With Cup in Past, Teams Look Ahead
By now, the World Cup is a distant memory, a well-thumbed volume best confined to the history shelves. It’s time to look ahead, and this week provides the first opportunity to do so.
On Wednesday, no fewer than 50 countries will be playing, among them five teams ranked in the top 10 in the world and 13 ranked in the top 20.
The slate of 25 friendly matches will see Luiz Felipe Scolari bow out as Brazil’s coach, his mission accomplished, while Jacques Santini and Inaki Saez will make their debuts as the coaches of France and Spain, respectively.
On the horizon is the European Championship in Portugal in 2004, and Wednesday games offer coaches the opportunity to look at new players in a competitive situation before qualifying begins next month.
Spain will be one of the favorites in Euro 2004, and Saez has set about rebuilding the team from the back, something that was forced on him by the retirement of defender Fernando Hierro and midfielder Luis Enrique.
He has called in five uncapped players for the game against Hungary in Budapest, including four defenders. Carlos Marchena of Valencia is Hierro’s heir apparent, while Jose Antonio Garcia Calvo (Atletico Madrid), Juanito (Real Betis) and Raul Bravo (Real Madrid) are also new to the back line. Midfielder Pablo Orbaiz (Athletic Bilbao) is the other newcomer.
Germany, too, will be favored to reach and possibly win Euro 2004, and Coach Rudi Voeller has made it abundantly clear that he expects no less from the team that finished second to Brazil in the World Cup.
“We’re starting all over again,” he said. “What happened at the World Cup does not count anymore, and young players will be getting chances to prove their worth.”
That said, Voeller included only one new face on the team that will play Bulgaria in Sofia: defender Arne Friedrich, 23, of Hertha Berlin.
But Voeller told Kicker magazine that the veterans should not presume their places on the team are secure, or that reaching Portugal will be easy.
“Anyone who thinks that coming second at the World Cup means qualification for Euro 2004 is a formality will hear from me,” he said. “I will ruthlessly clamp down on any complacency.
“To succeed, you need to have consistency at the highest level, and we must do everything we can to maintain that standard.”
Santini’s job is somewhat different.
The last thing he wants to see is France play to its World Cup standard, when it went home in disgrace, without a victory or even a goal.
“I was named [coach] to help France qualify for the European Championship, and I intend to do so,” he said.
To that end, Santini has included seven players who were not on the World Cup roster on the team that will play Tunisia in Tunis, including four who have never played for the national team. They are defenders Philippe Mexes (Auxerre) and Anthony Reveillere (Stade Rennes), midfielder Bruno Cheyrou (Liverpool) and forward Sidney Govou (Lyon).
“My idea was to rely on a nucleus of experienced players like Zinedine Zidane or Emmanuel Petit, who were in South Korea,” Santini said. “But some young blood has to be put in. The team needs new energy and fresh enthusiasm.”
France is the reigning European champion, and Santini knows very well that failing to qualify for Portugal will cost him his new job.
“I’m here to make sure that we will have the opportunity to defend our crown,” he said. “So I will review the situation in November 2003, and if things don’t go well, I’ll face the consequences.”
One coach who is untroubled by any consequences is Scolari, who has called his entire World Cup-winning team together for one last celebration, against Paraguay in Fortaleza, Brazil.
It’s a farewell party of sorts, now that Scolari has announced his retirement as Brazil’s coach, and Paraguay has made sure not to spoil it because it has left its most controversial player and its best player off the team.
Anibal Ruiz, the Uruguayan coach who has temporary charge of the team while Paraguay searches for a replacement for Cesare Maldini, will be without goalkeeper Jose Luis Chilavert and defender Carlos Gamarra.
The troublesome Chilavert was not selected by Ruiz, and Gamarra asked to be excluded while he fights for a place in the Inter Milan starting lineup.
Brazil’s team, meanwhile, includes a player who is fighting to get out of the Inter Milan lineup; in fact, out of Milan altogether.
Ronaldo left Italy and returned to Brazil four days earlier than he needed simply to escape the pressure of fans and the media over his on-again, off-again transfer to Real Madrid.
The World Cup’s top goal scorer is under contract to the Serie A team until 2006 and Inter Milan has put a $100-million price tag on him, but neither factor is necessarily an obstacle.
Marca, the Spanish sports daily, reported Thursday that Florentino Perez, the president of European champion Real Madrid, and Massimo Moratti, Inter Milan’s president, would meet this weekend on the Balearic Islands and hash out a trade that would satisfy both teams.
Real Madrid is said to have offered $48 million for Ronaldo, plus one or two other unidentified players.
Slovenia and Ireland have taken different approaches to their own temperamental stars: Zlatko Zahovic and Roy Keane, both of whom were sent home in disgrace from the World Cup.
Slovenia’s new coach, Bojan Prasnikar, has invited Zahovic back into the national team for the game against Italy in Trieste, but Ireland Coach Mick McCarthy has purposely left Keane out of the Irish team that will play Finland in Helsinki.
Bygones, it seems, are not always bygones.
