- FIFA World Cup Preview -

Tournament Observations: June 22nd 2002

The Quarter-Finals

- For 45 minutes England had Brazil completely confused and confounded. The best defense of the tournament up to that time had closed down their end of the field to any Brazilian creativity and flair, anticipating where the Brazilian attack was going and closing down their vaunted ball-handling and one-touch passing skills by flooding all eleven players (even Michael Owen) into their end of the field. I don't know if anybody noticed, but for those 45 minutes Brazil did not get into the English penalty area once. What did England in that first half was an error in the back but an error up front: England got caught flat-footed watching David Beckham dilly-dally with three Brazilian players in the opposition end in injury time. In that sequence, when Brazil won the ball, too many English players were in front of the ball -- and that gave Brazil the opening they needed to go on a quick counterattack. Failing to transition back fast enough cost England dearly. That said, England still was in this game in the second half. An uncharacteristic David Seaman error was enough to get Brazil the win. Seaman never makes the mistake of coming off his line on a free kick on his end; I can only guess that he misjudged Ronaldinho's free kick, thinking it was coming in short and realizing too late that it was not (you can even see Seaman still moving forward from his line as the ball leaves Ronaldinho's foot). You simply cannot give up those kinds of mental errors against a team like Brazil.

- Mad props to the USA. They didn't sit back and wait for things to happen against Germany, and in fact took the game to the Germans. The bottom line is that the one thing the USA could not afford to do - let the Germans win the ball in the air - is what lost them the game. Size - in the form of a Michael Ballack header - matters. After the half, realizing that their size and organization in the back was enough, Germany was willing to concede the possession to the Americans. Still, the USA kept coming and came close on a couple of occasions to equalizing things. Kudos to Tony Sanneh, who was a rock at the heart of the USA defense, ran his heart out the whole game and even made some impressive thrusts in attack. If Sanneh doesn't make the all-tournament team then whoever names it doesn't know what the hell they are doing.

- I just never got the feeling that Spain had initially intended to do anything but survive against South Korea. A 4-5-1 formation - even with a threatening Joaquin on the right wing making impressive thrusts into the opposition goal mouth and generally creating havoc for the Korean defense - doesn't exactly say you plan on playing to win. Hey, I realize that you want to have Raul and Diego Tristan at their best if you make it past this game - BUT HOW ABOUT GETTING PAST THIS GAME and then worrying about the condition of Raul and Tristan afterwards? I realize we Americans take a lot of heat for not being as savvy about soccer as the rest of the world, but it doesn't take a Brazilian to realize that, as long as the guy can stand, you don't leave your best attacker on the bench in a game you have to have in order to continue. If for no other reason, Raul could have just been on the pitch up front in a role that would have at least drawn a covering defender away from somebody else who would have been left uncovered. As it was Korea had only one attacker, Fernando Morientes, to close down for 120 minutes. I like Joaquin as much as the next guy, but he wasn't receiving the ball in the box like an out-and-out striker was -- he was getting in near the half-touch line and making impressive runs into the box from the right flank. The Koreans were willing to concede that and clog up the middle of the box with their speed and work-rate. Bringing on Gaizka Mendieta late didn't matter, either -- he just brought the ball up from the left flank, again something the Koreans were willing to concede. Then there is the absurd strategy Jose Antonio Camacho was using during extra time that got Spain to penalty kicks. I can only think that this was based on the fact that up to that time Korea had converted on NONE of their three penalty kicks. Well, we have a saying in America: "BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR, YOU MAY GET IT!" Korea uncharacteristically converted all five of their penalties -- one miss did Spain in. Spain didn't lose because of poor officiating (although once again it was epically bad and yes it did matter) -- Spain lost because it never really tried to win.

- All praise to Senegal and their improbable run to the quarterfinals. For the first time in the tournament, they even had the better scoring chances against Turkey, managing to break down the Turkish offside trap and spring a few attackers on one-on-ones in the box. But give Senol Gunes credit for getting it together in the second half. Ihlan Mansiz made more of an impact than the golden goal he scored in extra time. Turkey had a lion's share of the possession in the first half but didn't make too many chances out of them; Mansiz made more scoring chances after coming in in the second half. Unlike Spain, both sides try to win this one; Turkey was just lucky enough to convert a winner.