World Cup: Highs & Lows
It has been nearly two weeks now since the World Cup in South Africa drew to a close with Spain relinquishing their title of ‘eternal bridesmaids of world football’ to take up the much more sought after identity of ‘World Champions’.
We are all going to recede back to our normal lives without debating about the chances different sides have on the day of making it through the group stages, or pushing past a stronger opponent in the knockout rounds with a sneaky goal in extra time or the heroics of a goalkeeper in a penalty shootout. Until of course the new domestic season starts in a month’s time.
Can’t undermine club rivalries in our country and why should we? The days of mass hooliganism are receding to a murky corner in our history. The only debate that will be raging for the next few years to come will be why England can’t do what Spain managed to achieve.
It isn’t in terms of actually winning the World Cup, but in terms of playing football in a way which won’t be forgotten by those who saw the tournament. Think back to Bulgaria in USA 94 and Croatia in France 98. These teams did not win the tournament but they certainly won the hearts of football fans the world over.
Bulgaria led by the brilliant Hristo Stoichkov in 94 and Croatia led by the legendary Davor Suker in 98, impressed everyone with their football which included passion, commitment, and more importantly pride at donning the shirts of their national teams. They finished fourth and third in their respective tournaments but ask the players who beat them in the semis and they will still tell you how big a fright they had got from these teams.
In fact every so often the World Cup manages to pull an absolute rabbit out of the hat in that sense. South Korea in 2002, coached by the brilliant Guus Hiddink, more or less repeated what Bulgaria and Croatia had achieved in the previous editions of the World Cup.
True, the South Koreans had home support, but let’s face it. Fans are called the 12th man for a reason it is because the other 11 need to play properly first. Our boys did not quite do that in South Africa. The Spanish did.
The World Cup just gone had a fair few surprises thrown at us both good and nasty. Some of the refereeing was shockingly poor and inconsistent, which is not to turn the spotlight on the Lampard goal incident, but the fact that so many referees displayed such a lack of homogeneity in their decisions, it was too obvious that they were doing everything exactly by the book to the very last letter.
It’s all too well to chart out the rules and procedures a referee should follow but it needs to be realised that they are meant to be guidelines. They are not a religious doctrine and the beautiful game hasn’t yet turned in to a staunch rigid religion itself although some of us are guilty of acting that way sometimes.
You can’t officiate in a football match by leaning on to every word of the rule book. All you need to worry about is being fair and sensible. When South Africa played Uruguay, the latter’s Luis Suarez latched on to a through pass in the penalty box and attempted to round the South African keeper Itumeleng Khune but his first touch was so poor it took it away from him and in fact, the goal. Immediately after, there was a clear dive by Suarez as the keeper had his legs outstretched to narrow the angle for him and it was so obvious that Suarez had taken a dive well before his heel was brushed by Khune.
Technically that is a penalty, agreed. But what are we 80year-olds? Where has the common sense gone? A penalty is meant for a ‘foul’ in the box, not for technically touching someone well after they were already on their way down.
If people choose to argue about this, they will win simply because of the society we live in today adheres more to watertight guidelines in bullet points than actually taking a second and asking is this really fair or necessary?
But next time people start complaining the beautiful game has lost its charm, well there’s one of the reasons why. You can’t constrict every single aspect; every little move made on the pitch to a number of different rules, and not expect the game to turn robotic, with more stoppages than kicks of the ball.
Talking of the beautiful game though, that was what the World Cup final was meant to be all about right? Spain facing Holland the original masters and inventors of ‘total football’, reminiscent of the Johan Cryuff era when The Netherlands reached two consecutive World Cup finals in 74 and 78, losing both times. Cryuff may not have played in 78 but his elegance had been picked up by the rest of his team by then.
Spain on the other hand had charmed the world all these years with spirited football which always left more to be desired simply because of their failure to turn the spirited displays into trophies. Many fancied Holland to don the same footballing head for the final as their predecessors had three decades ago. Sadly they did, but it was the ‘losing in the World Cup final’ part rather than the other one.
Throughout the tournament, Holland played anything but elegant football. Marc van Bommel in particular bullied and bossed the Dutch midfield in such a ruthless way that it would put Billy Bremner to shame; the Leeds United captain in the late 60s and early 70s under Don Revie.
Spain on the other hand, had showed right from Euro 08 that their style of play had further enhanced from what we saw in the earlier decades. They relied heavily on quick movement on and off the ball, pin point accuracy on their passing, and one-on-one ball skills which would even blow away the Brazilian teams of the 60s and 70s.
In many ways, what people were expecting of the Dutch, was delivered by the Spanish. Not just delivered, it was delivered in some style. They may not have scored an awful lot of goals in the tournament like Germany and Argentina did, but even the game they lost against Switzerland, they had complete control of the possession and everyone on the pitch seemed to know what they were doing.
They were all on the same page, even the substitutes when they came on, looked like they had started the match. They were that well tuned with each other. Perhaps it is because they all felt proud to be in the same boat as each other. For once maybe they did completely forget about rivalries between Madridisitas and Catalans.
This isn’t to say our players let club rivalries come in between while on international duty but no matter how much David Beckham stressed on the final edition of Friday Night With Jonathan Ross that all the players were extremely proud to be there, well there’s no refuting that but it wasn’t on show during the games, that is for certain.
Beckham is a bit modest as well to admit that not everyone has the same passion he has shown while playing for England. A handful? Yes definitely. The entire team? No.
How many members of that England camp have actually been knocked down and humiliated by the entire nation the way Beckham was? Emile Heskey maybe, given he is constantly ridiculed for being a striker who doesn’t score. Frank Lampard has also been victimised a few times when our fans have booed him when his name was read out at Wembley. Who else? John Terry had some serious pressure to deal with last year but that was because of his personal life. No one ever questioned his abilities on the pitch and after the commitment he showed against Slovenia, rightly so.
Either way, something was not right in the England camp. Same way as the entire World Cup was fabulous in many ways, but be it the constant buzzing of the vuvuzelas or the inconsistent refereeing and complaints about the ball, there was something always pulling the tournament back from becoming a legendary tournament rather simply than a good one.
6 Comments – Postiwch sylw
Tyezer
Rhoddwyd sylw 70 mis yn ôl - 22nd July 2010 - 13:39pm
Well said. Wicked article :)
CeefaxOfLife
Rhoddwyd sylw 70 mis yn ôl - 22nd July 2010 - 13:49pm
1.The referee is not there to ensure entertainment and fairness but to implement the rules of the game and protect the welfare of the players. You may not like all of the laws of the game, but what else can the referee do but follow them? If they ignored them and instead used common-sense, then there would be even greater inconsistency in decisions. Don't shoot the messenger.
2.The major factor in the World Cup not being a legendary edition was the predominance of the highly negative 4-2-3-1 formation.
3."Our boys". Remember you're in Wales.
abhijanb
Rhoddwyd sylw 70 mis yn ôl - 22nd July 2010 - 14:04pm
@ Ceefax
apologies, the england wales thing slipped my mind.
im not sure i agree with you on the referee not having anything else to do here. just the example of the penalty uruguay got against south africa is the kind of thing im talking about. there was minimal contact and not at all enough to indicate foul play. it was technical but met the rules backwards. player went down then had some contact from the goalkeeper but because it happened so quick, it was compiled together to mean there had been contact first then the player went. i feel that is twisting the rules and hiding behind them. referees need to be a bit more pragmatic thats all i think.
@tyezer
thanks mate.
cid
Rhoddwyd sylw 70 mis yn ôl - 27th July 2010 - 11:02am
Viva España - olé olé olé
Spain deserved - controlled football - showed you can win by playing football and not the player
after years of waiting .......
Spain also won Wimbledon and now the Tour de France - olé
hope its not a distraction from sorting out the Spanish economy though
FREDFRED BURGER
Rhoddwyd sylw 58 mis yn ôl - 13th July 2011 - 14:36pm
yeah spain won and i won £36 bought fifa south africa and is skillin my bro XxEPIC LEGENDxX
i is here
Rhoddwyd sylw 58 mis yn ôl - 13th July 2011 - 14:41pm
im a cardiff boy but because wales did not get in i was holland all the way