World Cup 2010 South Africa Blog

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South Africa – Cape Town / Johannesburg     07-06-2010

The 2010  World Cup begins in 4 days – this coming Friday – and the 32 teams are slowly stepping up the practice pace in their preparations ahead of their group games.

As this intensity mounts, during their initial trainings on South African soil -the players of these same 32 teams are beginning to feel the heat and injuries could start to creep in.

Good News !!!!

Along with Lionel Messi/ Argentina,  both strikers Didier Drogba/Ivory Coast and Arjen Robben/Holland were to be the ‘big-draw’ up front to score goals and provide their usual mouth-watering magic.

However both Drogba and Robben are dealing with ‘last-minute’ injuries but it seems that the ‘Football-Gods’ has looked down forgivingly upon the fans and it seems both fabulous players will grace the fields of South Africa!!!

The following very good list of players who are not so lucky – injured and will definitely view the WC 2010 on television-

-John Obi-Mikel/Nigeria
 -Rio Ferdinand/England
 -Andrea Pirlo/Italy
- Michael Essien/Ghana
-Oscar Cardozo/Paraguay
-Humberto Suazo/Chile
-Jose Bosingwa/Portugal
-Michael Ballack/Germany

-Heiko Westermann/Germany 

Rotterdam 02 -05-2010

Holland were slow to start in this game but showed that their strength is in putting on a great show, passing the ball, controlling mid-field and scoring nice goals.

While a lot of passes went astray, and not everyone was as completely focused as they should have been – for an exhibition game this was fine.

The weakness is in the back – and while this team seem able to keep putting more goals into the opposing goal than they let into their own net, it might be nice to have the defense organized on a bit more solid footing then is presently the case.

The defenders, the young van der Wiel, and not so young Mathijsen and van Bronckhorst generally did what they were supposed to do. They screwed up in this game once but one can be reasonably sure this problem is not endemic – as with Heitinga.

Heitinga is slow and dull-witted – a deadly combination for a defender. He nearly caused a penalty with his lazy stupid type of man-marking – he seems to be a problem waiting to happen.

The goalie-problem or ‘post van der Saar problem’ has been well resolved with a combination of experience and youth.

Sander Boschker the ‘3rd’ goalie came on in the 2nd half – he is not that tall, and the oldest player on the team – but he is a great goalie and I prefer him over the other two van Stekelenburg & Vorm who are also ‘okay’ – average but not great goalies – like Julio Cesar of Inter/Brazil.

Holland plays Hungary in Amsterdam on Saturday in its final warmup before leaving for South Africa.

Ghana play Latvia the same day in the British city of Milton Keynes.

 

Berlin/Munchen    19-05-2010

Louis van Gaal – foto Wikipedia – http://www.postproduktie.nl/voetbal.htm - 

New ‘sort-of Dutch’ Bayern Munich attempt to surpass predecessors

Bayern Munchen is the most successful club in German football history with an amazing history of having won 22 German titles and 15 cups.

The giants from Bavaria have won many titles, but there are two things they have never done before – firstly to have won over the hearts of German football fans all across the country and not only those living in Bayern – and secondly for having achieved the ‘Treble’.

While the second of these is difficult enough to do, the first is even harder because of the built-up loathing, contempt and yes even hatred which Bayern have incurred over the last decades of playing football in Germany.

Perhaps it is because most Germans see Bayern as the most successful, ‘good-at-whatever-they- do’, rich, arrogant and as a result are simply envious and jealous and hate them!

The ‘Treble’ means to finish in first place in the domestic league the ‘Bundesliga’, to win the ‘DFB Pokal’ or German Champions Cup and thirdly to win the European ‘Champions League’ Trophy – meaning the Treble winner is the undisputed best team in Europe.

However this year it seems on both fronts they are making enormous progress.

The fact that they have a chance to do so this year is in great part due to the presence of their new Dutch coach Louis van Gaal  - he has revamped their approach and instituted an attractive, passing, and attack oriented ‘Dutch’ form of football.

Van Gaal replaced Jürgen Klinsmann – a great player in his day, and by all accounts a very amenable personality – but without the ability or desire to apply the discipline and solidity necessary to lead the team.

For van Gaal there should be an almost absolute discipline and mutual understanding in the team – in his football philosophy discipline is the basis for creativity and flexibility.

During last autumn, Bayern started drifting towards the middle of the Bundesliga again and towards European obscurity – was in fact  Van Gaal the right coach for Munchen many people were asking.

Elimination from the Champions’ League group stages was looking to become a fact , dissention in the dressing-room was rumored and the football guru’s of Bayern FC [of which there must be at least 2 million!] were surprised and confused when he ended up having to use 3-3-3-1 formation against Hamburg HSV.

His dismissal was being rumored when in November the struggling and under pressure van Gaal addressed Bayern’s important Annual General Meeting.

His uncompromising and stubborn refusal to succumb to chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge’s demands for ‘7-day updates’ and to always play with 2 strikers were audacious – but  the audience appreciated his difficult position and his steadfast honest appraisal and his speech was duly met with strong and favorable applause.  

Van Gaal the person has these two sides – he has been described in equally laudatory and loathsome terms.

He is, depending on whom you want to believe, both; formidably cold and at the same time welcoming and open; cynical and completely honest and open; an often contemptuous public persona and a humorous interlocutor –  He certainly does not suffer fools lightly.

He is certainly someone of integrity and strong values and demands maximum concentration – he doesn’t let players fall asleep on the job.

His wife explains that he is in fact extremely warm-hearted, but that he cannot be nice to people he doesn’t think are nice – he is in fact very honest and very naive – a difficult combination.

Love him or hate him, van Gaal now seems to have Bayern playing his way and breaking with some of the team’s strong traditions – but van Gaal has stuck to his guns throughout.  This same tenacious quality that saw the team stumble out of the blocks and almost cost his job early this season – are the qualities from which Bayern are now reaping such great benefits.

The teams’ and van Gaal’s success are equally due to the individual brilliance of one player .

The purchase of Arjen Robben, the most valuable player on the team looked a bit risky at the time, but he fit perfectly into van Gaal’s formation and was a major factor in turning Bayern into champions.

Robbens’ goals come from an array of nearly impossible positions – and always at critical times when Bayern needed most to get them.

He has tied defenders in knots and wrought havoc – Robben is a lightning quick left-footer who plays on the right side and thus confronts defenders with a very unusual challenge.

Robben has emerged after this Bundesliga season as one of the select players in Europe and indeed the world – Dutch fans will hope his form continues into the World Cup in a month’s time.

Louis van Gaal has proved that he has the knowledge, the strategy and the attitude to  reshape Bayern into an attacking team filled with flair and  has been the most talked about story this season in the Bundesliga.  

Bayern have a good mix of youth and experience  with Thomas Mueller and Holger Badstuber proving that the future is bright along with the other’ teensters’ Diego Contento and David Alaba – who while not yet ready for’ prime-time’ yet do show a lot of potential.

Meanwhile in Berlin the former Stuttgart football coach, 37 year-old Markus Babbel has been named as the new Hertha Berlin – the now 2nd Division Hertha Berlin who were recently relegated from the Bundesliga.

He will replace loser Friedhelm Funkel who ‘led’ Hertha to relegation from the Bundesliga this season.

The former German national, Bayern Munchen and Liverpool player will sign for 1 year, with automatic extension if Hertha gain promotion back to the Bundesliga in 2011.

Babbel has made 51 appearances for the national team and was part of the 1966 team which won the European Nations Cup. He also had shorter stints with SV Hamburg, Stuttgart and Blackburn Rovers.

As coach he was with FC Stuttgart in the Champions League qualification games for the 2008/2009 season – however he was let go in December after a horrible begin to the 2009/2010 season.

Bayern Munchen did what it had to do last night at the Berlin Olympic stadium and is on course for ‘ the Treble’  after winning the German Pokal Cup with a devastating 4-0 victory over last years winnerss Werder Bremen.   

Arjen Robben, was ‘Man-of-the-match’ –  his penalty in the first 45 minutes put Bayern in the lead.  

It is this the kind of warm-up Robben and his team-mates needed before their Champions League final in Madrid Bernabeu Stadium this coming Saturday 22^nd of May. 

As the main catalyst of the Bayern attack, Robben ripped through the Bremen defence  time after time – scored the vital opener – albeit from the penalty spot- and while he did miss an open net early on,   deserves great acclaim for yet another outstanding performance – and also as part of a team performance.

He was often seen running back to defend – unusual for any player of his stature, as did Frank Ribbery, which was equally unusual and equally creditable!

Goals from Ivica Olic, Franck Ribery and Bastian Schweinsteiger completing the rout. 

Hans-Joerg Butt, the Bayern keeper also had an excellant game and made a double save in the first half denying Claudio Pizarro and then the rebound from Torsten Frings – before Aaron Hunt’s final 3rd attempt on goal was yet again deflected. 

This will augur well for Bayern because Inter Milan have probably the best goalie in the world – the venerable Brazilian Julio Cesar. 

Frank Ribery, who has been linked with a move away from Bayern,   added the third goal when he took a great pass from Mark van Bommel and put it past Werder goalie Tim Wiese.

Full congratulations to Wiese - a goalie who this time seemed awake, conscious and actually made some saves – usually he is incapable of doing any of these 3 things when he is between the posts.

Werder Bremen went down to 10 men when thier captain, the frustrated Frings was issued a completely legitimate red card for fouling Schweinsteiger.

 Frank Ribery will be told on Wednesday by UEFA if he can play against Inter

Barcelona/Berlin          28-04-2010

Inter deserved to go through.

Barcelona did not provide enough imagination in the game to overcome the staunch Inter defending – Messi notwithstanding.

Barcelona did the same thing again and again and then did finally score when a defender took some initiative into his own hands.

The Barcelona mid-field was almost invisible and this with a man advantage! [?]

The red-card against Inter – was correct from one perspective and incorrect from another video replay – difficult job to be a referee – and we have to assume unless proven otherwise that they are neutral and being honest.

For me the strength of Inter was Julio Cesar – the best goalie playing in Europe for sure. The other players in defence were excellent and did what they are supposed to do.

Milito was a work horse who did not give up – and kept being an irritant and a possible goal scorer.

Bayern VS Inter in the final – me thinks Bayern can beat Inter – but I would not put any more than a 100 Euro on it.

It will no doubt be a close match – hopefully with good officiating and no red-cards.

Hamburg    27-04-2010

Hamburger SV have sacked head coach Bruno Labbadia in the aftermath of the heavy 5-1 league defeat against Hoffenheim.

Labadia is by all accounts a very affable and sympatico coach who has given his best for HSV – but this has not been enough and the club direction did what they had to do.

HSV have been far from impressive since the winter break and currently sit only seventh in the Bundesliga – and they are a very difficult team to like – believe me I have tried.

HSV play Fulham later this week 2nd of their ‘Europa- Cup’ semi-final, which they enter with a 0-0 home game result of one week ago. The final of the Europa Cup is in Hamburg ……..so it would be shame for them to miss this, having gotten this far – it is their only chance for any trophies this season so hopefully they will get some goals in Fulham.

Fulham looked ‘fulsome’ in the first game – nice team and coach, disciplined and very fair players –but with an irritating habit of not being able to score goals!

HSV have been an absolutely horrible team to watch this season – you might as well take the dog out for a walk. Sometimes good – but mostly very bad – and never just average.

From the back; the goalie – too small and not that intelligent & a fumbler– the defense – erratic at the best of times to just plain horrible; centre-midfield is a combination of one very good older experienced Brazilian who wants out next year and all kinds of well-meaning and hard working youngsters who keep giving the ball away; up front oddly they are not that bad with Petric, Gurerro and now have van Nistelrooy – but he has come too late to really impose any cohesion there – and all this being fed by a non-existent midfield. Sounds horrible and it is horrible – surprising that they have managed to come this far actually.

They have appointed Ricardo Moniz as interim manager until the end of the season. The 45-year-old has worked as youth coach since 2008 – and if it worth anything I wish him well.

Zurich   26-03-2010

Michel Platini UEFA President - foto Wikipedia Commons

Other teams he thinks may be difficult to beat – however these 3 particular sides  have all the main qualities a team would need to win.

He was speaking in the completely non-European city of Tel Aviv – where for some very strange reason UEFA has decided to hold a congress.  [?]

He also said noted that France, Argentina, the Netherlands, Ivory Coast and Portugal could make life difficult for his ‘favorites’.

London   24-03-2010

The powerful forward, Man U and England star, Wayne Rooney is in great form  and his truely extraordinary  performances in the Premier League have brought him well deserved praise and accolades.

He is having a tremendous season in England and if [knock on wood!] he remains injury free, he’s really going to be hungry for goals at the WC 2012 in South Africa and could be one of the great stars of the tournement.

His strengths are that he usually remains calm and confident and not too much can take him off his game.   

He is an instinctive striker who knows where the ball goes and is going, and can create situations in midfield from nothing – in short he is an intelligent player –which England has been short of over the last years.

Besides this he works hard –like most English players – and seems always available for the team. He works hard, he runs back to defend and helps where he is needed.

While not hoping for an English World Cup win, I am certainly not against one if we can see some nice football from Wayne Rooney – that would be worth it.

Good luck to him and the English team!

Madrid     23-03-2010

Euro Champions Spain are still the   favourites to win this years World Cup , but coach their coach  Del Bosque does not like wearing this ‘favorites’ hat.

He has said Spain have a chance – have the spirit and capability to win games -
 but it will be difficult and complicated to win.  

A great problem is to think that Spain are better than all the others – this he says is a misconception – a dangerous misconception.

Spain will play in the same group as Chile, Honduras and Switzerland in their group.?