Friday, March 31, 2006

Referees

Here's the FIFA referee roster for the World Cup.

Can I just take a moment to express my complete befuddlement that Peter Prendergast is a again a tournament referee? No referee consistently gets things wrong more than Prendergast--the Gregg Berhalter "handball" call in Costa Rica, the disallowed Belgian goal against Brazil in the round of 16 in 2002... and those were just the big result-changing mistakes. He makes terrible calls in every match he officiates.

I think having the referee roster correlate with the geographical breakdown of the participants is utterly idiotic. Competence should be the only factor determining whether a referee participates. Any referee with experience in the top European or South American leagues would be better than that joker Prendergast.

Thursday, March 30, 2006

American goalies

Steven Goff has an interesting catch in today's Post: the three US goalies in Germany this summer will probably be Keller, Howard and Hahnemann, and that no MLS goalies will called in:

"In all fairness, do you punish Tim Howard for being at Man United behind one of the best goalkeepers in the world?" Arena said. "Do you punish Marcus Hahnemann? These are guys who, in their own rights, have earned an opportunity to be part of the World Cup roster. Is it set in stone at this point? No, but I think we have three goalkeepers who appear to be a little bit ahead of the domestic keepers at the moment."

This is almost certainly the right call. Although one of the strengths of MLS is their keepers, there isn't one goalkeeper who has stood head and shoulders above the rest over the last year. Hartmann is not good enough with his feet, Thornton is too immobile, Guzan is too young and Reis is a touch too adventurous. The only one who might have gotten short shrift is Joe Cannon, and even he didn't have as good a year as he did in 2004. Keller, Hahnemann and Howard are unquestionably the top three choices in my mind.

The biggest question, re: goalies, is who would replace Keller if he picked up an injury. Do you go with the match sharp Hahnemann or the rusty, but with top flight experience Howard? Not an easy call. I think they'll probably both be called up for the Jamaica match despite it not falling on an international date--Howard's a sub for Man U, and Hahnemann's season is essentially finished with Reading's promotion--and we'll get a chance to compare them then.

Liechtenstein was too scary

Apparently unwilling to take the field against the Vaduz Vanquishers, the German federation has gone for the Luxembourgers in that pre-Cup friendly I was talking about earlier.

(Note: if the adjective describing people from Luxembourg is "Luxembourgois," I neither know nor care.)

A couple of friendly results from yesterday, by the way. Mexico got a nice win against Paraguay at Soldier Field, and Japan underwhelmed to beat Ecuador at home.

Let's talk about...

Like clockwork, every four years there are a spate of articles before the World Cup debating whether or not players should be allowed to have sex during the tournament. One school of thought is that celibate players will have their energies more focused on playing the matches. The other school of thought thinks the first is batsh*t insane.

Anyway, you'll be pleased to hear that Brazil coach Carlos Alberto Parreira apparently is pro-nookie. He also encourages his players to play conga drums (although not at the same time, one hopes).

Tuesday, March 28, 2006

100% Germany-free post

In 2002, Saudi Arabia were the worst team in the World Cup. Such levels of suckitude are difficult to maintain, but the Saudis* are off to a good start in their preparations: today they lost at home 2-1 to Poland, in a match that the Poles apparently controlled for long stretches.

It's hard to know what to make of Saudi Arabia. They did very well in 1994 and seemed to be a rising force on the world stage. But in the next two Cups they stank on ice (or sand, rather), and there's little indication that 2006 will be any different. A large part of the problem is that their players almost never play abroad, and so they can't get the kind of experience that playing in a top league can give you.

Watch them win the whole thing now after my snark. If they are going to have World Cup success, it better be this year; they'll never have a kinder draw than Spain, Ukraine and Tunisia.

* Why are they always called "Saudis"? The house of Saud, after whom Saudi Arabia is named, is just one family (albeit a super-powerful one). Why aren't they called "Arabians?"

Monday, March 27, 2006

Mmm... soothing...

Speaking of nutty German plans, there's this:

German police are planning to calm nerves among fans at this year's FIFA World Cup™ by using officers specially trained in pub-speak to communicate through megaphones.

The authorities in Frankfurt are piloting a scheme where officers explain to fans over a loudspeaker what the police are doing, putting them at ease using colloquial language and humour, albeit mostly in German.

Because there's nothing more nerve-calming than the sound of a German police officer yelling jokes over a megaphone.

Cannon fodder

It seems to me that there's a pretty obvious flaw with Germany's plan to build confidence by staging a pre-Cup friendly against one of their diminuitive neighbors: Liechtenstein/Luxembourg might win.

Seriously. Liechtenstein drew Portugal in qualifying, and after they were two goals down to boot. And what opponent wouldn't be up for humiliating the Germans immediately prior to the World Cup?

I think the logic behind this is terrible: either you score a meaningless large victory against a minnow, or you end up with disappointment and/or humiliation. It's a no-win situation.

In other hot match-scheduling action, the US have arranged a closed-door scrimmage with Angola immediately prior to the tournament. Last time round in 2002, the US did the German plan and played a pre-Cup scrimmage against cannon fodder. The victims in question were US second division team Richmond Kickers, who, somewhat hilariously, managed to tie the US 2-2, (see? It can happen.) causing waves of apoplectic panic among US supporters. Bearing in mind it all turned out fine for the US in the end, I guess it all goes to show that you shouldn't take this kind of thing too seriously. (Although I can't help but notice in the Richmond-US match report that it was Jeff Agoos who got beat on one of Richmond's goals, which in hindsight was a definite precursor of his performance in Korea.)

Friday, March 24, 2006

Miscellaneous stuff

World Cup build-up news is pretty sparse today. Here are the highlights, such as they are:
  • Wayne Rooney says he won't touch the World Cup trophy on the FIFA promotional tour, lest it jinx his chances of actually lifting the thing for real this summer. He also reveals that he used to pretend he was Michael Owen when he played football on the playgrounds as a child. England fans probably wish that Michael Owen would every so often pretend he was Wayne Rooney .
  • Mexico prepares for next week's friendly against Paraguay. They've recalled Claudio Suarez, but not soccer's most loveable hunchback.
  • Serbian coach Ilija Petkovic is "quite sure" they will emerge from the Group of Death with Argentina, Holland and Cote d'Ivoire. Good luck with that.

Club vs country

There's a legal brouhaha going on right now in Europe that has implications for the future of international soccer. The Belgian team Charleroi is suing FIFA for compensation after one of their players picked up an eight month injury while on international duty. Charleroi are being backed by the G-14, the informal, yet odious, grouping of the richest fourteen European teams.

Phil Cornwall is dead right when he says this is another example of the G-14's greed, but I don't see how, legally speaking, FIFA could be held monetarily responsible, since they weren't the group that actually called up the player. (They aren't suing the Moroccan federation because the G-14 think this would be useless as a precedent, since many national federations wouldn't be able to afford compensation.)

It's a time for saner heads to prevail. Which makes it a great shame that the issue is being decided by EU courts....

Thursday, March 23, 2006

Dortmund aftermath

Arena says all the right things in his post-Dortmund hangover. Taking the responsibility for the loss is the right thing to do; too many of the immediate post-match comments from himself and especially Kasey Keller blame the players. Now he's more temperate.

Definitely allocate blame, but do it internally; I'm a great believer in winning and losing as a team, even when the purpose of the match itself is to evaluate individual players.

He says something very interesting in the article:

"We're getting really close [to the May 15th squad deadline]," he said. "The last three spots are going to be difficult to decide on."

Apparently there are three open roster spots. Here's my guess about the twenty who are on:

Goalkeepers: Keller, Howard, Hahnemann
Defenders: Oneywu, Cherundolo, Pope, Bocanegra, Berhalter, Lewis
Midfielders: Reyna, Donovan, Beasley, Mastroeni, Convey, Dempsey, either O'Brien or Zavagnin
Forwards: McBride, Johnson, Twellman, Wolff

Yes, I think Berhalter is still on the squad, in spite of the Germany debacle; Wednesday notwithstanding, he's generally very consistent.

Of those three remaining players I think you want:
  • One center back who can play outside.
  • One defensive flank player who can attack.
  • One utility player, someone who could be used in a variety of roles.
Who are the candidates? For each category...
  • Conrad, Gibbs, or Spector. Conrad was in front before this match, now I'd say it's an open question.
  • Hejduk, Dunivant, or Albright maybe. Hejduk is probably in front here because of his experience and versatility.
  • Hard to say. Maybe Hejduk if he doesn't make the second category. Perhaps Ralston or Olsen. I think Olsen's ability to play center mid, flanker or right back puts him in a good position. Klein probably is out at this point.
Injuries will probably play a role here when all is said and done, as will club form. But one of the goals of the Jamaica match should be to get some answers about those last three spots.

In my opinion, the strikers are pretty much set: McBride, Johnson, Twellman and Wolff are unquestionably the best four available. If one of them is injured, it's an open question, one that might be decided by MLS early season form.

A return to normalcy

... was what Warren Harding promised after a past American adventure in Europe, and that's what we seem to have now after ours. Germany swept aside the US 4-1 in Dortmund yesterday, restoring both the natural order of football, and some sense of German optimism. (Nice headline there by the way, Merrill.)

Here are Wagman's always generous ratings, Sams-Army's, and Kicker's.

I won't be able to watch the match until the weekend, so I can't yet fully comment. But it seems like the central defense had a really rough day, particularly Berhalter. I don't think that Arena will bring down the axe on Berhalter or Conrad because of one half, but it can't have helped them either. Conrad's main competitor for a roster spot is probably Cory Gibbs, who didn't seem to have the greatest game either, but he was played a bit out of position on the left. Klein and Ching surely didn't help themselves either. It seems like the best US player was Convey, followed by Mastroeni and/or Johnson.

I'd caution against hyperbolic overreaction to this result. It wasn't pretty but it was, given the circumstances of the match, always on the cards. I'll write something fuller on this when I watch the match later.

On the other side of the pitch, of course things are peachy. Even the German press seems happy.

Wednesday, March 22, 2006

The patience of JO'B

Earlier this week, Yanks Abroad posted a report that perpetually injured American midfielder John O'Brien is fully fit and about to make the move to MLS. It also speculates about his World Cup aspirations:

The Los Angeles native is also physically ready to be named to Bruce Arena's World Cup 2006 squad on May 15th.

"He's completely fit," agent Rob Jansen told YA. "Of course (he can be called), there are no problems with that."

O'Brien coming to MLS is a good career move I think, and a major bonus for the team who lands him. But the man's played, what maybe ten competitive matches in the last two years? Arena wants to bring him, but there's no way he's going to waste a roster spot on a player who isn't proven match fit.

I'd say that O'Brien's roster chances at the moment are extremely doubtful, unless he signs in the next week or so and then plays some full MLS games. Time is very definitely not on his side.

Pressure

I agree with just about everything in Michael Lewis's US-Germany preview except Soccernet's description of it:

As the U.S. prepares to face Germany in today's World Cup warmup, the pressure is on coach Bruce Arena to get the most out of his team, writes Michael Lewis.

Soccernet needs a better blurb writer, because that's not even slightly what the article's about. But more to the point, that statement just isn't true. Coaching a team missing several starters, and playing the host nation in front of a huge crowd, Arena's under absolutely no pressure at all. He'll be pleased with an organized, gritty performance regardless of the result. 0-0 would be a great scoreline for the USA, but a disaster for Germany, and once that would increase the very real pressure on Jurgen Klinsmann.

Tuesday, March 21, 2006

US pre-cup friendly schedule

Something I missed while I was out... the USSF announced three pre-World Cup friendlies: against Morocco, Venezuela, and Latvia.

Er... these are three quality opponents who will test... oh who am I kidding? These three are essentially minnows; only Morocco even came close to qualifying for the Cup.

The problem here is one of getting quality opponents to come to America on the eve of a tournament in Europe. In 2002, with all teams needing to fly to the Far East, scheduling friendlies was no problem. But you don't want to fly your squad over to Europe in mid-May, bring them home, and fly them all the way back again in a few weeks. And likewise, European teams preparing for the Cup are not going to want to come here. So it is understandable that this is the best we can do, but still... I would have liked at least one marquee match in the build-up.

Monday, March 20, 2006

US-Germany preview

Wednesday's only friendly match pits the host nation against the US. Their comparative FIFA rankings are pretty funny: the US is 5th while three time world champion Germany is... 22nd?!

Okay, but that's just so much FIFA bologna, I hear you cry. (I tried to come up with a German sausage equivalent, but "knockwurst" doesn't really work. "Braunschweiger" perhaps?) Obviously Germany is the favorite. But here's the point: based on the results themselves, 22nd is frankly about right. Germany haven't beaten a major team in many years, and haven't always do so well against the non-major ones. And following that 4-1 whooping they received two weeks ago, things have reached a crisis point.

Let me just emphasize the point for those readers who aren't familiar with international soccer. There's always pressure on a World Cup team, but for the hosts, there is that much more. If you're the host of the tournament, you have to make a show of it, lest you face total international ridicule and national shame. In the history of the World Cup, every host nation has made it to the second round, no matter how feeble they seemed before the tournament. Switzerland made it in 54. The US did in 94. South Korea and Japan both made it in 2002. And although the Germans have a pretty straightforward group, it's not a complete cakewalk. Increasingly German fans are feeling that they might not make it out of even Group A. They are in desperate need of some... any... kind of confidence boost.

In short, this is the biggest game Germany have played since Euro 2004 and they will be very highly motivated. I'm expecting the same heavy German victory their fans are. Any kind of result for the Americans would be a fantastic one.

The plus side of all that is that the US is under virtually no pressure for this game. They only have something of a makeshift side available, having lost Donovan and Hejduk to injury and Dempsey to a severe case of punchiness; plus they are missing a lot of European players who didn't get a club release. Some points of interest:

  • It's really the last chance for Cory Gibbs to make a case for being on the Cup squad. Personally I think the odds are against him; he may be fully fit, but he hasn't even played a match at the full club level yet for ADO Den Haag. Will he really be ready to face a motivated German attack? It might be a no-win situation for him: being left on the bench won't help him but playing probably won't help either. He needs to have a blinder. Same goes for Heath Pearce, by the way.
  • Probably a central midfield of Mastroeni and Zavagnin. In another situation, you might want to have a more offensive player in there, but under the circumstances, I think it's a good idea. It'll be left to Klein and particularly Convey to link to the attack. This is a good opportunity for Convey to make a bid for a starting position. It'd be nice to see Olsen get a chance as well.
  • I'd like to see Johnson and Twellman as the starting strikers. There will be very few chances, so whoever starts cannot afford to be profligate with them.

As for the German team news, it goes from bad to worse. Sebastian Deisler has been ruled out of the World Cup with a knee injury, and Torsten Frings and Mike Hanke both picked up injuries in Bundesliga play this weekend. Bayer Leverkusen castoff and life of the party Oliver Neuville (who, by the way, is the dead ringer of Lister's Paranoia on Red Dwarf) is the replacement for... well, all of them, I guess.

P.S. Frank Dell'Apa makes, as usual, an interesting point: one of the many intriguing subtexts of this game is that Jurgen Klinsmann is a natural choice as the manager of the United States sometime in the not too distant future, perhaps even after this World Cup. Top flight international experience, yet familiarity with the American game... you know, he might not be a bad choice.

Fight Club

I totally missed the big US soccer story this last week (and it was on my American Soccer News beat, no less): Clint Dempsey was suspended for two weeks by the New England Revolution for fulfilling many a MLS striker's dream and punching teammate Joey Franchino in the face. Apparently Dempsey was registering his objection to a typically full-blooded Franchino tackle during a practice session. Agreeing with the Revs, the US coaching staff dropped him from the squad for the Wednesday friendly.

So yeah... nice move, Clint. But this story should be over: Dempsey's a bright kid who knows that he had a stupid moment. Hopefully after a two week cooling off period and a round of apologies this will be in the past. And frankly, the two weeks off should be good for Dempsey, who's been playing a lot of soccer so far in 2006; this suspension might be a nice inoculation against summer burnout.

Un cadeau pour football!

Ate great food, visited beautiful museums, witnessed student riots and spotted a French film star to boot (well, kind of... Dominique Pinon, the man with the squashed face who is in all the Jean-Pierre Jeunet films.) What more could one ask for from a French vacation?

Football-wise I fell a bit out of touch, but I did watch the second half of last week's fantastic Arsenal-Liverpool match on French TV. Go ahead, see if you can guess who the French commentary team was pulling for.

There was much talk about Thierry Henry, whom one of the commentators wonderfully referred to as "un cadeau pour football" (a gift for football). They also emphasized a point that can't be repeated enough: for France to do well in the World Cup this summer, Henry must have a great tournament. He's never shined on that stage before: in 1998 he was a promising youngster on the subs bench, and in 2002 he, like the rest of the French team, flopped. Could 2006 be his year?

Friday, March 10, 2006

En vacances

Posting will be light to non-existent next week as I'm going to be on vacation in France. Have a great week!

Thursday, March 09, 2006

Math is hard!

Not much really to do with soccer this, but initially I found Steve Fainaru's befuddlement over the World Baseball Classic's group stage tiebreaker... befuddling. When three teams are tied in a four team group, the teams that progress into the knockout stage are the ones that allow the least runs per inning against the other tied teams. What's so bewildering about that?

But it's worth remembering that each sport has different mathematical discourses. Soccer fans are thoroughly comfortable with sorting out ties based on scores, but those who aren't baseball fans probably find baseball's spreadsheet-like scoreboards and emphasis on percentages extremely impenetrable. Something as simple as the clock counting up instead of down throws a lot of new soccer watchers (hence MLS's initial decision to have a countdown.)

Incidentally, as a patriotic non-baseball fan, I found Canada's 8-6 victory over the US pretty damn funny.

The mob gathers

A couple of years ago, German defender Stefan Effenberg retired from professional football so that he could concentrate on his other full-time job: being an asshole. In that capacity today, he has told Bild that he thinks former teammate Jurgen Klinsmann should be fired as soon as possible:

"If I was in charge then I would get rid of Klinsmann right away and get Ottmar Hitzfeld in," Effenberg told Bild daily. "I would even suggest doing that before the United States game."

Needless to say, that would be pretty much bonkers. But with Franz Beckenbauer ominously muttering that "time is running out," it's fair to say that even if the lynch mob is not actually pounding on Klinsmann's door, they are down at the hardware store stocking up on torches and pitchforks.

All of which makes the forthcoming friendly against the US very interesting. Anything less than a victory against the Americans will bring the cries for Klinsmann's head to a fever pitch. And let's face it, realistically this will be difficult. The USA is unbeaten in 2006, confident, and, since they're playing a top nation at home, under very little pressure. We've done pretty well in friendlies against Germany in the not too distant past, and even in that game, the US was certainly the better team (if it had been a meaningless friendly instead of a World Cup quarter final, the Germans would have been slammed for that performance.) So tune in on Mar 22nd; it should be fun.

P.S. I realize that one of those "friendlies" I linked to was actually a Confederations Cup game. But... you know... the Cornfed Cup is pretty much still a meaningless tournament.

Tuesday, March 07, 2006

Deadlines

Aside from German disgruntlement, the big World Cup story this week has to do with the deadline for squad announcements. FIFA had previously mandated May 15th as the deadline for naming players to each country's World Cup squad. Recently, various influential coaches, including Sven-Goran Eriksson, Jurgen Klinsmann, and Carlos Alberto Parreira, have asked for an extension, saying they'll need the extra time: injuries may occur in May friendlies, players with injuries may recover faster than expected, etc.

The initial motivation for the FIFA ruling was to prevent the players from being burnt out, a factor that some say was a problem during the 2002 Word Cup. But really this is just another instance of Blatter and FIFA being too officious. Surely it should be the responsibility of the countries themselves to make sure their players aren't overly tired. If the squad is burnt out, it's their problem, not FIFA's. And really, as long as the squad remains the same (barring injury substitutions) after the tournament start date, it shouldn't matter if they name their team the day before or the month before.

Almost certainly, the individual countries are going to have their way in the debate, because they have all the power. What's Blatter going to do... kick Germany, England and Brazil out of the World Cup for naming their squads late?

Jimmy was a defender and he was always down

Let me just say that I think Jimmy Conrad's columns for Soccernet are incredibly smart and funny. And in the latest one, we learn that he's an Interpol fan! Now I want him to make the World Cup squad more than ever.

Auf deutsch: Charme

Am I the only one who finds the thought of a German "charm offensive" vaguely threatening?

It's hard out there for a pimp

Best, I thought, to get the subject line out the way right now, before it gets played out altogether. But what can I shoehorn in to this post to match it?

I could complain about how after I did all my weekend work, I messed up the recording and didn't get to watch the Wednesday games after all. But really, I can't complain because it was my fault, and anyway I'm guessing it's really harder to be Jurgen Klinsmann.

Jurgen's no pimp (one trusts), but he has had a rough week. After seeing his German team get mauled in their midweek friendly with Italy, there was talk of a government inquiry into his tactics. (That is to say, the government of the country, not the football federation.) Today it was announced that Klinsmann has the support of the Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, although Schaeuble's remark that he doesn't "see any point in changing horses in the middle of a race" hardly seems like a ringing endorsement.

Additionally, Klinsmann is being criticized by Franz Beckenbauer for not attending a World Cup coaches workshop. This workshops sounds to me like the international soccer equivalent of one of those pointless work meetings in which nothing important is said, so I can't blame him for going back to Cali, but Franz says it's a big deal.

A lot of the Klinsmann criticism has always come down to the fact that he basically telecommutes from California. This criticism seems silly to me; as long as he's watching the Bundesliga matches regularly, there's really no need to spend the whole time there, when the only thing there will be for him to do is to answer silly questions about meaningless friendlies. But bearing in mind how skittish the host nation is about their chances, maybe it would be politic for Klinsmann to work back in Germany more often.

But don't worry about your Cup chances, Germany! Like Baldrick, Klinsmann has a cunning plan....

UPDATE: It's not really relevant to his situation, but the Guardian gives us a fun glimpse into Klinsmann's political leanings: he drives a VW Beetle and votes for the Green party! An anti-Paolo di Canio, if you will.

Thursday, March 02, 2006

Lost in translation... or not

Check out the cover of this morning's Kicker magazine. Let's just say that I wasn't reaching for the babel fish to find out what they thought of Germany's performance. Their ratings of the German team are hilarious; three players get the "6" grade--a perfect failure.

The rest of the German press were hardly kinder.

Wednesday, March 01, 2006

Wednesday results

So the biggest result is undoubtedly coming out of the beautiful and artistic city of Florence, where host nation Germany received an artfully applied 4-1 smackdown at the hands of Italy. Offhand, I can't think of a World Cup host getting beaten quite so badly so close before the start of the finals. A day or two ago, I wondered about how the dropping of Christian Woerns might affect the Germans; apparently the answer is that they're going to concede a lot more goals. Surely the German press is cooking up a right roasting for Jurgen Klinsman even as I speak.

At least Germany was playing away from home against a world class opponent. That's more than can be said for France, who were beaten 2-1 by non-qualifiers Slovakia in the Stade de France, scene of their extraordinary triumph eight years ago. In my opinion, this result is much worse than the Germany-Italy match; I mean, a full France team gearing up for a major tournament should be able to dispose of a team like Slovakia quite easily. Instead, by all accounts, their performance sucked ass. A lesser manager might be having second thoughts about his player selection and tactics; however, Raymond Domenech is apparently made of sterner stuff.

But let us not dwell on the negative! The US triumphed 1-0 over Poland in a match played in a blizzard. An opportunistic Clint Dempsey goal won it for the Americans. I'll be posting fuller thoughts when I... er... watch it this weekend. Ditto on England's 2-1 triumph over the Uruk-hai.

Good days too for Croatia, who came back to beat Argentina 3-2 and Portugal, who easily sailed through Saudi Arabia. Brazil managed to emerge from Russia without any injuries or outbreaks of hypothermia. And Spain just edged a thriller against Cote d'Ivoire, who surely have served notice that they will be contesting Group C to the fullest.

Working class dog

So normally, what I would do with these friendlies is set the home recording equipment and watch them after work. Unfortunately, the circumstances of my employment right now involve me being away from home for the work week. And this weekend, I'll be attending a conference. So frustratingly, I won't be able to watch US-Poland, England-Uruguay, and Mexico-Ghana until Sunday. Sigh. I'll be posting my thoughts about those games then, and posting ill-informed opinions based on match reports until then.

It looks like the big story today will be the weather: it's freezing pretty much all over central and eastern Europe. And you have to wonder what was going on in the minds of the Brazilian federation when they agreed to play in Russia in March. It won't feel too much like Sao Paolo.