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Bora blunders big time as Denmark upsets Nigeria
Posted: Sunday June 28, 1998 07:39 PM
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Great Danes: Denmark celebrates after advancing into the round of eight for the first time (AP) |
ATLANTA (CNN/SI) -- For all the hype Nigeria
received in the last 10 days, perhaps a bit too much attention was focused
on the team's offense instead of its defense. Sunday, reality bit and it
bit hard for the Nigerians. Bora Milutinovic, who has coached four
teams to the second round but none beyond it, was out-coached, the Nigerian
players were out-hustled, and the end result was Nigeria losing 4-1 to Denmark.
Bora's boys will be scrutinized in great detail over the next few
days for their all-out push-forward style, which opened Nigeria up to
multiple counterattacks and failed to protect the weakest link on Nigeria's
team -- goalkeeper Peter Rufai. Those on the team will chalk it up
to playing their Nigerian brand of soccer, but the coach is ultimately
responsible for his team's play. Bora could easily have played one more
defender instead of an attacking midfielder or striker and still had more
than enough offensive firepower. Instead, the whole world watched as
Nigeria stubbornly refused to concede a weakness and paid the price. The
Nigerians have exited the World Cup after the second round two times in a
row, and Africa has zero teams left in the tournament. Not exactly the
showing that African soccer federations were hoping for at France '98.
Europe, meanwhile, continues to steamroll right along. Nine of the
12 countries left in the tournament are European with the remaining three
from Latin and South America. For all of the talk of a shift in the balance
of power in world soccer, the numbers leave that argument out in the cold.
Denmark was a big surprise, though. People were already talking
about the potential matchup of Brazil and
Nigeria in the quarterfinals with little thought paid to the
Nigeria-Denmark contest. That probably suited Danish coach Bo Johansson
just fine. His game plan and every one of his substitutions worked
brilliantly. First, Johansson selected Peter Moller to start at
striker even though he had played zero minutes in the first three matches
and had only eight career appearances with Denmark. But Moller, three
minutes into the game, knocked home the first goal with a left-footed
rocket from 18 yards. Then, with Nigeria threatening and the score
2-0 Denmark, Johansson somehow knew exactly when Moller's time was up. He
replaced him with regular starter Ebbe Sand in the 60th minute, and just 22
seconds later Sand took a chip from Michael Laudrup, headed it to his right
and blasted a right-footed volley from the penalty spot past Rufai for the
goal that essentially ended the game. Talk about perfect timing.
Johansson could not have done it any better. He moves on to face
Brazil next in a match that Denmark will be even bigger underdogs in. But
for one day, Johansson and Denmark stole the stage in France, overshadowing
a sensational game between the host nation and Paraguay that
featured the first sudden-death goal ever in the finals. France
moved past Paraguay 1-0 when French defender Laurent Blanc pushed forward
in the 114th minute of a scoreless contest even with his fellow defenders
screaming at him to stay back. He was in the right place at the right time
to volley home the winning goal past Jose Luis Chilavert, who had stopped
everything the French threw at him until that point. Chilavert and
his teammates did their country of 5 million people proud, taking the host
country to the limit, and beyond, before losing. Player of the
Day: Peter Schmeichel. Yes, we know, Denmark scored four goals and won
4-1, but the Danish goalkeeper was under constant pressure from Nigeria,
and he never blinked. Nigeria had multiple chances to get back into
the contest in the first 60 minutes, but Schmeichel thwarted them every
time. He was able to carry Denmark to the '92 European championship, and
Sunday he carried his country past Nigeria for the biggest upset of the
tournament. Goal of the Day: Laurent Blanc. How could you not
go with the first golden goal in World Cup play? Blanc's
opportunistic volley from six yards enabled France to move past pesky
Paraguay, and sent millions of nervous Frenchmen into ecstasy. Their dream
of a France-Brazil final is still possible thanks to Blanc. Quote
of the Day: "We are drinking champagne tonight." -- Denmark coach Bo
Johansson after his team upset Nigeria 4-1 Outlook for
Monday: The Germans return to the field against Mexico, the last
surprise team left in the World Cup. If the Mexicans were to beat Germany, the
whole country might party for a week. That win is not very likely, though,
with Germany hitting its stride. The other contest promises to be
very entertaining with the Netherlands
playing Yugoslavia.
Striker Patrick Kluivert has returned after a two-game red card suspension,
but he won't be in the starting lineup because Coach Guus Hiddink does not
want to disrupt the chemistry that Phillip Cocu and Dennis Bergkamp have
shown up front in the past two games. We'll see how long that lasts if the
Dutch fail to get on the board in the first half. After picking Nigeria
to beat Denmark, we're taking a day off from picking a match in order to
lick our wounds.
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