No Room for Pretenders in Quarterfinals
The World Cup decided to take Wednesday off, because everyone was plumb worn out from England-Argentina the night before.
(One final word about England-Argentina. Two, actually: Michael Owen. Regardless of your rooting interest, the ouster of England was a loss for the tournament because it means no more Owen, a boy among men who just might have turned the World Cup on its ear. Eighteen years old--if he were an American, we’d be writing Prep Athlete of the Week profiles about him; instead, he’s sending fear spasms through the entire Argentine defense and burying a penalty kick during a World Cup second-round shootout without so much as blinking. On the bright side, there’s always 2002. And barring injury or disinterest on Owen’s part, 2006 and 2010 and 2014.)
After 21 days of uninterrupted soccer, the World Cup now breaks for 48 hours to total up red cards, rest rubber legs, sweep up after England and reflect on the just-completed first and second rounds of competition.
The findings to date:
Action: Exceptional. Overall, the soccer has been much more attacking than in 1990 and 1994, helped along by the new crackdown on tackling from behind, and there have been some great finishes, especially in the second round. Negative soccer has not yet been completely eradicated--Italy is still in the tournament--but the emphasis on playing to win instead of striving for nil-nil is to be encouraged and congratulated.
Results: Anybody else for a do-over?
For a sport that derives so much of its appeal on improvisation and unpredictability, the World Cup, sadly, has become a quadrennial stick in the mud.
Take a look at the eight quarterfinalists. Half the field consists of the same-old same-old Gang of Four: Brazil, Germany, Argentina and Italy--the last four winners of the World Cup.
Then there’s Holland, the Best Team to Never Win the World Cup, the Denver Broncos of international soccer, still searching for their John Elway shining moment.
And there’s France, the host, which predictably has gone far with the home-pitch advantage. This is traditionally the case with the World Cup--the host nation tends to stick around--with the singular exception of the United States, which was eliminated on the Fourth of July in 1994 while the country was caught looking ahead to the major league baseball strike.
That leaves but two interlopers, two pleasant surprises that have lent a sorely needed essence of curiosity to the proceedings: Denmark and Croatia.
As a soccer-playing nation, Denmark is noted mainly for its consumption of fine dairy products and pastries, its upset of Germany in the final of the 1992 European championships and its national monument of a goalkeeper, Peter Schmeichel.
Beyond that, most Parisians on the street walk up to the Danish players, stare at them quizzically and ask, quite politely, “Weren’t you supposed to be out of here two rounds ago?”
Croatia, World Cup expansion team, is noted mainly for becoming the first squad in the history of the tournament to qualify for the quarterfinals wearing checkered tablecloths. Croatia’s best player, as you probably know, is Davor Suker, who spawned one too many “Suker Punch” headlines after his penalty kick knocked out Romania on Tuesday.
Alas, it appears both teams’ days are numbered in France. Denmark faces Brazil on Friday and is already sounding like a team that has hit the wall. “What we’ve done already is an incredible achievement for a small country like Denmark,” striker Brian Laudrup said Wednesday.
That sounds suspiciously similar to the gee-we’ve-done-better-than-anybody-expected talk the Washington Capitals took into the Stanley Cup finals last month.
Not a good result for DC Excited in that one: Detroit, 4-nil.
Croatia draws Germany on Saturday. Free advice to Croatia Coach Miroslav (Don’t Call Me Miloslav) Blazevic: Bring garlic, bring fire, bring Kryptonite, bring a silver stake, bring everything you can find except the 3-6-1.
And if you score early, bring a mason to brick up your goal mouth.
Then again, knowing Germany, Lothar Matthaus would head-butt the wall, knock loose a hole the size of a medium pizza and Jurgen Klinsmann would volley home the equalizer from 25 yards in the 88th minute.
Followed by Oliver Bierhoff’s sizzling winner in the 89th.
Neutrals and lovers of the underdog from around the globe will be pulling for Denmark and Croatia in those two.
A most righteous cause, yes, but in all probability, so much unrequited energy.
Because this World Cup hasn’t been kind to lovers of the underdog from around the globe, especially that patch on the globe known as the United States.
NEXT
FRIDAY
France vs. Italy
Denmark vs. Brazil
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SATURDAY
Netherlands vs. Argentina
Germany vs. Croatia
