The Hindu : Sport : Goodbye and good riddance to Eriksson

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jul 06, 2006

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Goodbye and good riddance to Eriksson

This World Cup has thrown up numerous surprises and some unpleasant shocks, writes Brian Glanville

This has been a World Cup with numerous surprises. The resurrection of Zinedine Zidane. The astounding naivety of the Ghanaian defence whose off-side trap against Brazil broke down no fewer than four times, three of which yielded a Brazilian goal. The superlative volleyed goal by one of the less trumpeted Argentine players Maxi Rodriguez, to beat a gallant Mexican team playing way above what was expected. The bewilderingly shaky form of England defender John Terry. Against Sweden, every ball that came over the middle, whether from a cross, a corner or a throw in seemed to carry deadly peril and indeed two soft goals were scored.

But earlier in the game Joe Cole, a player I have admired since his days in the West Ham youth team, far too often ignored by the lamentable Sven-Goran Eriksson, had scored a goal from the left almost as spectacular as Rodriguez's, he too with a superlative volley after bringing the ball down on his chest. And of course not to forget what was arguably the finest goalkeeping exhibition of the tournament; by the 37-year-old Hammers goalkeeper Shaka Hislop for Trinidad & Tobago when he wasn't even supposed to play against the Swedes, stepping in only when the first choice, Kelvin Jack, dropped out just before the game.

Battle of Nuremberg

There were of course some unpleasant shocks. Not least the barbarity of what might now go down in World Cup history as The Battle of Nuremberg, as opposed to the ineffable Nuremberg Rallies and as an adjunct to The Battle of Berne (1954) and The Battle of Santiago (1962). It could all have been averted had the inept Russian referee Valentin Ivanov only had the courage and initiative to send off the crude Dutch right back Khalid Boulahrouz for the early, spiteful foul on Cristiano Ronaldo; whom he later put off the field with a second such foul. Not for nothing is he nicknamed The Cannibal, and ultimately he was expelled himself. Too late.

The regeneration of Zidane was remarkable for a number of reasons. In the first place he had an indifferent season for Real Madrid and had done little of recent consequence for the national team with whose much-criticised manager Raymond Domenech he was known to be on bad terms.

There was, indeed, an icy moment when during the drawn game against South Korea, Domenech pulled him off, and Zizou walked past him off the pitch without a look or a word. In the next game against Togo the decision at last with David Trezeguet up front, thus reviving his old Monaco partnership with Thierry Henry seemed to pay off handsomely.

But come the next match against a much-fancied Spain, Domenech left out Trezeguet and put back Zizou in the starting eleven.

And Zidane rose superbly to the challenge, helping to turn the tide after Spain had gone ahead with a penalty clumsily conceded by Lilian Thuram. In this, Zizou was wonderfully abetted by the rising star, 23-year-old Frank Ribery of Marseille, who took his equalising goal with splendid speed, confidence and panache and provided the pass at the very end on to which Zizou ran, beating a defender, before smashing home his team's third.

As an admirer of Argentine coach Jose Pekerman, I still feel he got things wrong against Germany. True there was the bad luck of having to substitute his goalkeeper, which meant one outfield sub the fewer. But surely at some point it was worth gambling by sending on the precociously incisive 19-year-old Lionel Messi. And when Juan Roman Riquelme came off, so did an invaluable point of reference.

Italy's 3-0 win over Ukraine was not all it seemed. Gigi Buffon had to make several fine saves and the Ukrainians, admittedly naive in defence, also hit the bar. Strange to see an Italian team so open at the back.

Familiar old story

For me, Zidane confirmed his place as the finest player of this edition with another astonishing show against Brazil when he outclassed all the famous figures of the opposition. His ball control was superb, he had the energy of a much younger man, and what a glorious long free-kick from the left that enabled Thierry Henry from the right to shoot the stupendous winning goal!

England's overpaid stars still cannot take penalties. Out went the team again, all that 10-men gallantry over 120 minutes wasted, on the spot kicks to the Portuguese for the second consecutive tournament. Making it now five times in all that England have been knocked out of a major competition on spot kicks. Wayne Rooney no doubt deserved to be sent off, but the ineffable Eriksson had placed a dire burden on him, using him when he had been so seriously injured and putting him alone upfront into the bargain.

While the 17-year-old Theo Walcott — picked by Eriksson on a self-indulgent whim at the expense of such as the experienced Jermaine Defoe — sat on the bench and never got a kick. So goodbye and good riddance to the greedy `quarterfinalist' Eriksson; but here now comes his uninspiring assistant Boro's Steve McLaren. Would you rather be shot or hanged?

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