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Contrasting Fortunes (Part One) |
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Fiasco:
Two months is a long time in football. During the qualification campaign Fabio Capello could do no wrong. The manager credited with instilling a winning mentality into players pampered by Steve McClaren made tactical mistakes and worse in South Africa. He just about clung on to his job after a humiliating 4-1 thrashing by Germany – Frank Lampard’s ignored goal aside.
Capello wielded the axe for his first squad to play Hungary this evening. Only ten members of the World Cup flops squad survived the cull, but two players handed call ups by Capello took ‘revenge’ on the Italian for leaving them out of the World Cup squad. Blackburn Rovers goalkeeper Paul Robinson and Manchester United defender Wes Brown waited until selected by Capello for this squad to announce their international retirement. Meanwhile, Darren Bent, is nursing a back injury and seems intent on not playing despite his call-up.
The reception given to England failures at Wembley on Sunday suggests that they can expect a torrid reception from the crowd. Capello will fare no better, especially after his admission that the players have a mental problem that he does not know how to fix. Friendly or not there may not be a better time to play England for opponents that have a rich footballing history against them.
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Contrasting Fortunes (Part Two) |
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Golden Generation:
The recently appointed Hungarian national coach Sándor Egervári has a tough task. The once mighty Magyars have not qualified for a major tournament since the 1986 World Cup. Actually that’s not quite true. While they have not qualified for a senior tournament, they finished third in last year’s Under-20 World Cup in Egypt.
That young team will be the talent that Egervári pins his hopes on to end that sorry run for a football powerhouse that has slept too long. Hungary has contested the World Cup final twice, losing on both occasions – once against Mussolini’s Italian team that had plundered South American talent in 1938 and the other when they were the best team in the world and one of the greatest ever.
The current generation that Egervári has brought through and pins his hopes on for the future cannot be called the golden generation. There will only ever be one golden generation of Mighty Magyars and that has to be the team of the 1950s. Egervári’s youngsters have nothing to lose at Wembley tonight. England’s confidence is low after a dismal showing at the World Cup and Fabio Capello will be jeered as loudly as England players that failed in South Africa. The Hungarians may even be treated royally by England fans as well as their own tonight.
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New Dawn:
A fifteen minute hat-trick from substitute Zoltán Gera turned the match on its head and proved that Fulham could still mix it with top European teams. The Hungarian attacking midfielder replaced Fulham’s best player for the first hour, the American Clint Dempsey. Fifteen minutes later a 1-0 half time deficit had been turned into a 4-1 lead. “It’s always a good thing to score three goals against a very, very good team like Werder Bremen, so I’m very happy,” said Gera. “I’m happy for scoring goals and I want to keep going.”
It was a strange match. The Peruvian international Claudio Pizarro’s long range effort was the first on target. It was no great test but within five minutes Hugo Almeida breached the Cottagers’ defence to draw the best from the Australian keeper Mark Schwarzer from 10 yards out. But a goal was coming.
Thomas Schaaf’s teams like to play pretty attacking football, but Fulham’s new manager Mark Hughes will be concerned by the ease with which the Germans, who benched rising stars Mesut Özil and Marko Marin, carved them open for the first goal. In the 14th minute Petri Pasanen, who failed to impress in English football six years ago, found space to cross. Fulham failed to heed the Pizarro message leaving the Peruvian unmarked on the far post who gave Schwarzer no chance.
Seasoned European campaigners Werder Bremen, stroked the ball around at leisure ahead of their Champion’s League eliminator against Sampdoria. Dempsey went closest for Fulham with a shot that deflected for a corner and a glancing header from Zamora’s cross. Meanwhile, Pizarro had another chance and Schwarzer’s blushes were spared when he rushed out of his area only to be beaten to the ball by Almeida whose delightful side-footed flick over the diving keeper deserved better than rebound to safety off the post.
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The Two Sides of Paul Scholes |
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Masterful Display:
“They played better than us,” said Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti after Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United had inflicted a comprehensive 3-1 defeat in the Community Shield at Wembley this afternoon. “They were better than us.” He believed that his team was two weeks away from fitness.
A Man of the Match performance from veteran midfielder Paul Scholes was the difference between Manchester United and Chelsea. “Scholes is a fantastic player,” said Ancelotti. “Maybe we gave him more possibilities to play well, because we didn’t put strong pressure on. He showed fantastic touch. I agree that he was the Man of the Match.”
Scholes was fortunate to escape with just a talking to after an early lunge at Florent Malouda, but the combative midfielder showed the best side of his game with a sumptuous cross-field pass to Wayne Rooney on the right flank, which led to the first goal. Ferguson paid tribute to his talismanic midfielder after yet another match-winning display.
Goal:
Rooney picked out Antonio Valencia in the box and the Ecuadorian made no mistake. United preserved their slender lead until half time. Scholes was involved in the second too. His pass found Valencia who set up substitute Javier Hernández for an easy goal that the Mexican almost contrived a way to miss. Substitute Daniel Sturridge hauled Chelsea back into the game, inducing an error from the ever dependable Edwin van der Sar.
Salomon Kalou scored easily, but it proved just a consolation as Dimitar Berbatov finally proved his class with a delightful injury-time lob to ensure that Sir Alex Ferguson claimed the first silverware of the season.
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Big Guns Mis-fire
Both of the teams who appeared in the 2006 World Cup failed to make it past the group stages this time round. Runners-up France finished bottom of Group A after losing their final game 2-1 to hosts South Africa. Though Bafana Bafana did not progress to the knockout stages they can be proud of the quality of their performances in this tournament. Goals from Bongani Khumalo and Katlego Mphela saw them beat the European giants, whose morale issues got the better of them. It was Thierry Henry’s handball that got France to the World Cup, and after that showing it may have been wiser if the Barcelona man hadn’t bothered. Mexico and Uruguay progressed, and have mouth-watering ties with Argentina and South Korea, respectively, to look forward to in the next round.
2006 World Cup winners Italy also finished bottom of their group, managing to be worse than the combined might of Paraguay, Slovakia and New Zealand. Their final game was a 3-2 thriller against Slovakia, Robert Vittek putting the Eastern Europeans two goals up with one in each half. There was a mad rush for goals in the final ten minutes, with Antonio Di Natale pulling one back for the Italians, Kamil Kopunek responding for Slovakia, and Fabio Quagliarella scoring what turned out to be a consolation for the Azzurri. It is not only the first time that the hosts have failed to make it past the opening phase of the tournament, but also the first time that both of the previous cup’s finalists have failed to progress. That both finished bottom of their group only bodes well for potential upsets once the knockout rounds begin.
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