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Forget about a Miracle on
Grass
Posted: Wed June 17, 1998
Sports Illustrated soccer writer Grant Wahl will answer
your World Cup questions through the Finals.
Click here to send a
question.
I've decided that it's a good thing I didn't follow the
United States team last week, because it made me learn how
small a role the U.S. actually plays in this great event.
The Americans' just-happy-to-be-here performance in
Monday's 2-0 loss to Germany only reinforced that opinion.
Granted, the U.S. has improved dramatically since 1994, and
the loss was hardly an embarrassment (2-0 pretty accurately
reflects the
differences between the teams), but any hopes for a Miracle on Grass
must now be put in perspective. The Germans had at least
seven players who were better than the best U.S. player,
Eddie Pope (who did a fine job marking German star Oliver
Bierhoff), and this is
the cold reality: the Yanks will have their hands full
against Iran, who played better than expected Sunday,
losing 1-0 to
Yugoslavia.
My next stop is Montpellier for the Italy-Cameroon matchup,
and if my travels are anything like they were last week,
I'll be a lucky man. I caught Brazil's tournament-opening
2-1 win against Scotland, which taught me a few things. For
starters, if
Brazil doesn't get its defensive act together it's looking at a
quarterfinal or semifinal exit. I also learned that foreign
scribes have perfected the art of full-contact journalism,
especially when jostling to get in position for some
incredibly banal
interviews (e.g., "We played well in the second half,"
in not just one but three
languages.)
On Friday I lit out for Nantes on the Atlantic Coast, where
I was lucky enough to see the best match of the tournament
so far—Nigeria's 3-2 come-from-behind victory against
Spain. But I had just as much fun the night before when I
visited a bar in
downtown Nantes to watch the France-South Africa match. I was
just starting to sip my Guinness when eight kilt-clad Scots
marched into the bar and sat down next to me. Let me tell
you, Scottish fans are as friendly as English fans are not.
In fact, they might
have been too friendly, as I found out when they kept
buying me Guinness after Guinness. Soon some French fans
were doing the same, and it was probably a good thing I
ignored their protests and left right at the end of the
game.
After Nigeria's stunning win the next day, the post-game
press conference was a madhouse. The Nigerian journalists
were singing and dancing all over the room, and when Spain
coach Javier Clemente walked onto the stage he disgustedly
waved his hand and
stormed off. As usual, nothing interesting was being said at
the press conference, so I hopped the local tram and rode
to the Nantes train station, where I arrived just in time
to witness a cool scene: About a thousand Nigerian fans
were waiting for their
trains when the Nigerian team bus arrived. An impromptu
celebration began. Face-painted women danced, while men
wearing "Up With Nigeria" shirts beat drums and
shook giant rattles. The police cleared a corridor between
the team bus and their train, and
one by one the players walked past to the cheers of the
crowd. There were hugs and high fives, and a few players
even started dancing to the drumbeat. Somehow I was able to
duck around the line of gendarmes and onto the platform,
where I got a 10-minute
interview with Nigeria's eccentric coach Bora Milutinovic
(look for it in this week's issue of
SI).
On Sunday I flew down to St. Etienne, where I watched
Yugoslavia have trouble dispatching Iran 1-0. After the
game the Iranian coach, Jalal Talebi, climbed the dais for
his post-game interview. The translator said he would turn
Mr. Talebi's Persian into
English (i.e., he would condense two minutes of Persian
into "We played well in the second half.") But
when the FIFA press officer asked Talebi a question, he
responded in flawless English, not bothering with Persian
at all. It turns out that Talebi
lived in San Jose, Calif., for over a decade, and that his wife
and three children still live in the States. Go
figure.
On the whole there haven't been many upsets so far. Italy's
2-2 tie with Chile and Nigeria's win over Spain are the
only ones that qualify. Yet I'll forge ahead and pick
another upset special this week:
Japan will beat Croatia on
Saturday. Without further ado, I'll get to your
questions:
Going into the World Cup Finals, Brazil is considered by
many, including yourself, as beatable. Did their
performance against Scotland do anything to change this
perception?
—Kevin Riedinger, Little Rock,
Ark.
Not really. Scotland is no better than the U.S. team of
'94, and if you recall the U.S.-Brazil match that year, the
U.S. could barely cross midfield. Scotland, meanwhile, was
able to create several good scoring chances against a
Brazilian defense that
is mediocre at best (goalkeeper Taffarel is a particularly
loose cannon.)
The Brazilian attackers are far too talented for their team
not to get out of the first round, but I think their
defense will be a liability later
on against teams that are deep across the board, like
Argentina.
What team do you feel is the most overrated in the World
Cup? The most
underrated?
—Joe Rohacik, Omaha,
Neb.
Most people would say the most overrated team is Spain (a
3-2 loser to Nigeria), but the Spainiards didn't play badly
in that game, and I still think they will win Group D.
For me, the most overrated team has to be
England. There are only two reasons England is given decent odds
to win the Cup, and neither has anything to do with talent.
First, the British media hypes the team to no end (I have a
hard time believing goalie David Seaman is one of the
world's best keepers,
for example) and second, most of the oddsmakers are based
in England. I know, England beat Italy in its qualifying
group, but Italy has three times as much talent as England
and, just as important, has players with World Cup
experience. That's why
Italy has a much better chance of going deeper into the
tournament.
The most underrated team is
Chile (let the record show that yours truly, Carnac the Great,
was saying this two weeks ago). History has shown that
teams with one or two exceptional players and a so-so
supporting cast can go far in the Cup (see Argentina in
'86). I'm not saying Marcelo
Salas and Ivan Zamorano will lead Chile to the championship,
but I am saying that Chile should make the quarterfinals
(if it can win its group) and has every chance to progress
from there. The tie against Italy wasn't a fluke (in fact,
if it weren't for a
dubious late penalty, Chile would have
won.)
Do you think that the change of format (top two teams per
group advance to second round and eight more teams added to
the Cup pool) will increase scoring and the number of wins?
It seems to me that teams will have to go for the win and
score a lot of goals, especially early in the tournament to
protect their chances to qualify.
—Mike D'Abramo,
Toronto
You're right, Mike, to an extent.
Ugly ties can still happen, just not as often as they did
in
'94. Take Belgium, which packed all of its players in its own
half against Holland last Friday, leading to a scoreless
tie and the worst game so far of the tournament. Yet the
Belgians were celebrating at the final whistle since they
needed the tie against
the group favorite. However, Belgian coach George Leekens
said afterward that his team would need to beat Mexico this
Saturday. That's where the format change takes effect. Four
years ago, Belgium could have gone for another tie against
Mexico and still
had hopes of advancing. That's no longer true, and that's
good for the
sport.
It is obvious to me Preki Radosavljevic is one of the maybe
three U.S. players with any flair and/or creativity in the
attacking half of the field. Why do you think he is not a
starter, when his presence on the field is always a plus
for the national
side?
—Chris Cosentino,
Baltimore
Chris, you have hit upon the great question facing the U.S.
team, and it's even more important after Preki didn't even
come on as a substitute in the U.S. loss to Germany. Coach
Steve Sampson has always said that Preki isn't fit enough
to play 90
minutes and that he doesn't play enough defense. It also bothers
Sampson (and some U.S. players) that Preki supposedly tries
too many fancy moves and loses the ball.
What Preki's critics need to realize is that for every four
or five times that happens, he will make one breathtaking
play that leads to a
goal. As the team's most dangerous scoring threat, he should be
starting at forward or at least be guaranteed the first
substitution off the
bench.
That's all for this week. Keep sending your questions, and
I'll keep answering
them.
Send a question to Grant
Wahl and come back throughout the World Cup to read more of his
responses.
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