Sun, Snow & Sand

With the voting complete, we can now look forward to 3 more FIFA World Cups outside of the economic power-bases of Western Europe, North America, and Asia. This follows, of course, FIFA's first-ever World Cup adventure in Africa earlier this year.

We will be witness to tournaments held in locales that, it seems, could not be more different.

Brazil, the host for the upcoming 2014 edition, conjures up images of beach soccer, the samba, and its joyous, rhythmic spectators. The team that has epitomized the beautiful game for decades will, however, want to erase the memory of Uruguay's stunning upset the last time Brazil hosted the tournament back in 1950. Already the preparation in the country is underway as the government cleans up, one after another, the drug-infested favelas of Rio de Janeiro. All of this done not, apparently, for the safety of its inhabitants but for the benefit of World Cup (and subsequently Olympic) visitors.

Russia, picked over the reigning champion Spain and the hard-luck England amongst others, will host the 2018 tournament. In contrast to the Brazilians' sun(ny) image, the Russians embody dogged resistance and romanticism of a very different sort. That may not have been real snow or even real Moscow in Doctor Zhivago -- most of the movie was filmed in Spain -- but it sure FELT like Russia. On the field, it will be looking for its first World Cup title. Underachievers at the world's biggest tournament, Russia did, however, win the European Championship in 1960 as the USSR (finishing as runners-up in the same tournament on 3 other occasions).

Qatar was the surprise pick to host the tournament 4 years later. The USA, unfortunately for me, was not selected (click here for details). Although it is foolish to try to predict 12 years into the future, I am going out on a limb -- you heard it here first -- to state that Qatar will not win the 2022 World Cup. Unlike Brazil and Russia, who will each be amongst the favorites to win in their own stadia, Qatar will be prohibitive underdogs. The country did host FIFA's AFC Asian Cup in 1988 but has little pedigree in the world's game. However, by all accounts, the game is staggeringly popular throughout the Middle East and the country's infrastructure is, reputedly, top notch. I have heard speculation that games will be played in temperatures of 50-degrees celsius/122-degrees farenheit...on the desert sand! (OK, I made up the part about the sand.)

The contrasts in the tournament hosts is fascinating. It should also be a bonanza for the frequent-flier miles collecting football fan.

Is The Scottish Dialect Ruining English Football?

After listening to SAF terrify the press again today it reminded me of an ongoing spirited discussion with my Scottish mate Bob.
Me. "Scotland are crap"
Him. " Well, with so many Scottish managers in the English leagues what does that make you?"
And so I developed the following theory.
Is it purely an aggressive authoritarian accent and not some superior tactical nouse from North of the border that gets most of these Scotsmen jobs in management.
It reminds of a little Glaswegian I used to work with that ran the warehouse, he used to terrify the shop floor girls whenever he spoke.
The same gruff voices can be heard throughout football but never do you hear "get stuck in lad" or "get down that wing son" shouted in some effete Etonian type dialect.
Do Scot's have superior managerial skills? Is there some kind of Scottish total fitba philosophy?
Absolutely not.
In fact they come from largely the same background as their English counterparts, from a country that is woefully short of good players and teams, so why the disproportionate numbers in coaching?
Is it the illusion of some sergeant major type sounding like they know what they are doing and if you don't listen you might get a slap?
Could it be some insurgent plot to bring English football down to their standards?
In order to counteract this invasion of mediocre imposters* I suggest the FA coaching school develop there own loud brash coaches with homegrown accents.
The Geordie - More Brian Johnson from AC/DC than Alan Shearer.
The Northerner - More David Seamen than Compo.
The Cockney - More Ray Winstone than Rodney Trotter.
Certainly something to think about after complaints about a lack of English coaches.

*exemptions given to Sir Alex, Shankly, Dean, Dalglish, Moyes, Coyle.....oh crap

In jest.....kinda.

onederer.

Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait

Thanks to my brother, Lewis, I finally had the opportunity to view the movie "Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait". (It had been on my Netflix Saved DVDs list for over 3 years, but I digress...) As mainstream entertainment, the movie falls spectacularly short. It illustrates that even watching the greatest player of his generation -- and, arguably, the best ever -- without the context of his teammates and the action around him, and without the significance of the match itself is not riveting movie-making. That is not to say that I did not find it fascinating in other respects. For example, by pointing 17 cameras at one player, even Zizou, the film-makers underscore the oft-quoted observation that a football player spends upwards of 87 of the game's 90 minutes without the ball. That time is spent sprinting without reward, jogging, or merely strolling "le carré vert". The movie -- unlike the ubiquitous YouTube skills compilations -- is almost entirely devoid of Zidane's extravagant skills, save for one flourish that leads to a Real Madrid goal. This point illustrates the nature of the team in the sport: the best individuals can be easily stifled without an able and willing supporting cast. Also, like the movie itself, the soundtrack from Mogwai (a Scottish band, of all things) is hauntingly understated and wonderfully complements the filming. If it was some other sport or even some other player, I'm quite sure I would not have made it through to the end. But I'm really glad I did.

Postparty Depression

It's been almost 3 weeks since Spain edged Holland. It was the classic good versus evil morality tale. The Oranje reveling in the role of villain -- to the tune of 8 yellow cards -- and Spain's Iniesta starring as the hero with his match-winning goal in overtime. However, unlike all those movies, plays, pantomimes and books, we could not know how it would end. Had Arjen Robben poked in one of the two opportunities that fell his way, we would be explaining why Spain failed and how the Netherlands won every match in qualifying and at the tournament proper.
However, I sense that the permanent footballing memories from this tournament will be of the Germans. For the second straight World Cup, we are discussing the exuberance and flamboyance of Germany instead of its traditional tactical prowess, strength and determination. The ways they brushed aside Australia, England and, particularly, Argentina were wonderful exhibitions of incisive, attacking soccer played at top speed. This type of praise will be enough, I hope, to ensure the continued beautification of its style. Even if, by Germany's lofty standards, failing to make the Final in two consecutive tournaments is almost unprecedented.

The Final Four and the Tournament Select XI

Heading into the semi-finals, it seemed like a good time to pick my Tournament Select XI. A couple of notes on my selections:
1. As the title suggestions, I have based my Tournament Select XI solely on the performances at South Africa 2010, ignoring reputations coming into the tournament. Needless to say, there are no places for Wayne Rooney or Cristiano Ronaldo.
2. Inevitably, I have favored players who have gone deep into the tournament, giving weight to the extra games played.
3. In order to get "my 11 best players" on the field, I took the liberty of opting for a 4-3-3 formation, flouting the conventional tournament wisdom of 4-4-2.
Given the unpredictable nature of the tournament so far, I am sure that at least one of these selections will let me down in the remaining 4 matches of the tournament, but here goes:
Goalkeeper: Maarten Stekelenburg (Netherlands)
Right back: Maicon (Brazil)
Center back: Juan (Brazil)
Center back: Diego Lugano (Uruguay)
Left back: Fábio Coentrão (Portugal)
Right midfield: Bastian Schweinsteiger (Germany)
Center midfield: Mesut Özil (Germany)
Left midfield: Jean Beausejour (Chile)
Right Forward: Asamoah Gyan (Ghana)
Center Forward: Diego Forlán (Uruguay)
Left Forward: David Villa (Spain)

AAARRRRGGHHHH

After having listened for two weeks to Moderators bashing soccer on radio and having several discussions with people about the pros and cons of soccer over other sports, I have noticed that there are two complaints about soccer that I have no response to.
One is diving, which as cheating goes is common to every sport in one way or another.
The other is the stupid pretending you're hurt when you are not.
I have very little respect for Baseball players as athletes, but I have never seen one stretchered off the field.

Well, add one more complaint about soccer I don't have a response to.
Refereeing.

The non-call against England was the single worst call I have ever seen.
But it also illustrates several problems Fifa is facing.

First: Why not have TV replay.
Fifa says TV replay would undermine the authority of the referee on the field, it would disrupt the flow of the game and it would be impossible to implement world wide.
I think the authority and the implementation arguments are bogus for obvious reasons. However, the England non-goal showed another problem with video review. Neuer, immediately, took the ball threw it for 50 yards and Germany was on a fast break. Should the ref have stopped the game for a video review and denied Germany's fastbreak. And the England case was obvious, but how about more ambigous plays? Would this eventually lead to several stops a game for video reviews as Fifa claims?
I think it probably would.

My solution.
The fifth referee the way they were used in the Europa League.
I don't really blame the referees for missing the goal, even though they were probably the only two people in the stadium. But the ref was probably looking at the contact he was expecting on several players converging on the ball and the linesman is actually in a very bad position to make a goalline call. So, I don't blame the referees, but they need help. A 5th official would never have missed the goal standing right next to the goal and directly looking into the goal. He could have immediately told the referee and the right call would have been made.

Now, whether or not five referees is realistic for all professional Fifa games worldwide should be irrelevant. The World Cup is the games showcase to the world and special should apply if that helps making the game better. As of now, there is just one more stupid baseball fan laughing at us soccer idiots and Sepp Blatter has left us soccer fans hung out to dry.

Recipe for Success

With much of the group play at WC 2010 wrapped up and having spent most of our time watching and analyzing the merits and deficiencies of the players for 11 plus days, I wondered what, if any, is the coach's (or team manager's, if you prefer) recipe for success. A lot of ridicule was directed at Maradona before the competition began. As of now, his Argentina is the only team to have won all 3 group games. On the other hand, England's Capello was deemed a national savior who had re-instilled discipline and a strong sense of authority. That was until his team started to play football at the tournament. He is now already being touted as an overpaid fraud. So what works? The distant authoritarian (Capello) or the enthusiastic, heart-on-the-sleeve, crazy uncle (Maradona)? Maybe in these days of 24-7 internet and incessant news coverage, there is something to be said for the coach as a sideshow. I remember reading that Frank Lampard admired Jose Mourinho in part because the latter viewed one of his roles as deflecting media attention away from his players. Whatever your views on Mourinho, it is hard to argue with his record at club level.
Ultimately, of course, any coach has got to have the "horses" (and Maradona has one of the deepest squads at the tournament) but, as France has embarrassingly illustrated, talent is not enough. The skills and egos need to be woven together to form (the illusion of) a highly motivated and harmonious collective...even it only lasts for four weeks.

I am sooo tired

Man, getting up at 4:30 in the morning is getting to me.
Especially, since most of the games have been rather, well not necessarily boring, but at a very low level technically.

So, here are my impressions so far.

First of all the group stage is all about getting through. I don't really care how. Everyone is nervous and most of the games are super defensive. So here it goes.

England: No harm done, yet. Everyone knew their weakness is their goalie and their second striker. Other than that, I would not have any trouble fielding that team at all. I think people talking about Carragher being too slow etc etc are just full of shit because if that is your only problem you should win the tournament. As far as Green is concerned, I would stick with him if I was Capello. You picked him because you thought he was the best, so keep using him. Besides, Joe Hart would probably be nervous as well now of screwing up. James would be cool as a cucumber, but he would also screw up, no doubt about it.

To men the key for England success is 1. Gerrard playing well. When he does, nobody can stop him and he makes everyone better around him. I didn't watch the whole game, but I would be disappointed that he scored a goal four minutes in and then just had a so so game. Never mind Green's mistake, Gerrard seemed rather disinterested in defending Dempsey before the shot.
Second, England needs another striker to play well. That was a nice assist from Heskey, but I think Defoe should play to take some pressure off Rooney.( Is Defoe even on the roster?)
I have no problem with bringing in Crouch late, but he should not be allowed to drop less than 3 feet below the last defender. He is always roaming around the midfield sucking in wallpasses and giving them back and then he is not available when somebody breaks through on the wing.

US
Nothing wrong with going 1:1 with England. Now all they have to do is outplay England against Algeria and Slowenia. Both teams looked horrible, but I am afraid one of them will have one good game. Against who, remains to be seen. Looking at the brackets, I would go for broke if I was Bradley to try and win the group. Coming in first would make it infinitely easier to advance ,at least to the semi-final. In other words, Buddle from the start next game.

Germany:
The German press is all over itself from we are the greatest, to OH my God we peaked too early.
I think the win and the way it was won was a positive because I think young players can't be too confident. Oezil was great, so was Mueller. I am so excited not to see lumberjacks like Briegel and Maetheus anymore on the German team.Oezil is great when he is on and I expect him to play for Chelsea, Arsenal, AC Milan, or Juventus next season. He is very much like Iniesta, just not as consistent, but also not with the same supporting cast at Werder Bremen.
Mueller is a great player, who had a really bad game against Inter, which is the only game most people have seen. And Marko Marin is this tournaments super sub who can nutmeg 3 people in a row on the way to score. Go figure Klose and Podolski. Both of them scored 5 goals combined last season, but they can't miss when they put on a black and white jersey. Gomez is the exact opposite. Kiesling is up and coming and I wish Loew had put him in instead of Gomez.

I don't really miss Ballack. He is a very good/solid player, but not anywhere near Oezil when Oezil has a good day. Khedira is doing OK so far, but I would have preferred to see Rolfes. I think Helmes would be a star by now had he not torn his ACL and I think Neuer is not a big step down from Enke or Adler.

The African teams look terrible. Based on the qualifying and the African Cup this is not really a surprise. Ghana without Essien looked terrible. Their saving grace was that Serbia looked like they played at this level for the first time. The red card was a brain fart and the handball was just as ridiculous. Zigic ran around the midfield the whole time fouling people and Pantelic couldn't trap a ball to save his life. Interesting to see how they will play when they have nothing to lose.

Denmark didn't get close to scoring a goal. Rommedahl seems done. Is there anybody besides Bendtner? Time to get back to the good old 4-3-3

Holland looked tired as well. What is strange is that they always pick their fast players, but what they miss is a target man like Huntelaar or Van Nistelroy. DeJong is just a thug and should get a red card before the second round starts and then that defense is really going to swim against a team like Argentina or Spain.

France just bores me. They can't beat Israel, they can't beat Switzerland, they can't score. In the last ten years they played three good games beating Spain, Brazil and losing to Italy. 3 good games in the last ten years all within one week. I'd say they got hot and they had Zidane during that stretch. Mexico France should be an interesting game. Mexico France 2:1 is my prediction
and France not making the next round.

Brazil, Spain, Portugal coming up

Kick you later
Rainer

Zeroes and Heroes

Four days of the the tournament in the books and, as usual, goals are at a premium. From the 11 games completed, we have seen a total of 18 goals, including 4 by Germany, 1 each by way of a penalty kick and an own goal, and 3 courtesy of schoolboy-level goalkeeping errors. 9 of the 22 teams have been shut out from scoring for the full 90 minutes. As is also traditional, I am going to draw all sorts of unreasonable conclusions based on a statistically meaningless sample:
1. The 2010 World Cup will be considered the best officiated tournament ever.
2. Australia will not be taking home the trophy.
3. Slovenia will surprise either England or USA but not both.
4. Klose will become the all-time World Cup Finals top scorer.
5. France will rally around Monsieur Domenech to win Group A.
6. Brazil will struggle against North Korea before ultimately prevailing 4-1.
Almost the entire young German team impressed, including relative veterans such as Lahm, Schweinsteiger, and Podolski, but the standout player in the win over Australia was Oezil. (You were right again, Rainer!) Other players who have shone in Round One are Asamoah Gyan, Giovanni dos Santos, Steven Gerrard, Oguche Onyewu, and Simone Pepe.

The Beckham Experiment

"Let him be the captain. You be the star."
Just finished Grant Wahl's fascinating recount of the two year soap opera that unfolded after David Beckham, the "world's most famous athlete", signed for the Los Angeles Galaxy and Major League Soccer (MLS). Interestingly, there is not a single exclusive or off-the-record quote from "Becks" in the book's entire 290 pages. But that is kind of the point. The guy lives in a (self-imposed) bubble, where spontaneity is not an option. The irony, I think, is that Beckham still views himself as the no-nonsense guy that he undoubtedly once was. The opportunity for candor afforded to the lesser lights of the Galaxy -- players earning as little $12,900 per season compared to Beckham's $6,500,000 -- had been replaced by banal sound bites repeated so frequently as to become some of the book's best punchlines. Wahl also delightfully depicts the political manoeuvrings that made MLS's signing of Beckham possible and the subsequent blame game when the Galaxy's results failed to improve after he joined the team. These shenanigans came as a disappointment to this reader -- my naive side wanted the purity of the sport to win out -- but they will sound eerily familiar to those of us involved in "civilian corporate life". The story is expertly paced, picking up steam as the luster of the signing wears off and the conflicts begin.
In the end, I was left to wonder if David Beckham's manicured public persona is any more credible than that of the other "world's most famous athlete", Tiger Woods.

Oranje hope to claim biggest prize

In 1647, a Dutch vessel, the Haarlem, was wrecked in the present-day Table Bay, which is overlooked by what is now called Cape Town. Fast forward 363 years and the Dutch have yet again arrived on the shores of South Africa. This time, the Oranje have a much different objective in mind, and that is to win the 2010 Fifa World Cup. The Dutch National Team, or "Elftal" have featured in the World Cup many times, having been to the finals in 1974 and 1978, losing to the host country both times. In fact, the only major team trophy the Dutch have ever hoisted was at the European Championship in 1988 (who can forget Van Basten's stunning strike against the USSR). If you really want to review the painful history of the Dutch side in World Cup competitions, go here.

The Dutch hope to answer the World Cup bell for the first time on their old colonial stomping ground (pardon the pun).

Bert Van Marwijk's men have all the talent in the world. That is one thing that has never been debated about the Dutch. Their problem has always been as a collective unit; a national team plagued by infighting and the pouting of too many prima donna's. Van Marwijk hopes he has changed this mentality (or at least put it on the back burner for four crucial weeks in June and July).

The Coach has urged his men to "believe" and that "There is nothing wrong with healthy ambition. We have to have an attitude of 'come on, we can do something'.'' And for all of you who know how blunt the Dutch can be, he also mentions "If you don't believe you can win it then you definitely won't." You can read that article in its entirety here.

So when the tourney kicks off next Friday, lets hope that the Dutch dont get ship wrecked like they have in the past...

Bienvenue France, I Am So Glad You Could Make It

There is no denying that drama follows les Bleus. Henry and his hand, Gallas and the go-cart, and Ribery's romance have lead many to predict an early exit for France at South Africa. Any of these sidebars, not to mention the Raymond Domenech saga, could become the distraction that sours the team's preparations. However, nothing changes the depth of quality in the French squad. Two club teams, Lyon & Bordeaux, had excellent runs in the just completed Champions League. And, unlike eventual winners Inter Milan who did not start a single Italian player in the final, homegrown talent formed the core of both of the French clubs. In Yoann Gourcuff, France may have a potential playmaking heir to Zidane. Ribery, who missed the CL final, will be keen to show the positive side of his explosiveness. On the other flank, Malouda will be coming off a fine season at Chelsea, linking up with clubmate and prolific scorer Anelka. Of course, Thierry Henry is still capable of magic with his feet, too. France also possesses a solid backline, anchored by Hugo Lloris in goal, and likely to feature Evra, Gallas, Abidal and Clichy of ManU, Arsenal, Barcelona and Arsenal respectively. The remainder of the squad comes from the strong Lyon, Marseille and Bordeaux clubs that have dominated the domestic scene in recent years. With this level of talent and athleticism, the 2010 squad, much like the last Zizou-inspired vintage, will surprise the world.

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-Mark