Euro 2012 qualifying games take spotlight away from soccer politics
There was a telling point made by an Italian journalist last week that bears repeating.
“Football politics,” he said, “only interest people who are interested in football politics, and there are not many of them.”
With that in mind, and with immense relief, we leave behind the sordid world of “Slippery Sepp” Blatter and his FIFA cronies and turn back to the sport itself, to the players, the coaches and the games.
Luckily, the weekly menu brought the resumption of qualifying for Euro 2012, the 14th European Championship that begins one year from Wednesday in Poland and Ukraine.
Fifty-one national teams are seeking to be among the 14 that will join the co-hosts in the quadrennial tournament in the Olympic summer of 2012.
Defending European and world champion Spain was otherwise engaged, routing the U.S., 4-0, in a friendly Saturday at Foxborough, Mass., but such teams as England, France, Germany, Italy and Portugal were involved in meaningful Euro 2012 qualifying games.
We begin with France because, well, Les Bleus will play host to the tournament in 2016, when the field will expand to 24 teams and the event will begin to seriously rival the World Cup for attention and significance, and without all the baggage that FIFA brings.
Coach Laurent Blanc’s team traveled to Minsk to play Belarus, the same team that had beaten it, 1-0, in Paris on Blanc’s debut at the national team helm in September. More was expected of the French this time around, especially with Belarus being without eight starters because of injury or suspension.
Belarus Coach Bernd Stange said his team had to “be ready to produce another miracle.” Instead, it happily settled for a 1-1 tie.
“The feeling is of disappointment,” France and Chelsea winger Florent Malouda said, his mind no doubt half on whether the “other” Bleus — Chelsea — would succeed in prying Guus Hiddink loose from Turkey to be their coach.
“We did not play well …,” Malouda said. “The result is not what we were looking for when we came here.”
Nor was a 2-1 loss to visiting Germany the result Austria was looking for in Vienna, even though Manuel Neuer, Germany’s goalkeeper, afterward said, “We were lucky.”
The Germans, coming off a 2-1 victory May 29 over Uruguay, the same team they defeated in the 2010 World Cup third-place game, were confident coming in — not only about beating the Austrians but about winning Euro 2012.
As defender Holger Badstuber put it, “It’s about time we won it.”
Austria had other ideas in Vienna, even though its captain, Marc Janko, said his ambition went only so far as to “irritate” Germany.
“Maybe that will be good enough for a draw or a success,” he said.
As it turned out, German striker Mario Gomez was the irritant. He scored just before halftime and again in the final seconds of the game to give the Germans another 2-1 victory and improve them to six for six in qualifying.
They can brush up on their Polish-Ukrainian geography now. They’ll be in the final 16, and as one of the favorites. But Coach Joachim Loew recognized that his players are exhausted and need a lengthy break.
“Many of the players, especially those who played at the World Cup, have reached their limit,” he said. “It’s been a long road.”
Meanwhile, also heading for Euro 2012, is Italy, which beat Estonia, 3-0, in Modena, Italy. New Jersey-born Giuseppe Rossi scored one of the goals.
Rossi apparently suffered no ill effects from being run into by a bull on a farm in Spain recently. He is playing well and is expected to make a move to a big-name club this summer, with Barcelona seriously considering the $44-million price tag Villarreal has put on the 24-year-old.
Granted, the Azzurri were at home against modest opposition, but things are starting to click for Coach Cesare Prandelli.
“We really wanted to get back on track after our disappointing World Cup and rediscover our quality,” midfielder Riccardo Montolivo told UEFA.com. “We are starting to do that now.”
England is also on course to make it to Poland and Ukraine — although given the state of the team and its uninspired, not to say mediocre, play, one has to wonder what the point of going would be.
On Saturday, at the same Wembley Stadium where Barcelona dazzled a week earlier, England turned in another abject performance, even though it managed to recover from being 2-0 down and tied Switzerland, 2-2. The London crowd justifiably booed the home team at the final whistle.
“We suffered because we arrived without energy” at the end of a long season, Coach Fabio Capello said, echoing the fatigue excuse put forward by Germany’s Loew.
Portugal’s 1-0 win over Norway in Lisbon and Denmark’s 2-0 victory at Iceland left the Portuguese, the Danes and the Norwegians tied for first place in their group with three qualifying rounds remaining. At least one won’t make it.
Meanwhile, Spain, the Netherlands, Croatia and Russia are well positioned to qualify.
