Tensions Mount as Cup Qualifying Reaches a Peak
In England a few days ago, a British bookmaker had to apologize for putting a game on its Web site that featured World War II bombers flying over Germany and dropping soccer balls onto Olympic Stadium in Munich.
The Germans were not amused.
Meanwhile, in Brazil, Luiz Felipe Scolari, coach of the national team, accused persons unknown of tapping his telephone after his closely guarded roster for Brazil’s vital game against Argentina in Buenos Aires next week was leaked to the media.
“I’m starting to think I’m surrounded by crooks,” Scolari complained. No, not crooks, just rapidly escalating interest in next summer’s World Cup, to be jointly hosted by Japan and South Korea. With less than three months of qualifying play remaining, races have reached a crucial juncture.
Today, for instance, qualifying matches will be played in 24 cities around the globe--everywhere from Toftir in the Faroe Islands to Bangkok, Thailand--but neutral observers will be paying closest attention to these five:
* Munich, where three-time World Cup winner Germany can qualify for Korea/Japan 2002 by defeating 1966 winner England. The hoopla--and tension--surrounding the game has been enormous. Back to that in a moment.
* Dublin, Ireland, where the Netherlands is faced with the imposing task of having to defeat Ireland or else almost certainly miss out on the World Cup. “If we draw, we are out,” Dutch Coach Louis van Gaal told the Irish Sun newspaper, “because [group leader] Ireland won’t lose to Cyprus and [second-place] Portugal is not going to lose two games at this stage.”
* Kaunas, Lithuania, where three-time World Cup winner Italy can clinch its place by defeating lowly Lithuania, whose coach, Benjaminas Zelkevicius, admits his players are outmatched.
* Chorzow, Poland, where the Poles can qualify for the World Cup for the first time in 16 years if they defeat Norway and Belarus fails to beat Ukraine in Minsk, Belarus. Poland’s most unlikely player is Nigerian-born striker Emmanuel Olisadebe, whose decision to become a Polish citizen last year appears to be paying off with a trip to the World Cup.
* Ljubljana, Slovenia, where Russia can book its berth by beating Slovenia, but only if Switzerland can tie or defeat Yugoslavia in Basel, Switzerland.
It is the Germany-England game, however, that has gripped the fans’ imagination. As usual, the English tabloids have had a field day. One gleefully pointed out that the England team’s luxury hotel is just a hiccup or two from a Munich beer hall, implying that it was a German “beer trap” to seduce the not-always-angelic English players.
Even Sven Goran Eriksson, England’s Swedish coach, has been stirred, if not shaken.
“I’m not made of ice,” he told Reuters. “I know that [today] is a big, big game. Of course I feel it. I should feel it.... Walking in London or meeting people wherever in England during the last weeks, everyone says, ‘Beat the Germans.”’
But not literally.
On Friday, more than 50 potential troublemakers were detained by English police as they tried to leave the country.
Earlier in the week, 537 known English hooligans were sent letters ordering them to hand in their passports.
Later Friday night German police used batons and dogs to stop several hundred German hooligans from provoking an estimated 150 English fans near Frankfurt’s main train station.
Japanese World Cup organizers planned to attend the match in Munich to learn how to deal with potential violence in 2002.
