| 12.06.2008 |
|
||||||||
| If ever there was a game in need of a strong leader to take it by the scruff of the neck it was Thursday night's Group B match between Germany and Croatia. The chaotic early pace, the slipshod passes, the ill-timed tackles; the match needed a firm master, someone who would play the ball and control movement. It was an occasion crying out for Michael Ballack at his best. Instead of mastering the situation around him, Ballack seemed dictated by it. He chased the lung-bursting pace; he wasted possession through harried thought and on more than one occasion left a cynical stud behind in the challenge. At times, he was petulant where he should have been imperious. Croatia were very much up for it and Germany found themselves to be over-run for most of the first half. The team's youngsters were knocked off their stride and hassled into hastily taken decisions which often resulted in a Croatian counter-attack. Even seasoned internationals looked overwhelmed. Frustration was written all over the face of Torsten Frings after every fluffed cross and Miroslav Klose looked even more goal-shy than he had against Poland. Everyone needed pulling together. Someone needed to have a word. The only words the Kapitan gave were the constant complaints he directed at the Belgian referee.  Leadership and influence. On form and in the right mind, Michael Ballack can exude both. He can drag the collective sock up, roll the sleeve and get stuck in – more often than not while encouraging his team to do the same. But if something is ever so slightly off, he can disappear – or worse. For one reason or another, the Germany captain still does not realise that he is one of those players who can lift a team and raise the crowd; he seems oblivious to the fact that his performance can bring out the best in everyone. In some ways, he is a more robust version of Denis Bergkamp in his pomp in that respect. And just as precious. A journalist asked assistant coach Johan Neeskens before the 1998 World Cup semi-final whether or not Holland would beat Brazil. "Maybe, just maybe…if Bergkamp plays." This raised questions over the player's fitness. "No, he is not injured, he will be on the field – but will he play? Who knows?" The very same can be said for Ballack. He is a player you can't leave out. I'm sure there are statistics to back this up when I say Ballack has proportionately more good games than bad. And you wouldn't want to leave him in the hotel if he was having a better day. But when he has a game like he had on Thursday night, you just have to be hoping you're playing a friendly at the time. He didn't disappear. He was there or there about but very little of what he did went right. A number of times, he would have been more useful if he had been invisible. Croatia started numerous attacks from his loose passes. What made it worse was that he was not alone. It seemed as though the Poland victory had made winning Euro 2008 a distinct possibility and everyone had suddenly got the impression it would be a breeze. By the time Germany had realised that Croatia were a very different proposition to the Poles, they'd already been worked out. Croatia's pressing game soon had the Germans struggling for cohesion. If the jolt of realisation they received in Klagenfurt was sufficient to stun them into disbelief at the final whistle, hopefully the shock will have soaked in by the time Germany wrap up the group stage against Austria. But even if they successfully qualify, question marks will still remain over whether this Germany team is ready to scrap for the title – and whether or not their captain is prepared to flex his muscles. |
||||||||
|
||||||||
| 12.06.2008 |
|
||||||||
| As a downpour equivalent to last night’s in Basel roars outside my window here in Bonn, I can only think how sweet it is to be not out in it playing football. I would love to see a video compendium of the hapless looks on players’ faces after their neat passes skidded astray, or died in puddles long before reaching their intended targets. (This did work out well once, however.) How about it, internet? Are there any deranged YouTubers out there who are ready to take care of my whimsical request? Or has it already been done? Now I've just spent nearly a week down in Bern with a great group of Swiss friends, and was impressed by the pluck of the mountain folks’ national side in their losing effort against the Czech Republic. I was rooting like hell for them, and took the loss hard. Exiting to a deflected goal in injury time is about as bitter as a bag of unripe persimmons. Still, when the Swiss manage to wipe the pained puckers off their faces, they should realize that something very good may have come out of the match. The cutting of the cord with the Nati's most rubbish player, Marco Streller.  He’s a funny case, Streller, a shooting star in his younger days, lighting up the Swiss league with Thun and Basel and earning himself a big-money move to the Bundesliga with Stuttgart. There, and at Cologne, the club to which he was briefly loaned, Streller was a monstrous flop, averaging four goals a season. Now back in his hometown of Basel, he scores again. After years of picking the man nearly every time he was fit (first to reward him for good form, then sticking by him in lean times in Germany, now rewarding him again), Köbi Kuhn finally listened to his mates down the ‘Stirrup and left him out against Turkey. The drunk retirees in flat caps, along with the teenagers who come in to sneak cigarettes had been telling him for years now that Streller’s early success (he scored 9 goals in his first 19 matches for Switzerland) had gone to his head, and that he hadn’t done squat but sulk and not score since. At seeing the sight of Young Boys Bern’s Hakan Yakin and Streller’s own FC Basel strike partner Eren Derdiyok starting up front in place of Streller, who was nursing a “groin injury” from the bench, the ‘Stirrup crowd no doubt let out a wheezy hurrah. Streller has heard the criticism loud and clear the whole time. He told Swiss television after their warm-up win over Liechtenstein, "I like playing for my country, but at some point it is enough. I've heard that (booing) long enough." Now, I’ve never been razzed by tens of thousands and feel for the guy but, alas, this is what happens when you are an international striker and look like you have no hope of scoring against Liechtenstein. You get booed. Thus at just 26, Streller said before the tournament that he would be quitting international football after it ended. He got his release a couple of games early, and I reckon few will be asking him to change his mind. Streller’s saga got me thinking -- who is the worst player for your national side to get picked again and again, seemingly regardless of form?  I will get the ball rolling with the USA’s current bane up front, Eddie Johnson. He's Remarkably similar to Streller in some ways, in that he’s been known to kill it in MLS, had a roaring start to his Nats career (piling up goals against the likes of El Salvador and Panama), is now a fringe player at best at his club in the big leagues (in his case Fulham in England), and how looks lost on the pitch for the US too.What albatross has your national team had hanging around its neck? Tell me a tale of woe. |
||||||||
|
||||||||
