Day: June 2, 2006

Portugal, Mexico, Angola, Iran

This is a group that’ll probably generate more stories on politics than what happens out on the pitch. It looks like a fairly easy group to call, and every bookie will tell you it is just that. Both Angola and Iran are given short shrift. I can’t understand how Mexico garners so much respect, though. And Portugal, while filling up the pitch with stars, has usually been average at best.

I guess it’s their mediocre play that keeps people from talking much about Portugal winning this World Cup. They shouldn’t be fooled by that. Scolari cleverly has had them generally play like rubbish to keep expectations low. This is the team that made the finals of Euro 2004, after all. He is a great coach, England has just unsuccessfully tried to lure him to replace Ericksson. Portugal is also a great team. Figo is in his last Cup, but is still useful. Pauleta is verging on greatness. The very annoying Christiano Ronaldo, is a bit too cute at times, but there’s loads of talent underneath all that silliness–as much as I hate to admit it. They are, by far, the class of this group and should win it in a walk.

That doesn’t mean this is an uninteresting group. Mexico is given far too much credit. They have racked up a couple impressive victories lately over both Argentina and Brazil, no less, but I’m still not sold. They pin their ears back and attack from the opening whistle on. They will score a lot with strikers Jaime Lozano, Francisco Fonseca, and Jared Borgetti. But I still think they’re closer to the other two teams in the group than they are to a Portugal. Any team the US regularly handles with ease can’t be considered too frightening, but they’ll likely just get through.

Iran is certainly frightening enough, but not because of their soccer talent. They’ve only ever won one match in the World Cup (a 2-1 victory over the US), and if they win any this time around none of their women will witness it. As a country, they don’t play against very strong competition, but they have a decent young team. An intangible is the fact that 4 of their players play their club football in Germany, including their star Ali Karimi, so that‘s probably more like playing in the comforts of home than playing in Iran would be.

Angola plays their former colonizers, Portugal, in the first match. Needless to say Angola hates them, and matches between the two tend to be brutal–though Portugal always ends up trouncing them. Their best player, Pedro Mantorras, plays for Benfica in Portugal. They’re a nice story, their war ravaged country making its first World Cup appearance, but they aren’t quite World Class.

As long as Portugal shake out of their doldrums and play as they’re capable, they’ll win this group very easily, and with a little luck could go the distance. Mexico is the other likely choice to go through, but look for them to struggle more than they should once again. Any win by either of the other teams will be considered a huge accomplishment, but either could steal one from Mexico and another from the other.

Will somebody please step in and put an end to the nightmare? The world does not need another Real Madrid. We didn’t even need the one. Can’t Putin step in here in a humanitarian gesture for the good of all mankind? At least that large portion of mankind that enjoys soccer? Please throw Abramovich in the Gulag before things get any uglier.

At first I didn’t have much problem with Chelsea. I even felt a little bad for all their posh fans who toiled in mid-table obscurity for years and years. Abramovich started out nice enough. He kept the very likable Claudio Ranieri coaching the team despite his never quite getting them over the hump for an extra year or two. He came in and dropped cash right from the start, but it was generally on players with more potential than experience, and didn’t massively over-pay for them.

But he got bored with all that, and now all hell has broken loose.

The Galacticos North buy whatever catches Roman’s eye now. Jose Mourinho, the best coach in the world–at least in his own mind–was the tipping point. But, even he seemed content to bring in his former players and a few younger stars, that although very talented, were more or less unknowns. That shot them to the top of the Premiership table and they’ve stayed there ever since. No sign of budging. The Premier League is now played for the European spots (2 through 7, or whatever)–the winner is evident before the season kicks off.

That wasn’t enough for Tsar Roman. He won’t be happy until his plaything dominates the world. They’ve yet to win the Champions League. They tried it Jose’s way, now it looks like it’s Roman’s way.

The signings this year aren’t the type Mourinho would have went after. They also aren’t to plug any particular hole that Chelsea might have had. They are aging megastars that are vastly overpriced, filling positions that are already well-stocked. Ballack, Shevchenko, Roberto Carlos. The one Mourinho-type signing was the youngster Mikel, who was stolen, literally it seems, from ManUnited.

This sort of thing didn’t work at Madrid. They have a collection of all-stars, but they can’t even manage to win their league. Chelsea hasn’t learned the lesson and is headed down the same road, but are bringing the rest of the league down with them. This could be why Mourinho had made noises about wanting to coach Portugal’s national team instead. You get the sense he’s not exactly thrilled about the way things are going now either.

Nor am I. Soccer is better off without this sort of idiocy. Does a salary cap need to be instituted? I tend to be a traditionalist and am generally against stuff like that, but something must be done. Chelsea must be stopped.

Argentina, Holland, Ivory Coast, Serbia Montenegro

Every World Cup has a so-called Group of Death, and this is generally considered to be the one this time around. The one group that is packed with all good teams and it’s unlucky for the two that don’t manage to advance. This is a strong group, no question about that, but I don’t know if it’s quite that strong to deserve the billing. But, every match in this group should be a good one. The Argentina/Holland match-up might be the highlight of the entire group stage.

Argentina is as fabulous as ever, 20 years down the road since Maradona played. There’s always been the ‘next Maradona’ in every one of their teams since, although no one has ever come close to living up to that. Lionel Messi may be the one that does. He’s 18 and seems destined to have a break-out World Cup. He’s already an amazing player. But we’ve heard all that before. Crespo, Ayala, and Aimer are all still around and still good, but are mostly working to make up for their previous lackluster displays. Riquelme is there as well, and has nothing to make up for. He’ll be as solid as ever. When they feel like playing, there aren’t many teams better, but they seem to get bored at times. Never boring, though.

It was a major shock last time that the Netherlands didn’t even qualify for the World Cup. They made sure of things this time by playing extremely well throughout the qualifiers. Their days of fighting amongst themselves and underperforming may be over. Coach Marco Van Basten has left off some of the big named stars and their egos, but still had plenty of talent to choose from. They should get loads of offense from Ruud van Nistleroy and Arjen Robben. But it might be the likes of Rafael Vander Vaart and Robin van Persie that get them over the edge. As long as they don’t implode yet again, they’re one of the strongest teams in the field.

The Ivory Coast is the strongest African team and will be right on the heels of the two previously mentioned favorites. Led by Robben’s over-valued teammate at Chelsea, Didier Drogba, they should be in every match. It’s their first World Cup and they’re looking to continue the tradition of first-time African participants exceeding expectations. Although they are talented enough to warrant some rather lofty expectations anyway.

Serbia Montenegro, in what will surely be their last World Cup since it looks like the countries will split by the next one, are not very pretty but they find ways to grind out a win. Yet another Chelsea player, Meteja Kezman, leads this gritty bunch who will give even the best teams some problems. In just about any other group, this is a team you might give an outside shot to slip through the group stage, but there’s probably just too much group for even them to slip through here.

The Group of Death? More like the Group of Chelsea–every team has a player or two with a tie to the London squad. It is certainly a great group though. Argentina can be dazzling, and a tough group may be just what they needed to keep them interested. Holland can be as good as anyone if they come together as a team, as they finally seem to have done. One slip-up by either and the Ivory Coast will be there to go through, and Serbia Montenegro will give everyone it plays a headache. Absolutely anything could happen in this group, and any of the teams could end up advancing. It may not be the Group of Death, but it will be the group to watch.