
Thanks for reading, let me know what you think via Twitter (Buster_5265) or e-mail me at Buster_5265@hotmail.com, i'll try and write another blog soon discussing the Inter v Barcelona game along with Bayern v Lyon
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