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World Cup Diary Tournament is worse off without the favoritesPosted: Friday June 14, 2002 3:29 PMBy Gavin Hamilton, World Soccer Editor
Enough of these World Cup shocks and surprises, please. This tournament is not the better for France and Argentina's premature exit. Is the world a better place because we have Denmark and Sweden in the second round instead? Games like France-Senegal and U.S.-Portugal give any competition an initial boost. And for the media, they make for great copy. But a World Cup without the game's best players makes no sense at all At least Italy scraped through to the last 16. But Trapattoni's men did not make things easy for themselves. They played poorly throughout, especially in midfield. The last time the Italians started poorly, in 1994, the made it all the way to the Final. I wouldn't bet against that happening again. If you are looking for a signal as to this most unpredictable of World Cups is going to turn out, how about this: whenever France and Denmark play each other in the first round of a major tournament, the winner goes on to triumph in the final. It happened that way for France in the 1984 European Championship and 1998 World Cup, and for Denmark at the 1992 European Championships. So what price the Danes celebrating in Yokohama on June 30? I have just arrived in Incheon for Korea's do-or-die match against Portugal. The stadium is yet another spectacular architectural triumph; every host city I have visited in Korea (everywhere except Seogwipo, where I head tomorrow, and Gwanju) is blessed with a new stadium which puts Wembley to shame. Yet, the questions remains: what happens to these wonderful sporting arenas when the World Cup is over. Incheon has no local K-League team; even if it did, they would struggle to fill its 50,000 capacity. The local media have alleged the mayor of Incheon's close relations with central government secured the city's status as a World Cup host venue. The local bigwigs will enjoy their moment in the spotlight today. Whether they will still be in office when the World Cup circus leaves town is another matter.
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