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Fatigue may play a part in semifinals
Posted: Wednesday June 28, 2000 01:40 PM
GEEL, Belgium (AP) -- The sprints are fewer, the scrimmages shorter, and even a strict coach or two has been known to call off an entire training session. But after a long club season, and four European Championship matches in two weeks, one thing doesn't change in the final rounds: the games still last 90 minutes -- and maybe more. With four highly-skilled teams shooting for the crown, the difference in the semifinals and finals may turn out to be who can hold up better physically, particularly if games go into extra time. For most of the season training is centered on building stamina. "It is different now," said Ivan Carminati, the conditioning coach for the Italian squad. "We're really on a maintenance schedule more than anything else." Carminati, who was fitness coach for a Lazio team that won this season's Serie A title and played more games, 45, than any other Italian team, said the Azzurri team arrived in relatively good shape. Conditioning and medical tests on each player, which were performed in the days before Italy's arrival in Belgium, have been regularly reviewed over the past three weeks. Carminati credited part of Italy's relatively good shape to Serie A teams' early exits from European cup play this season, noting that the squad has only two players from Lazio, 24-year-old defender Alessandro Nesta and backup defender Paolo Negro, which got the farthest, bowing out of the Champions League in the quarterfinals. Other players still vying for the Euro 2000 title, however, were stretched a bit further. Portuguese superstar Luis Figo has spoken several times in recent weeks about the toll he has taken playing for Barcelona, which made it to the Champions League semifinals. "Right now I feel fine, you'll have to ask me again tomorrow after the game," he quipped before Portugal's quarterfinal against Turkey. "We've had a really hard season, with many games. I think you have to be strong enough to make sure you're fit and to win the games." One piece of good news for the players over the past week has been cooler temperatures, after a heat wave hit Belgium and the Netherlands earlier in the tournament. "Before we were concerned about getting fluids and salt into the players, now there's been a break from that," said Carminati. "But that goes for all the teams." Nonetheless, with teams forced to play with shorter breaks between games, coaches in the later rounds tend to cut workouts down to a maximum of one per day. Three of the four teams, France, Italy and Portugal, managed to rest most of their starters in the final first-round game. The Dutch, which like the others had already clinched a spot in the quarterfinals, chose to play its starters to help ensure they'd play all their games in the Netherlands. Still, Carminati said that keeping players in shape is about more than just the physical. "A lot is about motivation, which can go up or down at this point," he said. "You've got to keep the legs going, but also the head."
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