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Like a final year secondary student cramming ahead of the big exams, when the tournaments come around, I tend to go to ground, waking at ridiculous hours, catching all the games, learning all about the “new” players, devouring the tactics and generally not offering much company throughout.
It’s the lot of a football die-hard in this country, and many of you will concur it’s been an all too familiar scenario ever since SBS screened Italia ’90, the first time we witnessed the full glory of a World Cup, in it’s entirety, on our screens.
It’s was the stuff of fantasy back then, and that tournament introduced many of us to the likes of the tower Tomas Skuhravy, shot-stop specialist Sergio Goycochea, Salvatore ‘the eyes’ Schillachi, Claudio Caniggia, ‘grandad’ Roger Milla and Francois Omam-Biyik, and the memories live on and on.
Of course, nowadays there’s saturation football coverage all year round, but the addiction to tournament football remains.
This month’s Confederations Cup, which kicked off on Sunday, despite being a little down the pecking order of must-see tournaments, still offers plenty to tickle the fancy, especially a year out from the tournament proper: can the Spaniards continue to dish-up the football we were fortunate to witness last year? Have the Selecao re-found their mojo?
Can the Kiwis build some confidence ahead of the Oceania-Asia play-off? Can The Pharaohs finally make an impact on the world stage? How are Iraq fairing under Bora after the disaster of their WCQ’s?
What guns will the Bafana Bafana unearth?
With the eight teams having now fronted up for their opener, it’s time to cast an eye over all the teams, starting with the least impressive;
New Zealand
If this tournament was about building confidence and measuring themselves ahead of the Asian play-off, then the All Whites could hardly have had a worse start, suffering stage-freight, hardly a surprise in the context of a dearth of games and the opposition.
It’s one thing to sit back and let the European champions come forward, another thing entirely to sit back and not even press the Spaniards, allowing them to pick their passes and move all over the place. How naïve!
The worst of the lot were central defender Andy Boyens, he of the air-swing, and holding midfielder Simon Elliott, whose range of passing and touch were an eye-sore, while tactically the much-liked Ricki Herbert made a strange call playing Shane Smeltz in behind Chris Killen.
Only Leo Bertos could walk off the pitch feeling he made a decent contribution.
Iraq
It hardly feels like two years, but how the Asian champions have fallen. The starting 11 looks very similar, and that could be one of their problems, a lack of pressure on the status quo.
Bora Milutinovic had a very conservative game plan for game one, seemingly happy to play for a point, a strange strategy given he will come up against Spain tonight.
Either way, they will need to play better than they did here, and starting Hawar Mulla Mohammed might help Younis Mahmoud.
South Africa
It was an average opener, and the World Cup hosts appear in a heap of trouble a year out from the tournament. They were better than Iraq here, at least getting forward and having a go, but there were two notable absentees from the starting 11.
If they are to have any chance of competing in the World Cup, Benni McCarthy must be part of the plans, and must be kept happy. Meanwhile, it was sad that Steven Pinnear, one of the stars of Everton’s wonderful EPL season, didn’t get on the pitch till the 85th minute. Another that would be nice to see is Kaiser’s Siphiwe Tshabalala.
One player, who stood out, not only for his size and colour, was the giant stopper Matthew Booth, who was greeted to an almighty “Boooooooth” cheer by the Ellis Park faithful every time he touched the ball. His performance justified the cult hero status.
USA
Athletic and unlucky, the best way to describe the performance from Bob Bradley’s team. The first half send off of midfielder Ricardo Clark was a joke, and ultimately cost the States as they ran out of legs.
But for a long time they dished it up to Italy, and with some better finishing from the tireless Jozy Altidore and Mike Bradley, son of the manager, it might have been different.
The Americans have an amazing workrate, relying heavily on their physicality, and Germany-based Bradley especially caught the eye, while Landon Donovan did well.
Brazil
Since their 2005 Confederations Cup win and since arriving at the World Cup as favourites, Brazil have lost their way. The qualifiers this time around have been encouraging, but there is still the underlying feeling that they are no longer the untouchable team they once were.
If the performance against Egypt is anything to go by, the Brazilians still seem far too plastic, corporate even, and have lost their natural sense of fun and flair.
These days it appears far too scientific and calculated, about playing the percentages and looking for those ‘moments of maximum advantage’. At least they looked a threat at set pieces (where they bagged three) and Kaka had the odd moment.
Egypt
As passionless as Brazil were, Egypt were the opposite, full of verve and belief, and were ultimately sunk by the controversial reversal of a decision by Howard Webb, apparently on the advise of our own Matthew Breeze, he of that controversial A-League grand final, and their own inability to defend the set piece, where they conceded three goals.
When I received a text from a TRBA regular, a few hours before the game, asking if it would be worth staying up or whether Egypt would be whipped, I replied noting they had some undoubted quality in Mohamed Abou Trika and Mohamed Zidan, respective stars of their past two African Nations Cup wins, but that they had a reputation for choking on the big occasion.
Well, it could be argued they ultimately choked here, for the abovementioned incident was undoubtedly a penalty, but what a remarkable performance they dished up before that, with the front-two of Abou Trika and Zidan untouchable. Mohamed Shawky wasn’t too far behind, while Ahmed Eid made some impression off the bench.
All three goals were gems, especially the second, which came after a beautifully constructed 10-pass move. Some smashing football.
Italy
Fortunate to get away with a bit in the first half, the Azzurri, decked out in light-blue and brown, came good in the second period, ultimately having too much ammunition off the bench.
Struggling, the great Marcello Lippi didn’t wait too long, ringing the changes early in the second period by sacrificing defensive minded Gennaro Gattuso and Mauro Camoranesi. Giuseppe Rossi made an incredible impact, and all three Italian goals were gems.
Andrea Pirlo was quiet early, but his work to tee up Rossi for the third was a work of art, while Daniele de Rossi was all power and punch. Italy’s ability to stretch their 10-man opposition from side to side, eventually tiring them out, confirms their tactical smarts, as if we had any doubt.
Spain
So far, too easy, although the quality of the opposition and NZ’s resilience was questionable to say the least.
The most interesting selection from Vicente Del Bosque was that of Albert Riera ahead of David Silva, but in fairness Riera combined beautifully with Joan Capdevila, who set up two.
With Xabi Alonso, Xavi and Cesc Fabregas pulling the strings, and the world’s best striker, Fernando Torres, providing the cutting edge along with David Villa, these guys already looks hard to top. Interested to see if Alvaro Arbeloa can put some pressure on Sergio Ramos for the right back birth.
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