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Italy joins losing favorites
Croatia shows fight; S. Africa enjoys Slovene collapse
Posted: Saturday June 08, 2002 10:47 AM
CNNSI.com's World Cup analyst Gabriele Marcotti is covering every kick of the tournament, with a "91st Minute" column filed each matchday. Click here to submit a comment or question to Marcotti's mailbag.
Yesterday, we said that two of the pre-tournament favorites -- France and Argentina -- were on the verge of elimination. You can now add Italy to that list following the Azzurri's 2-1 loss to Croatia on Saturday.
The Croats, harshly criticized back home after the opening loss to Mexico, changed things around dropping veteran Robert Prosinecki, and the move immediately paid dividends as Mirko Jozic's team showed tremendous spirit and fight.
After a lackluster first half, Italy actually took the lead through Christian Vieri (who else?) and appeared intent on shutting up shop to defend the lead as they have done successfully so many times in the past.
Alas, five minutes of defensive madness cost them the match. The Azzurri's back four was all over place when Ivca Olic turned in the evergreen Robert Jarni's cross. Shortly thereafter, Italy again failed to clear, and Milan Rapaic's shot deflected off defender Marco Materazzi (who had come on after 24 minutes for the injured Alessandro Nesta), leaving goalkeeper Gigi Buffon no chance to save.
Italy stormed back, hitting the post on a free kick by Francesco Totti and having a late equalizer by Pippo Inzaghi disallowed by Danish linesman Jens Larsen. It was the second goal disallowed by Larsen after an effort by Vieri early in the second half.
Brazil predictably rolled over China 4-0. Typically, once the game was safely in the bag (it was 3-0 at half-time), the green-and-gold focused more on entertaining than adding to their score in what was a resounding victory. Credit China however for battling on gamely: in the second half, it hit the post and came close to scoring on several occasions.
Things went from bad to worse for Slovenia against South Africa. After the acrimonious departure of playmaker-cum-prima donna Zlatko Zahovic, coach Srecko Katanec was probably hoping that his men would rally together, much like Ireland did after Roy Keane left. The opposite happened.
Slovenia simply crumbled in a 1-0 loss against a South Africa side that, to be fair, looked lackluster, but still scored the all-important goal when Siyabona Nomvethe leaped to deflect in Quinton Fortune's cross with his knee(!). The goal itself was perhaps lucky, but given Slovenia's disastrous performance, it's hard to begrudge South Africa the points. Still, Jomo Sono's men will have to turn it up several notches against Spain if they hope to qualify.
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Milan Rapaic (Croatia).
He kept Italy under pressure throughout the game, ran his rear end off in trying to make space for Alen Boksic, and it was his shot that was deflected into the back of the net by an Italian defender, proving to be the winning goal.
A sterling performance, though Croatia boss Mirko Jozic disagrees: "It would be wrong to single out one player. Today, they were all heroes, they were dying for each other on the pitch."
So maybe we should listen to Jozic and just give the award to the entire Crotian team...
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The Italian defense (collective award).
Italy came into the World Cup with a big defensive reputation. In five minutes of madness, it all came crashing down. The absence of Alessandro Nesta, who went off injured halfway through the first half, can't by itself explain such a defensive meltdown.
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Roberto Carlos (Brazil).
His freekick cannonballs are the stuff of legend. Precisely because they are not as frequent as they used to be, it was wonderful to see him uncork one against China.
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No doubt Italy will make a big deal about the refereeing against Croatia. To be fair, Christian Vieri's goal should not have been disallowed (replays were very clear, and linesman Jens Larsen was very well placed), and it's hard to see what Pippo Inzaghi did to have his effort ruled out late in the game.
Having said that, even though with a little more luck Italy might have won the match (Totti hit the post), it doesn't change the fact that Croatia played very well and certainly did not deserve to lose. Italy created its own problems with some poor defending and, in the first 45 minutes, the Azzurri were simply awful.
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France, Argentina, Portugal, Italy and the other favorites who have already lost in this tournament can find some solace in the fact that it is far from uncommon for a team to lose in the opening round and then go on to the final. Of the last 14 finalists, no fewer than eight lost a game in the first stage of the tournament.
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In Group G, Mexico can become the third team to qualify for the second round (after Spain and Brazil) if it beats Ecuador, which looked overmatched against Italy. Coach Javier Aguirre, who will take over at Spain's Osasuna in the fall, will want to wrap things up as quickly as possible.
In Group C, the Turks made a huge fuss about the referee who'll handle their match against Costa Rica (Coffi Codjia, who is from Benin), but at this point they're better off focusing on beating the Ticos rather than worrying about the officiating. Costa Rica's three-man strike force is difficult to play against, though Turkey looked solid in the opener against Brazil.
In Group H, Japan takes on a Russia in a decisive match, as Philippe Troussier's men are in danger of becoming the first host nation not to qualify for the second round of the World Cup.
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Hidetoshi Nakata (Japan).
He has a lot to prove after a disappointing season and, while he had a solid game against Belgium in the opener, Japan will be expecting even more against Russia. He has the skill and vision to win matches single-handedly, and Japan desperately needs his magic.
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As a certified soccer referee, I was interested to read your recent rips of the Guatemalan and Mexican refs. While it would be foolish for anyone to say that they, or any refs, made no wrong calls, it is not necessarily justified to jump from wrong calls to indicting them for doing a bad job.
Your rips probably assume that the refs saw what you have seen and were undoubtedly made with the benefit of several slo-mo replays from different angles. We've all had the experience of seeing a replay from one angle and making a call only to realize we were dead wrong when we see the same play from a different angle. However, the refs may literally not have seen what you did, through no fault of their own.
Soccer is a fluid game of constant improvisation in which the ref sees each play once at game speed from only one angle. It is naive to expect that no wrong calls would be made. A ref can only guarantee hustle, knowledge and impartiality -- not perfection. If a ref is wrong, it doesn't mean he's bad.
--Mel Johnson, Milwaukee
Answer: I agree that refs can't guarantee perfection, nor do I expect them to. But, just as we judge player's performances, we ought to be free to judge referees' performances as well. Just as some players are better than others, some referees are better than others: whether it's because they're more experienced, hustle more, have better eyesight, whatever.
The stakes in the World Cup are very high, and you have to wonder why there are some referees here who don't even regularly referee in professional leagues, much less work top games with top players on a regular basis.
And the same goes for assistant referees: there are linesmen from Vanuatu Levu, the Maldives and Antigua. This doesn't mean they are necessarily poor officials (indeed, one of the best referees in the World Cup, Ali Bujsaim, is from the United Arab Emirates), and officials from traditional soccer powers are no guarantee of competence (witness the nonexistent offside given by the Danish linesman when he ruled out Christian Vieri's goal against Croatia).
However, there is something to be said for experience at the highest level. We watch the World Cup to see the best players from all over the world, not for the referees. All we ask is that the officials ensure that the rules are applied correctly.
One solution could be having the different confederations work together to allow the best referees from smaller countries to work Copa Libertadores, Champions League and European or South American qualifying matches.
Not only would it allow them to gain experience, it would also bring greater uniformity and consistency in refereeing.
Click here to read Marcotti's most recent mailbag, and here to submit a comment or question.
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