World Cup 2010 Blog: “Of French Moles & Big Francs” plus 4 more

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• Of French Moles & Big Francs
• Friday’s Euro 2012 Qualifiers
• Carlos Quieroz Learns Words Do Actually Hurt
• FIFA’s World Cup 2010 Technical Report is 289 Pages of Fluff
• Jogi Loew Gives Ballack Captaincy, Then Slyly Passes It To Lahm

Of French Moles & Big Francs Posted: 03 Sep 2010 06:00 AM PDT France had a number of big problems in their camp during the World Cup, paramount among them the post-Anelka fallout which was soon followed by France falling out of the World Cup. It was reported to L’Equipe by a mysterious rat that Anelka had told coach Raymond Domenech to do unpleasant things, which one doesn’t do with an authority. That mysterious being has now been reportedly outed as…..Raymond Domench. To put this in words football lovers of all ages can understand: Rayray tattled. On Thursday, the French weekly le Point reported that it had obtained a copy of an undisclosed report by the French Football Federation (FFF) on the incident, in which three players name coach Raymond Domenech as the "locker-room mole". According to le Point, the FFF investigation auditioned 18 players, three federation members and three team staff. Among those interviewed, three players said they thought it was Domenech himself who had leaked the incident to l'Equipe. There’s no shortage of players on that team with a dislike for Domenech, so throwing him under the bus would seem convenient and self-serving. However, there’s not a sane person alive who doubts Raymond torpedoed his own player – this is the type of stellar reputation he’s built for himself. But from now on, it matters not because the FFF and Rayray have come to terms on a mutual rescission of his contract, which effectively ends his association with French football. What do you think they’ll give him as a parting gift? A watch that doesn’t work? A swift kick in the pants? An aggressive cancer? Try €2m. There is no justice in football.

Friday’s Euro 2012 Qualifiers Posted: 02 Sep 2010 05:36 PM PDT Euro 2012 qualifying is back upon us, with Yossi Benayoun protesting the move to Israel’s holy Sabbath with an aggressive hat-trick against Malta. This comes after qualifying was initially kicked off back in August as any major tournament should: with Estonia and the Faroe Islands. (The Faroes sadly fell.) Tomorrow, however, is the big opening and we have the scoop below. Five Games To Watch Liechtenstein v Spain: The defending world and European champions are getting proper world and European defending champion treatment. Pray for Liechtenstein. Belgium v Germany: The Belgians form one of the most intriguing teams in 2012 qualifying. They’re young, gifted, brimming with promise and entirely dysfunctional – a powerkeg waiting to explode for good or bad. Their foils are well-documented and Dick Advocaat up and left town for the money and the simple fact he wouldn’t have to deal with a bunch of cliques and spoiled children. Germany, on the other hand, are young, gifted, brimming with promise and close to functioning like a machin. Jogi’s boys are the clear favorites, but Belgium could turn it around and switch from clique to click; if not, they’ll at least get a lesson in how its done. France v Belarus: No one needs a fresh start more than France, but perhaps what’s more is that everyone’s expecting a fresh start. Not necessarily a win, but the nature of the performances by the new and old faces highlighting the missing serving to inspire faith SA2010 is a complete bygone. No one should have much pressure on the first day of qualifying after a World Cup, but France have a great deal piggybacking along for the short ride to Paris. Latvia v Croatia: Well, maybe Croatia has more pressure? If you remember, they were one of Europe’s up and coming young national teams with the results to back it up. You could also say they were the best European team, if not the best team period, not to get a ticket to South Africa. Just an enormous disappointment. This game smells of vengeance and reclaiming their place climbing the ladder. All while Slaven smokes three packs on the sidelines. (Yes, it’s the return of Slaven Bilic.) Sweden v Hungary: Part of the difficulty when perusing qualifying schedules for a good watch, particularly in Europe, is finding games which are both evenly matched and intriguing. Spain versus Liechtenstein is intriguing because we want to see if the champs can crack 100, but it’s not quite balanced. Conversely, Montenegro versus Wales is probably evenly balanced, but it’s not going to break rating records in the coldest circle of hell. This game seems both balanced and intriguing enough, since Hungary made strides during World Cup qualifying in reclaiming some footballing legitimacy while there’s every chance a blubbering Zlatan unveils a t-shirt reading Why Don’t You Love Me, Pep? whilst celebrating someone else’s goal. (It’s Sweden, ergo…) Streams: MyP2P.eu; atdhe. World Time Clock: Because we care. Schedule:

Carlos Quieroz Learns Words Do Actually Hurt Posted: 02 Sep 2010 12:00 PM PDT The year 2010 has certainly not been a favorite of Carlos Quieroz. Even if some had higher hopes, the World Cup run was met with the expected outcome for many – Spain and then done – but the rest has seemingly been one mess after another. There was the shoving match with a journalist at an airport in February, shortly followed by the major saga in which he said mean things to anti-doping officials, who are seemingly the most fragile people on earth. This initially cost him one month via the Portuguese federation, and now the big boys have suspended him a further six months. Might be time to dust off the ol’ resume. The institute’s 31-page report said that after hearing evidence from all those involved in the incident it concluded that Queiroz’s intimidating behaviour had unsettled the anti-doping team and that, consequently, one of the inspectors failed to correctly carry out a test at the training camp. None of the players tested positive. Queiroz has said he was angry that the unannounced early morning tests had disturbed the players and admitted that he used inappropriate language. It would seem that if yelling at people were a punishable crime and Quieroz is being punished, his mentor, Sir Alex, should be hit with at least a two-month sentence based on influence. Something like a child’s faux pas – the kid is at fault, but the real culprit is bad parenting. That and television. (Six of one…) On the plus side, I’ve got a feeling Carlos will be able to fill his months following the Black Eyed Peas on tour. Silver lining.

FIFA’s World Cup 2010 Technical Report is 289 Pages of Fluff Posted: 02 Sep 2010 10:33 AM PDT FIFA has released its World Cup 2010 Technical Report in the form of a 9.28 megabyte pdf document. Which might sound impressive, but only if you haven’t read it. Because this thing is 289 pages of fluff, in four different languages. The document basically contains a lot of pictures, a lot of over-simplifications, and a lot of glossing over hard truths. In the “Story of the Tournament” section for example, Frank Lampard’s inexplicably unawarded goal for England vs Germany in the Second Round is related thusly: “They thought they had equalised but the goal was not given.” I know small children who could give a more detailed retelling of that event. No wonder FIFA have snuck this out the day before Euro qualifying begins, when we’re all focused on the next tournament and no longer care as much about the last one. At least FIFA’s famed Technical Study Group were able to offer some valuable insights in the “Technical and Tactical Analysis” section though, right? Wrong. Instead we get gems like “The most successful teams also boasted fast, tricky attackers who were dangerous in front of goal.” Imagine that. But by far the most worrying thing in the document is FIFA’s penchant for self-glorification. The first thing pointed out in the “Trends” chapter is: Thanks to FIFA's development programmes, which were launched by then FIFA Technical Director Joseph S. Blatter in 1975 before being expanded upon by the confederations and associations, there are no longer any "small" or "weak" national teams. The adidas Jabulani matchball is not mentioned, despite being an obvious contributory factor to several events, including about half of Diego Forlan’s goals, and the “Refereeing Report” basically praises the physical conditioning and training that FIFA gave the referees. It does contain one paragraph acknowledging that refereeing errors were made, but seemingly only so FIFA can make excuses and reassure us that solutions are being worked on: It is clear that errors – some of them serious – did occur in the hundreds of often very difficult decisions taken over the 64 matches. These errors are neither covered up nor justified but are meticulously analysed to learn from them and improve future training plans. The challenge is to work towards improvements. The most disappointing this is that this report is basically a sales brochure. As if FIFA are trying to sell us a timeshare in Brazil for 2014. FIFA needs to realize that it’s OK. That we don’t need any convincing. That despite their multiple errors we still want them to arrange future World Cups, if only because no one else is capable of doing so.

Jogi Loew Gives Ballack Captaincy, Then Slyly Passes It To Lahm Posted: 02 Sep 2010 09:30 AM PDT The German captaincy saga, threatening to derail a nation if simply through the wrath of Michael Ballack, will not be allowed its due end, though Jogi may be trying. Jogi has declared that Michael Ballack is very much Germany’s captain, which would normally put the kibosh on matters. However, he hasn’t been called up and has declared that if he is called up in the future, his place on the pitch will be occupied by someone else. So Ballack’s the captain, but Lahm’s the captain. Sounds about right. “I have decided that Michael Ballack will continue being the captain of our team,” the Germany coach, Joachim Löw, said ahead of their first Euro 2012 qualifier against Belgium in Brussels on Friday. “But I told him that as things stand today I do not see him being able to help the team [after his recent injury].” Löw said Bastian Schweinsteiger and Sami Khedira had secured their starting spots in midfield after a superb World Cup and that Ballack would have to return to top form to win a place in the team. “We will see what the situation is in the coming weeks. I will monitor his development and in October I will decide whether I will boost the squad with him,” said Löw, adding that Lahm would remain captain when Ballack was not on the pitch. Philipp Lahm is said to have “brushed off” the snub, but what snub is it really? He’s captain and he knows it, with Khedira and Schweini going in one direction (the right one) and Michael Ballack going in the other (the one which has a player going from Chelsea to shipping six goals to Borussia Mochengladback over the span of three months). This isn’t exactly the normal situation of “Player X is returning from injury” – Germany showed no need for Ballack in the near or distant future this summer. The whole thing has a sense that Jogi has just delayed the inevitable, amounting to a nuclear World War III with Ballack’s two-fer wrath coming in October.

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