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Cup disappointing Posted: Sunday June 30, 2002 2:41 PMBy Gavin Hamilton, World Soccer Editor
There's no doubt this has been an exciting, unpredictable World Cup. But it has not been a great World Cup. There have been no great teams, very few outstanding individuals and little quality football in the knockout stages. Because co-hosting has been far more successful than most people expected, the tournament has been hailed as a great success. But ultimately, a World Cup is judged on the quality of the football on the pitch. And in that crucial respect, the first Asian World Cup has failed. The same thing happened four years ago in France, after the first-round group stages. In Korea and Japan, the second stage was always going to prove a disappointment after teams of the caliber of France, Argentina and Portugal had departed early. We've been left watching the athletic teams - the likes of USA, Korea, Germany - who make up for in perspiration what they lack in inspiration. It's quite something when Turkey have played some of the best football of the tournament. Brazil have been the glorious exception. But even they are a long way from being compared with the great Brazilian sides of the past. Ronaldo and Rivaldo have shown flashes of brilliance, but their coach Luiz Felipe Scolari admits: "We're getting better, but we're not there yet." Ronaldo scored the goal of the tournament in the semifinal against Turkey, but his indifferent first-half performance could easily have seen him substituted at halftime. After the events in Paris four years ago, a Ronaldo-inspired triumph for Brazil in Sunday's Final is the outcome that most football romantics want to see. But Germany are the ultimate party-poopers. Just ask Korea. That Germany's best player has been Oliver Kahn tells us all we need to know about the Nationalmannschaft at this World Cup. Efficiency is engrained in the German footballing DNA and this current side is yet another which makes a virtue of its ordinariness. Brazil have been practising penalties. I hope -- and pray -- that it doesn't come to that.
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