Shots on Goal
Membership in the pantheon of World Cup legends has its privileges, and don’t think the members of the current Brazil and Germany rosters haven’t heard about it.
Record books know them as Edson Arantes do Nascimento and Franz Beckenbauer.
Fans know them as Pele and Der Kaiser.
Players appearing in Sunday’s World Cup final at Yokohama International Stadium know them as frequently royal pains in the shinguards.
When Pele and Beckenbauer talk, people listen. From the perspective of the Brazilian and German players who have had their ears burned from Ulsan to Saitama, that has been part of the problem.
Pele, Brazil’s greatest soccer icon, may be the best offensive player in the history of the game. Beckenbauer, Germany’s most famous soccer hero, may be the greatest defender the sport has seen. Wherever in the world they roam, they arrive with unquestioned credibility, ready-made soap boxes and a glaring impatience for Brazilian and German soccer teams lacking players with the skill and genius of Pele and Beckenbauer.
According to Pele, 61, when queried at various times throughout the World Cup, Brazil has played far too defensively, and not nearly defensively enough.
According to Beckenbauer, 56, Germany has been “average” and “inadequate,” the byproduct of a roster that doesn’t feature “any bad players, but at the same time there aren’t any truly good ones either.”
Before Brazil’s quarterfinal match against England, Pele said that “everybody knows Brazil have big problems in defense,” right before Brazil went out and defeated England, 2-1, and then went out after that and shut out Turkey, 1-0.
In six matches in the tournament, all Brazilian victories, Brazil has yielded four goals.
At the same time, Pele told the Web site fifaworldcup.com that Ronaldo “is only playing at 70% of his potential. He is afraid to push himself to 100%” because of a serious knee injury he sustained in mid-2000. “He didn’t want to give 100% during the qualifying games. But even now he is still afraid, and at only 70% of his level. Sometimes he pushes, but sometimes he pulls back in a game.”
At 70%, Ronaldo leads 100% of the other scorers in this tournament, having scored his sixth goal in six matches to deliver Brazil to its third consecutive World Cup final.
After Germany’s quarterfinal match against the United States, Beckenbauer wrote in the German newspaper Bild: “To put it bluntly, if we did not have [goalkeeper] Ollie Kahn we would have been sent home a long time ago. We’ve barely scraped through in every match except for the match against the Saudis, who practically invited us into their goal.”
This was after Germany had opened the World Cup with an 8-0 thrashing of Saudi Arabia, but days before it defeated South Korea, 1-0, to advance to its seventh World Cup final.
So you want to be a traditional World Cup power?
You try forever playing in the shadows and up to the expectations of two of the game’s biggest icons, in a couple of soccer-insane countries, where today is never good enough because Pele and Beckenbauer are always there to remind you about yesterday.
There are distinct advantages to doing your work for a so-called “Third World soccer country,” a “developing soccer nation” such as the U.S. Who’s going to badger Landon Donovan for the chances he missed--taken against Germany, in a World Cup quarterfinal? Eric Wynalda? Bruce Arena didn’t have to hesitate before cracking open the sports section the morning after the 1-0 loss to Germany. What, Steve Sampson is going to criticize him for not using the 3-6-1?
But Brazil always has Pele looking over its shoulder and Germany always has Beckenbauer to try to impress. Bill Walton may not be a household name in Rio and Berlin, but rest assured: Brazilian and German soccer players are quite familiar with what NBA veterans know as Bill Walton Syndrome.
Before the semifinal with Turkey, Pele fretted for his country, telling the Japan Times he wasn’t optimistic about Brazil’s chances because Ronaldinho, out with a one-game red-card suspension, “makes a big difference to the team. For Brazil at this time, it’s a big loss, bigger than the possible loss of Ronaldo.”
Beckenbauer, meanwhile, had less-than-practical advice for Germany’s coach, Rudi Voeller. Beckenbauer suggested Voeller should keep his goalkeeper, Kahn, and replace the rest of the team.
“Rudi could put the whole team in a bag,” Beckenbauer wrote in Bild, “and aside from Kahn, no matter who he pulls out to put on the field, it would be the right choice.”
Beckenbauer, coach of Germany’s last World Cup champion in 1990, added, “I would have felt personally insulted as the trainer if my team had delivered a performance like [the one against the U.S.]. In 1990, after we played a weak match against 10 Czechs, I threw a bucket filled with ice across the locker room.
“They’re going to have to feel it for themselves that they have to raise their game.”
Evidently, that’s what the Germans did against South Korea. At a Thursday news conference in Yokohama, Beckenbauer was all grins, talking about how “impressive” Germany was in the semifinal and teasing Carlos Alberto Parreira, coach of Brazil’s 1994 World Cup winner, about the troubles awaiting Ronaldo, Rivaldo and Ronaldinho in the final as they approach the daunting task of trying to put one past the mighty Kahn.
Pele too is happier now, although he is careful not to tout Brazil as the favorite in the final. “They have done well,” he said, “but I don’t want to say they are the favorites because all those who have been made favorites have failed.”
Longtime Brazil and Germany watchers predict this relative calm could last awhile. Days, even. All the way up to, but not necessarily including, Sunday’s opening kickoff.
