Joga Bonito???
I was a witness to the farce that they called a World Cup football match between Portugal and the Netherlands. And i can safely say that i feel ashamed to have witnessed such a deprecation of football.The game seemed to be more of a celebration of the might of the elbow and the beauty of theatre than what it was billed to be; a meeting of 2 teams that have a lot to prove given their perenial underachiever's tags. In Scolari and Van Basten, the game had in it 2 unbeaten coaches, who were supposed to be at the top of their arts. However the game would have sadly reminded Van Basten of the kind of injuries and tackles that cruely cut short his career, a career that would have made Cryuff seem like a pretender. And from Scolari, i expected an amalgamation of the Brazillian magic, Iberian flair and Europena grit which Portugal had presented to the world in Euro 04 and their first round matches.
And what a disappointment it turned out to be!!! Figo, Robben and Van Bommel, it seems have been perfecting their thespian skills in the past few months and decided that this was the best opportunity to show case their skills. Where were the cutting runs that Robben had shown in Euro 04? Is this what Mourinho's Chelsea has done to this prodigiously talented winger?? And was it a deliberate plan to put Ronaldo out of the game so early? Surely, the tackle by Boulharouz seemed to suggest nothing else but that. And the head butt by Figo or the hand ball by Costinha? I mean what the hell were these guys really thinking!!!!!!
But first things first, I find it hard to imagine how Van Basten could leave out people like Roy Makaay and Klaas Jan Huntelaar out of this squad, especially since its known that Ruud Van Nistlerooy is going through a really lean patch. And the effect of this was for all to see in the 2nd half of the match when Holland missed chances a plenty in the 18 yard box. And even when all this was going on, was Van Basten really justified in putting his ego before the interests of the nation and not bringing on Nistelrooy?? I mean come on are you really telling that that Vesellink of whatever is a better striker than either of the 3 aforementioned gentlemen. Mr Marcel Van Basten, i think you quite lost the plot there.
And then there was the Portugese team which seemed to have collectively let their brains go to graze in the nearby meadows( ..with due apologies to the Hindi language). Why the hell did Costinha handle the ball? Did Figo really need to head butt Van Bommel? Why, oh why in god's name did Deco not give the ball to Cocu? If ever there was a classic case of a pyrrhic victory then this was it, cuz i see no chance in hell of Portugal going any further given that they have lost 2, possibly 3 players if Ronaldo is unable to recover before the England match and half their remaining squad are sitting pretty with their deck of Yellow Cards.
And after all this both the coaches had the audacity to actually put the blame on the Russian referee and say that he messed up the game for the 2 teams. And how he did that, i dont know cuz maybe, maybe Messrs. Van Basten and Scolari think that it would have been better if the referee had turned a blind eye to the things that either Bouhlarouz or Costinha or Deco did. In my opinion, Costinha should have been out much earlier and Figo deserved a red card for what he did, but nah.. the 2 coaches think the referee screwed it up for them. Convenient, I say very convenient. And what do you think we should do to Bouhlarouz for kicking Ronaldo in the thigh and effectivly ending his match, Mr Van Basten? Garland him and put up his posters shall we??
And that brings me to the other point that has been constantly pricking me throughout this WC. Is it just me or has anybody else noticed the clearly below par level of football that most of the top teams have displayed? It seems shades inferior to the club level football that most of us see in the Champions league or the national leagues. Ok i agree there have been certain exceptions like Brazil's second half against Japan or England's first half against Sweden or most of Argentina's playing minutes but somehow its not been what i expected. And i would pin the blame sorely on the club football cuz the clubs nowadays are so reluctant to release their star players for national duties that these players hardly get a chance to play each other. And as you all would know, throwing in a few stars does not make a great team. They have to play with each other to understand each other's game. Take Ronaldinho for example. His passing has been way short of what we have seen him do for Barca cuz he's not able to predict where Ronaldo or Adriano would be in a few moments simply because that they havent played enough together. Germany on the other hand have been revelation cuz they seem to have a played a lot more football together, since quite a few of the players are drawn from the handful of the big German clubs and hence have that natural cohesion that comes from playing together. And its a real pity that its come to this cuz club football is one thing, but it should not be at the expense of international football. A case in point to have Champions league once evey 4 years and World Cup every year maybe ?
Current Music: Sepultura - Roots Bloody Roots
posted by Nitish @ 2:22 AM
Comments: 3
