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Germany survives
England hits stride in one of best Cups in recent memory
Posted: Saturday June 15, 2002 11:12 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.
Battered, bruised, but still alive: a late goal from Oliver Neuville pushed Germany past Paraguay 1-0 on Saturday and into a quarterfinal clash against the winner of Monday's Mexico vs. U.S. match, as the World Cup moved into the single-elimination phase.
Rudi Voeller's troops were decimated by injuries (Jorg Boehme having joined Mehmet Scholl and Jens Nowotny, injured before the competition started) and suspensions (Dietmar Hamann, Christian Ziege, Carsten Ramelow). It was always going to be tough against a prickly Paraguay team that can defend with the best of them.
Voeller switched to a 4-4-2 formation and went with speed rather than size up front, picking Oliver Neuville and Miroslav Klose ahead of Carsten Jancker and Oliver Bierhoff, but the Paraguayan barricades held fast, shutting down the German midfield early on and forcing the ball wide, where Torsten Frings and Marco Bode struggled to make inroads.
On the other hand, most of the early Paraguayan game plan consisted of hitting long balls for the head of Roque Santa Cruz. Coach Cesare Maldini had to go to Plan B after Santa Cruz suffered a groin injury after half an hour, and the game slowed down further as both sides looked unwilling to take chances.
Voeller ended the game without a single defender on the bench after being forced to replace Chistian Metzelder and Marko Rehmer with Sebastian Kehl and Frank Baumann. At that point, the last thing Germany needed was extra time.
They got their wish when Bernd Schneider skipped down the right flank and crossed to Neuville, who cut brilliantly across the box and slipped it past Jose Luis Chilavert with just two minutes left on the clock.
This match was all about guts rather than entertainment, and both sides battled gamely. Credit Paraguay for another feisty performance. For the second straight World Cup, it goes out in the second round to a late goal (in 1998 it was against France in extra time). In a game that could have gone either way, it was the Germans who happened to find the back of the net.
England joins Germany in the quarterfinals (where either Brazil or Belgium awaits) after dispatching Denmark 3-0. It all happened very quickly in Niigata.
England opened the scoring after just four minutes and things looked bleak right away for Denmark. Goalkeeper Tomas Sorensen mishandled Rio Ferdinand's header and bobbled the ball back into his own net. Twenty minutes later, it was 2-0 thanks to Michael Owen. Again, England punished Denmark's defensive frailties. Martin Laursen, who was marking Owen, came forward to spring the offside trap, but Rene Henriksen did not, leaving the England striker onside. Emile Heskey made it 3-0 just before halftime and it was game, set, match.
Denmark came forward in droves in the second half (indeed, it had 61 percent of possession throughout the game), but the hole it dug itself into was just too deep. The Danes' attacks were often disorganized and, when they weren't, they usually foundered against a solid back four well marshaled by Rio Ferdinand.
Compared to the first-round matches, England showed more dimensions to its game, defending well but also showing it could create and above all displaying a necessary ruthlessness in punishing opponents' mistakes.
Denmark paid the price for some dreadful defensive blunders and for the inability to break down England defensively. Shades of 1986, when the Denmark of Preben Elkjaer Larsen and Michael Laudrup ("Danish Dynamite") romped through the first round, only to be destroyed by Spain in the second.
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Oliver Neuville (Germany).
Funny that Germany should be rescued by a guy who doesn't speak German and reportedly converses with coach Rudi Voeller, who spent years in Serie A, in Italian. Half-Italian, half-German and born in Switzerland, Neuville has one of the quickest soccer minds around. He used it against Paraguay, skipping lightning quick to the near post to score the goal that sunk the South Americans.
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Thomas Sorensen (Denmark).
Until Saturday, he had been one of the top goalkeepers in the World Cup, but he threw it away after just four minutes, mishandling the ball into his own net. It was a disastrous start that set the tone for the entire game. He bears some responsibility for England's third goal as well, letting Heskey's shot slip under his body.
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Michael Owen (England).
Owen's finish was simple (for him). What was wonderful was the buildup. From Ferdinand to Paul Scholes, to Heskey, back to Scholes, across the pitch to Trevor Sinclair, in to Nicky Butt, and through to Michael Owen. That's a sign of good coaching and of players who are unselfish, work as a team and have the ability to execute. The fact that Butt's touch to Owen was helped by a fortunate bounce between the defender's legs does not lessen the beauty and movement of the goal.
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One of the biggest bones of contention within FIFA is the allocation of spots in the World Cup among the various confederations. This time around, surprisingly, it was CONCACAF that performed the best, qualifying two of its three participants (the U.S. and Mexico) to the second round, just ahead of UEFA (Europe), with 9 of 15, or 60 percent. AFC (Asia) was next, with two of four (Japan and South Korea, though as co-hosts perhaps this wasn't so surprising). South America (2 of 5: Brazil and Paraguay) was very disappointing, as was Africa (1 of 5: Senegal).
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Injuries and suspensions will probably force Senegal to change its lineup and formation against Sweden in their second-round clash. Salif Diao and Khalilou Fadiga are both suspended, while right back Ferdinand Coly is doubtful. Sweden has sent home the injured Patrik Andersson, which means Johan Mjallby is confirmed in central defense. Without Diao and Fadiga, expect Senegal to lineup with two strikers and perhaps be a little less counterattack-oriented.
Spain, which cruised through the first round, will likely be without Diego Tristan against Ireland, but two-goal hero Fernando Morientes (who might have started anyway) is a capable replacement. Ian Harte looked out of shape recently and he is the biggest question mark for the Irish.
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Senegal:
1. Win the battle in the middle of the park. Aliou Cisse and Pape Bouba Diop ought to be able to impose themselves on Sweden's Anders Svensson and Tobias Linderoth. If they do, Senegal will be able to control the tempo.
2. El Hadji Diouf. He needs to get the ball in space, where he is most dangerous. There is no point in feeding him when defenders are around; he is far less effective with his back to goal.
3. Take Henrik Larsson out of the game. This means clogging the passing lanes and marking him tightly. A bump or two early on wouldn't hurt either.
Sweden:
1. Freddy Ljungberg. He was anonymous in the first round after a brilliant end-of-season run with Arsenal. Sweden needs him to do what he does best, pushing down the flank and making those patented late goalscoring runs into the box.
2. Deny the counterattack. Senegal is most dangerous when it catches the opposition out, and Sweden must be extra careful not to concede possession in dangerous areas where Bruno Metsu's men can exploit the speed of their strikers.
3. Don't get stretched out. The back four needs to push right up in order to play the offside trap and ensure there is no space between midfield and the defense for Senegal to run into.
Spain:
1. Move the ball around. Jose Camacho's men are skillful enough to play keep-away all day, they need to pick their spots and move the ball intelligently to find the gaps in the Irish back line.
2. Keep Juan Carlos Valeron involved. He has a tendency to drift out of games, and with a wealth of attacking options it's easy to forget he's there. But Valeron has the ability to unlock defenses at any time.
3. Control the tempo. The slower the pace, the better for the more talented side, i.e. Spain. Ireland will want to raise the pace of the game, Spain can not afford to let it do that.
Ireland:
1. Test the pace of Spain's central defense. Fernando Hierro and Miguel Angel Nadal are a combined 69 years old and were never fast to begin with. Damien Duff and Robbie Keane, Ireland's strikers, need to use their speed to get Hierro and Nadal into trouble.
2. Teamwork. Few teams have matched Ireland's team ethic and spirit. They will need all of it if they are to stand a chance against Spain.
3. Niall Quinn. He won't start, of course, but his height and experience will be crucial if he comes on late in the game.
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Fernando Morientes (Real Madrid).
Never fully loved or appreciated back home (despite being the centerforward for the biggest club in the world), Morientes has a golden opportunity to establish himself as the first-choice option up front ahead of Diego Tristan and prove his critics wrong. His two goals against Paraguay were a big boost; now he needs to go even further.
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A lot of people have commented on how good this World Cup is, what with the major upsets occurring and the high number of goals being scored. I agree with this, but I have also noted how bad the refereeing is, how many errors are being made and/or not noticed by officials (e.g. Japan's third goal disallowed against Belgium; Japan's foul not noticed against Russia; Rivaldo's antics not penalized at the time, etc. etc.). I know that there will always be some awful decisions made at any major tournament, but in this respect, is this World Cup better or worse than any other that you can remember?
--Michiel Sweerts, Heerlen, The Netherlands
Answer: It's difficult to say which World Cup is best because inevitably it will be tied to personal memories and preferences (if your country does well, you tend to love a particular World Cup). Also, it's hard to compare the current competition with that of years past, like, say, 1970, which many feel was one of the better ones, for the simple reason that the game has changed a lot and that, unless you happen to be in your 50s or older (and I'm not), you probably don't remember the older ones as well.
Having said that, I think in terms of excitement this World Cup is right up there with the better ones. Few would have predicted before the tournament that both of the co-favorites (Argentina and France) and two of the highest-rated outsiders (Cameroon and Portugal) would be bounced at the first hurdle. Sure, the downside is that we've lost some of the best players in the world along the way, but that's the price you pay for excitement and new blood.
We've had some wonderful goals, exciting matches, major upsets and rising stars proving their mettle. We also haven't seen that many truly disgraceful incidents such as bad fouls, injuries or cheating.
The refereeing, particularly the work of the linesmen, has not been good. The only consolation is that, while it has affected certain results, it hasn't had too much of an impact on which sides advanced to the second round. Some of the teams that had refereeing decisions go against them (most notably Turkey, Italy and Paraguay) still made the second round. Others who felt victimized (France, Tunisia, Slovenia) finished bottom of their groups. Uruguay was penalized when Dutch referee Jan Wegereer failed to spot El Hadji Diouf's dive (which led to Senegal's penalty), but given the fact that its own penalty in that match looked dubious and that David Trezeguet's goal against Uruguay was unfairly disallowed for offside, overall there isn't too much to complain about.
The only nation that might have had a case is Portugal (with Beto's second yellow card, which left it with nine men) but even then it's difficult to argue that Portugal would have definitely come back and gotten the result it needed.
And the good news is that, as the best teams progress in the competition, so too do the better referees. Those who made egregious errors are sent home.
The stadiums have been magnificent, the crowds as well. Europeans and North and South Americans may complain about the kickoff times, but, personally, I'd rather have teams kicking off at reasonable local times (so they can be fresh and play their best) rather than playing at lunchtime under the searing heat just to suit television audiences, as they did at USA '94 and Mexico '86.
Of the World Cups I've personally witnessed (and I'm not that old), this is probably one of the best, along with Mexico '86 and Spain '82.
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