AJC.com > Sports > Soccer blog > Archives > 2006 > June > 13 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USThe day after is little better
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The smoke had barely settled in Gelsenkirchen before the Yanks were back in Hamburg Tuesday, and Bruce Arena met with the press.
Naturally, the likelihood of lineup changes for the Italy match topped the list of questions. He had some more sharp words for Beasley, and even cracked a joke or two. Here’s the MP3 file of his comments.
When asked whether the Italian match-fixing scandal was a distraction for the upcoming opponent, Arena scoffed. “They’re used to scandals, they’re playing right through the scandal, they’ll be fine. I think we need a scandal.”
Other than the scandalous way the Yanks played, that is.
No U.S. players were made available to talk to the media. I know I’ve said a lot before that Arena runs a tight ship, so get over it, but this is Mickey Mouse. The day after a hugely disappointing loss, and the players openly scolded, some by name, are muzzled. These aren’t college athletes whose every moves and utterances are calibrated by control-freak coaches who can revoke their scholarships. These are adult, professional athletes. And this is the World Cup.
It’s rich for Arena to suggest that if Beasley’s any kind of a man, he’ll admit he played poorly. Why can’t he be a bigger coach and let his players speak about the game, beyond the heat-of-the-moment quotes Tuesday that didn’t make anybody look good?
SI’s Grant Wahl has his own take on the debacle, and reveals that Beasley was kept away from the press in Hamburg for several days before the Czech game because he grumbled about not knowing Arena’s lineup plans for him. There shouldn’t be any mystery about that any longer.
Wahl also questions Arena’s sincerity on Tuesday when he said he would take all the blame for the loss, especially since he had just taken some of the same players to task, again: “That’s what he said, at least. Does he believe that? I doubt it. But was it something that he probably should have volunteered earlier? You bet.”
What Grant said.
South Korea came up with a big second half, taking advantage of a man advantage, and rallied to beat Togo 2-1. Dutch coaches seem to work wonders with Korean players. Last time it was Guus Hiddink, whose Aussies pulled off a magnificent win Tuesday. Now it’s Dick Advocaat who expertly pulled the strings after the African minnows took a 1-0 lead in the first half.
In Stuttgart, Switzerland held France to a 0-0 tie as the World Cup scoreless streak continued for Les Bleus. The dying minutes of the ‘98 final win over is the last time France scored a goal in this event. While Zidane still has some of the magic and Henry is superb, this isn’t a great French team. Where is the next generation of French players promised since they won it all eight years ago?
And surely the biggest question in France for coach Raymond Domenech will be: Où est Trézéguét? He never got off the bench, with Saha and Dhorasoo favored instead of the Juventus striker, and neither of them made much of an impression.
Even Brazil didn’t look all that swift in beating Croatia to open up its title defense, but the Balkan side is a rugged one and did some respectable attacking at times. Just not enough times.
Big blow for Mexico: Borgetti may be sidelined for the rest of the group stage with a thigh injury. There is a lot of firepower still there with Bravo, Zinha and Fonseca, but Borgetti’s experience and his danger in the air will be missed.
There will be no big screen BBC TV screenings in Liverpool and London for the rest of the World Cup: It got too rowdy.
Comments
Commenting is now closed for this entry.
By Nicholas Irwin
June 13, 2006 10:04 PM | Link to this
Man oh man…the French looked terrible. They should’ve been beaten by a Switzerland team that didn’t really want anything more than a tie. There was no creativity…no nothing. Ribery was mind-bogglingly awful. Barthez is so bad he should consider goalkeeping for England. I hate to agree with the ESPN analysts, but I think both Shep Messing and Eric Wynalda hit it right on. It was like they got the ball to Zidane and Henry and then just expected them to do everything. “There…we got you the ball. You’re the superstar. Do something.” I knew they were overrated, but yeesh…it might be just time to blow that whole team up and start from scratch with a youth movement or something (an actual one…not one where there’s a chance you might miss the World Cup so you panic and bring all your old players back and end up right back in the same boat). The Dutch did it and missed out on one World Cup but it seems to have paid off for this one…so far at least.
By Nicholas Irwin
June 14, 2006 2:54 AM | Link to this
As far as Brazil, I thought they looked alright. I guess it wasn’t up to their best standards, but I’m guessing we won’t see that until the knockout rounds anyway. Besides, even while not giving their best performance, they still managed to be extremely entertaining most of the match, as usual. Also, as you mentioned Wendy, give some credit to Croatia. They defended amazingly well and though they came away with a loss, you almost have to consider them favorites to move on out of the group if they can continue to play like that.
Brazil, having said that, does have a bit of a problem, however. Ronaldo gave the most laughable performance of the World Cup so far. Yes, all by himself he managed to outclass the entire U.S. team in that regard. How shall I put this discreetly? He’s fat and he doesn’t actually move. I’m not talking figuratively, either. He actually literally couldn’t move at a faster pace than a walk. One assumes that was because his fitness level was such that if he attempted to do so, he would’ve collapsed to the ground gasping for air. The only time he so much as jogged was when he was taken out of the game. He walked out of the tunnel and onto the field for the second half as the ball was being put into play. The Brazil fans booed him as he walked off the field when being substituted. Where I a Brazil fan, I would find all of this is completely inexcusable (as most of them seemed to). It suggests to me that Ronaldo doesn’t even want to be there. I’m not sure how Parreira can do anything else but bench him and play Robinho. If he doesn’t, he risks throwing a major lifeline to the rest of the tournament field. I don’t care how good Brazil is, they won’t win the World Cup with a striker that is so out of shape that he can’t physically run.
By Henry
June 14, 2006 7:38 AM | Link to this
Let Bruce be Bruce. I agree with him that Beasley and Donavan were none producers. However, Beasley should get credit for his defensive plays, he at least saved one goal from the Czechs. The rest of the defence stunk.
This is a very good World Cup, exciting and agressive. When one looks at the clock and it is the 44 Minute of the game, you know that the game was great.
The worst performance of all teams till now was our team. Lasy, listless, slow, no imagination and all the other clicheas apply.
Brasil impressed me for their first game. Normaly all those individual stars need three or more game to be in the team form as they were against the Croats.
Ronaldinho, which was born in Porto Alegre, where I lived and played, showed steeks of his talent, but was sharpley marked because the rest of the forward were not up to par in their performance to free him up. The bar was raised for all of their future opponents.