Little Footsteps
Round One is done and dusted, completed with victories by France and Switzerland last night to ensure their qualification to meet Spain and Ukraine in Round Two respectively. The French were more clinical and purposeful than they had been in their previous two matches, despite (or because of) the absence of Zinedine Zidane. Thierry Henry seemed more comfortable with a strike partner although I am unconvinced by Trezeguet this season and quite why Arsenal and Manchester United were so interested in Franck Riberry is not apparent from his displays thus far where he has shown that he could not hit a cows arse with a banjo.
Time to review the original predictions and see how hopelessly wrong they were. My forecasts for the winners and runners-up turned out to be fairly accurate with some notable exceptions - Ecuador threw most people as did Ghana. Australia crept through ahead of the Croats but otherwise pretty much spot on.
So as Round Two starts today, I would expect Germany, Argentina, England, Holland, Brazil, Switzerland, Italy and Spain to progress. Of those matches, the only ones where I can see alternative outcomes are Switzerland v Ukraine, Portugal v Holland or Spain v France. Should any of the others go against my original list, it will be a surprise. Or if Ghana or Australia progress, a major shock.
Without doubt, Argentina were the most impressive team in qualifying but it will be interesting to see how they are defensively as surely they will be tested more from here on in than they were in qualifying. Spain and Germany provided the pleasant surprises of the Group Phase, the hosts showing a marked improvement in form although against limited opposition. Spain showed that they have an excellent blend of youth and experience available to them and in the attacking third should give the French plenty to think about but it is midfield where the battle will be one, Xavi, Xavi Alonso and Iniesta supported by either Reyes or Luis Garcia will be too much for Vieira, Zidane, Malouda and Riberry / Wiltord. Puyol will need to improve on his performance against Tunisia or Henry may well exact his own personal revenge for Paris.
England are reportedly playing 4-5-1 against Ecuador, with Owen Hargreaves at right back, Carragher set to replace Ferdinand if he is not fully fit and Michael Carrick in central midfield. Rooney is supposedly going to play the lone striker role. If this is true I would be very surprised as Rooney always strikes me as being more effective playing off of another striker. Although England only have Crouch as an "experienced" striker to replace the injured Owen, it makes little sense to leave him out as he played reasonably well against Sweden. The only possible reason for this formation is Erikssons belief that in a 4-4-2 formation, the team is not good enough to defend a lead, the additional midfielder allows Gerrard and Lampard to play the same roles for their country that they do so effectively for their clubs.
Graham Poll is coming in for deserved criticism for his performance in officiating at the Australia v Croatia match on Thursday, widely quoted as being ready to pack his bags for the first flight out of Germany today. Having missed two penalties and allowed a goal where Harry Kewell was seemingly offside would probably have been enough to warrant his flight tickets but to book a player three times is unquestionably daft. What puzzles me is why the two Assistants and Fourth Official failed to tell him of his error. Surely that is part of their remit? Perhaps they did and he chose to ignore it although it seems unlikely to be the case. What is noticeable is how the English media have picked up on this, to the extent that The Sun even asked his wife for a quote on her husband's performance - she declined to comment, understandably. Since when has the performance of an English Referee warranted this type of media coverage? I cannot ever recall a Referees performance on the pitch making the front page of a paper before. Increasingly in the last twelve months, former referees are becoming media rent-a-quotes in particular Clive "The Book" Thomas - incidentally, he was one of the first referees to publish an autobiography about his career - and Jeff Winter, who laid the boot into Poll quite savagely this morning, to the extent that it was patently obvious that he has little or no time for the newly crowned, "Thing From Tring". What is amazing is that neither Thomas or Winter covered themselves in glory during their careers, although Thomas was widely respected until 1978 when he idiosyncratically allowed Brazil to take a corner and then promptly blew for full-time, nanoseconds before the ball hit the back of the Swedish net. The teams left the pitch in a state of confusion. If he had done that in this World Cup, FIFA would have sent him back before the end of the Group Phase. It is an interesting phenomena that is starting to build. Criticism from former players in nothing new but who in the hell is interested in what a former Referee thinks? Another example of the media hypocrisy that surrounds football - build the Referee up so that he believes the hype and then kneecap him with criticism. Perhaps it is time to go back to basics and ignore the official, unless they are truly incompetent.
Todays Tunes are from John Mellencamp, a bootleg entitled Hurts So Good from 1988. Thanks to Joe at Human Wheels for these.
Check It Out
Small Town
Pink Houses
Time to review the original predictions and see how hopelessly wrong they were. My forecasts for the winners and runners-up turned out to be fairly accurate with some notable exceptions - Ecuador threw most people as did Ghana. Australia crept through ahead of the Croats but otherwise pretty much spot on.
So as Round Two starts today, I would expect Germany, Argentina, England, Holland, Brazil, Switzerland, Italy and Spain to progress. Of those matches, the only ones where I can see alternative outcomes are Switzerland v Ukraine, Portugal v Holland or Spain v France. Should any of the others go against my original list, it will be a surprise. Or if Ghana or Australia progress, a major shock.
Without doubt, Argentina were the most impressive team in qualifying but it will be interesting to see how they are defensively as surely they will be tested more from here on in than they were in qualifying. Spain and Germany provided the pleasant surprises of the Group Phase, the hosts showing a marked improvement in form although against limited opposition. Spain showed that they have an excellent blend of youth and experience available to them and in the attacking third should give the French plenty to think about but it is midfield where the battle will be one, Xavi, Xavi Alonso and Iniesta supported by either Reyes or Luis Garcia will be too much for Vieira, Zidane, Malouda and Riberry / Wiltord. Puyol will need to improve on his performance against Tunisia or Henry may well exact his own personal revenge for Paris.
England are reportedly playing 4-5-1 against Ecuador, with Owen Hargreaves at right back, Carragher set to replace Ferdinand if he is not fully fit and Michael Carrick in central midfield. Rooney is supposedly going to play the lone striker role. If this is true I would be very surprised as Rooney always strikes me as being more effective playing off of another striker. Although England only have Crouch as an "experienced" striker to replace the injured Owen, it makes little sense to leave him out as he played reasonably well against Sweden. The only possible reason for this formation is Erikssons belief that in a 4-4-2 formation, the team is not good enough to defend a lead, the additional midfielder allows Gerrard and Lampard to play the same roles for their country that they do so effectively for their clubs.
Graham Poll is coming in for deserved criticism for his performance in officiating at the Australia v Croatia match on Thursday, widely quoted as being ready to pack his bags for the first flight out of Germany today. Having missed two penalties and allowed a goal where Harry Kewell was seemingly offside would probably have been enough to warrant his flight tickets but to book a player three times is unquestionably daft. What puzzles me is why the two Assistants and Fourth Official failed to tell him of his error. Surely that is part of their remit? Perhaps they did and he chose to ignore it although it seems unlikely to be the case. What is noticeable is how the English media have picked up on this, to the extent that The Sun even asked his wife for a quote on her husband's performance - she declined to comment, understandably. Since when has the performance of an English Referee warranted this type of media coverage? I cannot ever recall a Referees performance on the pitch making the front page of a paper before. Increasingly in the last twelve months, former referees are becoming media rent-a-quotes in particular Clive "The Book" Thomas - incidentally, he was one of the first referees to publish an autobiography about his career - and Jeff Winter, who laid the boot into Poll quite savagely this morning, to the extent that it was patently obvious that he has little or no time for the newly crowned, "Thing From Tring". What is amazing is that neither Thomas or Winter covered themselves in glory during their careers, although Thomas was widely respected until 1978 when he idiosyncratically allowed Brazil to take a corner and then promptly blew for full-time, nanoseconds before the ball hit the back of the Swedish net. The teams left the pitch in a state of confusion. If he had done that in this World Cup, FIFA would have sent him back before the end of the Group Phase. It is an interesting phenomena that is starting to build. Criticism from former players in nothing new but who in the hell is interested in what a former Referee thinks? Another example of the media hypocrisy that surrounds football - build the Referee up so that he believes the hype and then kneecap him with criticism. Perhaps it is time to go back to basics and ignore the official, unless they are truly incompetent.
Todays Tunes are from John Mellencamp, a bootleg entitled Hurts So Good from 1988. Thanks to Joe at Human Wheels for these.
Check It Out
Small Town
Pink Houses
posted by Yogi's Warrior at 11:05 am
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