Disregarding my long standing feelings about Association Football, I have been watching the World Cup. England fans have rapidly gone from optimism after England’s excellent qualification campaign to pessimism after two lackluster draws in the first round against the United States and Algeria. From my present location in Spain, I can report that Spanish fans and the Spanish media are even more brittle than those of England: it only took one goal from Switzerland to get from “We are certainties to win this” to “Oh no, not again”.
As with most stock market swings, though, the supporters of both teams are guilty of massive overreactions to events, both before and after the games so far.
Firstly, England fans who have decided that their side is crap and that the sooner they are out of their misery the better should consider the performances of each of the five large western European countries:
Spain managed that 1-0 loss to Switzerland.
Germany lost 1-0 to Serbia.
France lost 2-0 to Mexico, a star player has been sent home and the other players are apparently on strike.
Italy were held to a 1-1 draw against New Zealand, and even that was only after being given a slightly dubious penalty. I watched this in a cafe full of Italians, and allowed myself to laugh loudly when the cameras showed utterly stone-faced Italians in the crowd at full time. I wouldn’t have allowed myself to do this in a bar full of England fans in similar circumstances if I had wanted to continue living, but this was fine with the Italians, and probably to their credit. On the other hand, my supporting a New Zealand team at anything – I do not think that has ever happened before.
A case can be made that England’s 1-1 draw with Algeria is the best result out of that lot. And yet, the claim that none of these sides will make the final stages seems absurd. One or two of those sides will miss the second round. Most likely these will be France and/or Italy, both finalists last time, but generally considered the two weakest of those five sides going into this tournament. And there is a fair chance that one of England, Germany, and Spain will miss out. However, at least two and likely all three will make it, and at that point everything starts again.
The best European side outside that group – and the greatest footballing nation to never win the World Cup – is the Netherlands, and they are looking good and appear to be playing well within themselves. The Dutch produce the best managers in the world, but they are a small country and one doubts they have the depth to actually win. I would be happy if they did, but I am dubious about their ability to do so.
So my feeling is that at least one of England, Spain, and Germany will survive a lackluster first round and get close to winning the tournament. Most likely this will be Germany, not so much because they have a better side than because they are more capable of understanding that the lackluster first round does not matter much. The point of the first round is to make the second round. If you have done that, everything is fine. And everything will be fine for England if they beat Slovenia on Wednesday. At least, fine apart for the fact that Wayne Rooney appears to be a stupid idiot, but we suspected that already, and he still scores goals for Manchester United.
Of the two strongest South American sides, Argentina are looking good but are a touch unpredictable and have a history of looking good early and going down later. On the other hand, this is Lionel Messi’s chance to demonstrate he is one of the all time greats. One kind of wonders about the whole Diego Maradona as manager thing, too, although one is also unsure whether he is the person actually running things. Whether or not he is, his presence might be a help if Messi is to do what Maradona did in 1986. Carlos Tevez playing so well is nice, too.
Brazil could only defeat North Korea by one goal, but they are Brazil, they did fine against Ivory Coast, and they look to be cruising at this stage of the tournament. In truth, not much to criticise there. Plus, no European side has ever won the tournament when it was held outside Europe and no Latin American side has ever won it outside Latin America besides Brazil, who have done this three times. Does that matter?
The English were much more dismal than that, playing out a dreadful goalless draw against Algeria. The Italy/New Zealand match was 100 times more exciting, and the Italians and Germans both showed much more nous than the English.
Still, the English need only defeat Slovenia to advance, while Italy only need to defeat a Slovak side that was rather dire today. At any rate, whichever team finish second in the Italian group is going to get waxed by the Netherlands.
The Germans only need a draw against Ghana, as they’d go through on a better goal difference, having defeated the Soccerooze 4-0. Ghana were surprisingly lousy against the antipodeans, doing nothing with their man advantage after Kewell was rightly sent off. That having been said, I’d expect Germany to beat Ghana and top the group. If the Americans can somehow win group C, they’ve got a reasonable chance to get to the semis, as they’d avoid both Germany and Argentina.
Netherlands-Brazil is looking to be a cracker of a quarterfinal, a replay of a 1994 QF that finished 3-2 to Brazil.
I didn’t see anything dubious about it all. Which is more than can be said for the Kiwis’ offside goal.
Even so, point taken, the European teams are for the most part having a nightmare. Which is a bit odd because you would have thought the winter temperatures would suit them down to the ground.
From what I can work out it wasn’t handball, it wasn’t a penalty and it wasn’t a sending off. The test is intent. Kewell didn’t have the time.
Oh, and for those who enjoy picking over the entrails of yet another disastrous England World Cup campaign you might like to check out James Hamilton’s(Link) remarks.
It’s all Capello’s fault.
Could there be a conspiracy by the referees to get underdogs into the Grand final? How do they expect australians to be cool players if they won’t let Kewell play?
As Patrick says, Law 12 does contain the word “intentionally”, and Kewell obviously did not do it intentionally. Even if you interpret the word “intentionally” as meaning “did not do everything he could possibly do to get out of the way”, it is hard to see what he could have done.
On the other hand, I accept that the “intentionally” is generally ignored in the enforcement of this rule, so I can just about live with the penalty. The problem comes from the “Any foul that prevents a goal is an automatic red card” ruling. Australia did not deserve to be forced to have to play the rest of a game a man short and then have Kewell suspended for the next game simply because the back ricocheted from his shoulder to his upper arm after it was kicked hard at him from close range. That is absurd.
I was not impressed with the Brazil – Cote dIvoire match. It was a shame to see that kind of gamesmanship return after a pretty clean tournament so far. The replay of the ref walking back with Fabiano after the 2nd goal, pointing at his arm and asking something suggests he saw the handballs but still gave the goal.
Very disappointed in the African teams, impressed with the Asians, NZ, Switzerland.
I hate to cheer for Argentina because Maradona is such a shit, but they are the only team that looks worthy so far.
Michael, supporting the other side in a bar full of English fans need not be a problem provided you pick your fans, as you clearly must have done with your Italians as they certainly wern’t Ultras.
The tournament so far is a good reminder as to why I don’t watch football any more.
I suspect that the authorities feel that arbitrary refereeing is an important part of the fun; that’s their decision, clearly, but until they make a genuine attempt to impose more consistency on officiating, I won’t be back.
They need to make use of technology where practical (and there are plenty of scenarios where it is), and above all they need to allow retrospective punishment for cheating and exoneration for mistakes, which right now is all but impossible. Players would think twice about falling to the ground clutching their face having been brushed on the arm if they were sent home when caught doing it.
I reckon Brazil will win, annoyingly, but I’m hoping for a plucky run from the Swiss. I gave up caring what happens to England after I saw Gerrard’s demeanour when slouching onto the field for the second half against Algeria; no chance.
Well the Portugese look a bit tasty too. Look what they just did to the Norks, 7 nil!
It reminds me of when a friend of mine and I were watching the Olympic Ice Hockey final years ago before the Wall came down, between USA and Russia, and USA won in the last seconds. The expressions on the Russian players faces all seemed to be saying…
Oh fuck, Siberia here we come!
The North Koreans aught to be planning a mass defection toute suite, God knows what Kim will do to them when they get home!
“The North Koreans aught to be planning a mass defection toute suite, God knows what Kim will do to them when they get home!”
Send them, AND their wives, children, parents and grandparents to the gulag. And if they DON’T go home, just short their wives..etc…
As to the Brazil game and the carding of Kaka, that incident alone proves the need for in-game television replay and retrospective punishments for play-acting. A disgusting performance by the player, but an even more disgusting performance by the ref. He could have asked the near sideline ref, who might have actually seen the incident. It is clear from the replays that the ref didn’t. He was watching the play, elsewhere.
In American football, the coach can ask for a review, and gets charged a time-out if the call is upheld. Can’t do that here, but how about the other side being given a free-kick if the call is upheld? And of course a hand-of-god goal will be properly disallowed if a hand-ball is disclosed by the replay.
You have to give credit to Kaka, though. He made NO comment on being red carded, only that it was a hard match. To be blunt, I half expected another Brazil player to make sure that the Cote player was NOT playacting the next time he fell down.
On another level, it is quite amusing to watch (and grade) the stupendous acting abilities of the players whenever they are so much as touched by an opponent. No-one just falls, and in fact, rarely do they even attempt to recover their balance and continue. And the clutching and grimacing! Who KNEW that a brush on the shin could be SO painful, even through a shinguard! The falls remind me of the old John Ford westerns, where horses were trip-wired into a fall, except of course, the horses weren’t play-acting.
sed -s/just short their wives/just shoot their wives/
Sheesh, lysdexic fingers this morning!
Widmerpool:
You might like this photo of Diego Maradona enjoying the vuvuzela.
Ah, so that’s how you are supposed to play it!
As the Bishop said to the Actress….
Blow Job is just a euphemism, darling.
Regarding the theatrics and histrionics of fouls in soccer/football, you may enjoy this video with a selection of Oscar-worthy performances.
Even I had to smile at the news that North Korea had lost 7 to 0.
The first time an Association Football story has really mattered to me.
By the way, in P.C. American schools a victory of more than 5 to 0 in Assication Football is not allowed (undermines “self esteem” you see – very Rawlsian).
So it was poke in the eye for them as well.
Ah, Patrick, the Italian striker was (very) briefly held, then he threw himself to the turf to get a penalty. Beautiful acting but he was clearly not held long enough to destabilize him, and he wasn’t tripped. Ergo, a deliberate foul play dive, and it worked perfectly.
The NZ goal was arguably offside. The player was onside from the initial free kick, moved then beyond the second last defender and took advantage of a deflection from an Italian defender. I think that makes him offside under the “gained advantage” rule, but I’m not clear because all the examples on that rule I’ve seen show the offside player being so when the initial kick was made, not at the time of the deflection by a defender.
Tonight NZ play Paraguay, that will be tougher, I predict 3-0 Paraguay. I expect Italy to beat or draw with Slovakia to go through (just) with Paraguay.