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Thursday, June 8, 2006
It’s only a day away
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
AP / No Ballack for Friday's opening match? No problem, say even some Germans doubtful of their team's World Cup chances.
Just about 24 hours from kickoff in Munich and the injuries and absences keep piling up. One prominent name who won’t feature in Germany-Costa Rica is Germany captain Michael Ballack, who has been ruled out with a calf injury.
But as Off the Ball’s Las Vegas Bureau Chief and native German Frank-En-Furter suggested, “Costa Rica should be doable without Ballack and half of the team. My prediction: with Ballack 3:0, without him 1:0. That would be a typical opening game.” This is exactly the attitude of the German media that has Costa Rica’s coach rather ticked. But as those of us in CONCACAF Land know, the Ticos are nasty to play at home but little kitties on the road. Sorry coach, but even this so-so German outfit ought to prevail easily enough, especially with the expectations of being the host nation.
Before his injury status was determined, Ballack tried very hard yesterday to downplay the chances of the ‘02 finalists, sounding almost pessimistic. To be honest, there isn’t a lot of love being paid to Der Mannschaft by the home Volk, and they’re taking an increasingly dim view of coach Jürgen Klinsmann’s American style-approaches to the game. I wish I had remembered the source, but I read somewhere yesterday that Klinsi, hero of Germany’s last Cup title in ‘90, might be considered as a successor to Bruce Arena, given his permanent home in America, etc.
I don’t think The Bruce is going anywhere, and may even go through another quadrennial.
In a rather gruesome incident Fox Soccer Channel played over and over again, French striker Djibril Cisse is out of the World Cup after breaking his leg in a friendly against China Wednesday. The very polite anchors up Winnipeg way at FSC kept apologizing for the replays, yet it seemed just as ghoulish a thing to do as Joe Theismann’s broken leg reel. And I can’t stand Joe Theismann! More than once was more than enough, fellas.
Now Stevie G. says he’s 50-50 for England Saturday against Paraguay. The Rooney circus subsides a bit, now this.
Horn Guy Dos chimes in this morning with the news that Mexico goalkeeper Oswaldo Sanchez has returned home after the death of his father, and when he might rejoin El Tri is up in the air. Couple this with injuries to a good chunk of Italy’s defense, and all of a sudden Off the Ball’s W.C. pool pix are looking a bit shaky.
As for the rest of Group A (Germany’s pod mates), here are a few quick lynx a day ahead of their games: ** a team profile of a supposedly improved Poland team and Ecuador’s success at making it two Cups in a row after never having been there before.
Will post again later this afternoon, so stay tuned. And remember, Off the Ball will live blog off the USA-Czech Republic game starting at 12 p.m. ET Monday.
