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Group E preview Indomitable Lions ready to pounce on foesPosted: Friday May 31, 2002 4:40 PM
Mike Woitalla is Executive editor at Soccer America magazine. "Six-foot-two, eyes of blue, Mick McCarthy's after you!" sang the Irish fans at the 1990 World Cup, IRELAND's first appearance in the finals. McCarthy captained that team, which reached the quarterfinals, marking the zenith of Irish soccer. (Their USA '94 run would end in the round of 16.) McCarthy turned coach in 1996. Although failing to qualify for World Cup '98 and the 2000 European Championship, he reconstructed the team in a manner that may serve it well. Under McCarthy's predecessor, Jack Charlton, Ireland relied on grit and long, high balls. That style's limitations were reflected by Charlton's World Cup record: four goals and one win in nine games. On McCarthy's Irish team, which ousted the Netherlands on the way to Asia, midfielders do more than watch balls fly overhead. Not that they've abandoned the aerial game -- towering forward Niall Quinn is still around -- but players such as Damien Duff, Mark Kinsella and Matt Holland make them less predictable. GERMANY coach Rudi Voeller also played at Italy '90, when the Germans won the last of three world titles. Germany has regressed since then; its last success, winning Euro '96, contributed to the decline. That victory, under Coach Berti Vogts, allowed the Germans to ignore how skill-bereft their new generation of players were. Vogts compounded the problem by shunning the notion that Germany needed a more technical game, repeatedly claiming that the "traditional German virtue" of hard work would see them through. If France '98 failure and a disastrous Euro 2000 weren't enough to underscore Germany's dearth of talent, there's the appearance of three naturalized Germans on the roster: Miroslav Klose (Poland), Oliver Neuville (Switzerland) and Gerald Asamoah (Ghana). So with eyes on 2006, the Germans are eager to see if Michael Ballack (25) and Sebastian Kehl (22) signal the beginning of a revival. CAMEROON has disappointed in two World Cups since making African history in 1990, but the Lions arrive with string of titles: 2000 Olympics and 2000 and 2002 African Nations Cup. Moreover, German coach Winfried Schaefer has been hailed for galvanizing a talented but erratic squad. "I don't know what it is about Germans, but they know how to organize things," says team ambassador Roger Milla, whose goals took the Indomitable Lions to the 1990 quarterfinals. Government funds promise to prevent financial problems of the past, such as in 1994 when the players threatened to strike because they weren't paid. Three France '98 veterans -- defender Rigobert Song and strikers Patrick Mboma and Samuel Eto'o -- welcome back midfielder Marc Vivien-Foe, who missed 1998 with a broken leg. SAUDI ARABIA's first two World Cup appearances differed dramatically: wins over Morocco and Belgium to reach the second round in 1994; a first-round exit in 1998. Watch for Obeid Al-Dossary, the Saudis' leading scorer in qualifying, and playmaker Nawaf Al-Temyat.
Mike Woitalla is Executive editor at Soccer America magazine.
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