World Cup 2010 Blog: “Arjen Robben’s Hakbal Injury” plus 3 more

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• Arjen Robben’s Hakbal Injury
• Jabulani Gets Some Love at Last
• Europe’s Big Leagues Fuel World Cup Squads
• Soundoff: Your World Cup Group E Predictions…

Arjen Robben’s Hakbal Injury Posted: 07 Jun 2010 05:59 AM PDT The infamous World Cup curse/string of unrelated injuries struck again this weekend. Netherlands winger Arjen Robben came on as a halftime substitute in his team’s 6-1 World Cup warm up win over Hungary and scored twice, but then limped off towards the end after tearing his left hamstring while attempting a backheel. Robben is not out of the tournament. But even with what’s been diagnosed as only a small hamstring tear, he can’t possibly make any of the Netherlands early games. Video of Robben’s ill fated backheel below… Netherlands coach Bert van Marwijk was not a happy chappy. “My first thought was ‘this can’t be true, the end of the final warmup match, everyone is fit and then this.’ ” Also not happy, these sock puppets: I have no idea what they’re saying, but I know that “Robben” = Robben, “Oranje” = the Netherlands national team, and “Hakbal” = backheel. Can any Dutch speakers out there translate? I’m not sure if the beginning of the following clip from Dutch TV show Studio Voetbal is meant to be mean or just illustrative, but it does prove that any talk of a World Cup injury curse ignores the fact that Robben having hamstring trouble is not exactly new. That video also features a phone interview with Robben himself during which he apparently says: “Today I had the scan and it’s just a small tear in my left hamstring. It’s the first time I have a injury on that spot of my leg. The last 24 hours I have had so much support from all the people around me and that had an positive effect on me. “After the injury I went to the locker room for a first diagnosis which was very difficult. But it was clear that it wasn’t good because I had a lot of pain. If I just let it heal than I’m back on the field in four to six weeks, but we don’t have so much time. (Long-time physio) Dick van Toorn is going to help me. Tomorrow morning I’ll meet him and we’re going to work incredibly hard. I’m going to fight till I drop.” Fingers crossed we see Arjen Robben play in the World Cup this year, but fingers double crossed that we don’t see a still injured Arjen Robben limping around in South Africa field when he should clearly be at home resting his hammy. - More Oranje at Netherlands World Cup Blog

Jabulani Gets Some Love at Last Posted: 06 Jun 2010 03:22 PM PDT It have been a tough few weeks for the official World Cup ball. While his predecessors had already gotten the routine thumbs down from goalkeepers, Jabulani appeared to receive universal disapproval, with players and coaches joining the negative chorus. Swimming against the current is Brazilian midfielder Kaka, who defended the ball during a recent press conference of the Brazilian national team. After being handed the ball by a reporter, he made his sponsor adidas even happier by kissing the ball (2m10s into the video). Here’s what he had to say: “I’m not going to criticise the Cup ball. Everything that’s new, new technology, makes a different impression. At first, opinions were critical, but who knows if that won’t change during the World Cup. The World Cup has great intensity, so this whole controversy is created around the ball during the first week but now everyone’s more adapted (to it). (…) Now I see Luis Fabiano kissing the ball and Julio Cesar embracing it.” A ball qualifies as new technology these days apparently. Meanwhile, the man who developed the ball for adidas, Dr Andy Harland from the Loughborough University's Sports Technology Institute, took a stand as well, or rather he simply redirected the blame: “I've seen nothing that's concerned me. This ball has been around since December and been used since then around the world with very few comments. Teams have gone to altitude and you've seen comments come out in those circumstances. We've said all along it would affect the ball but whichever ball you play with at altitude will be affected. There are no secrets about this ball.” So, it’s not the ball, it’s the altitude that sucks.

Europe’s Big Leagues Fuel World Cup Squads Posted: 06 Jun 2010 12:38 PM PDT More than half, or to be precise, 386 out of all 736 players in this year’s World Cup – plus/minus your daily injury victim – ply their trade in one of Europe’s five big leagues; up from 346 in 2006. The Premier League leads the way by some distance, providing 118 players (up from 103 in 2006), followed by the Bundesliga with 84 (75), Serie A with 80 (61), La Liga with 59 (51) and Ligue 1 with 45 (56). The relations stay roughly the same when you only count the foreign players, who play in those leagues. Do those numbers allow for some conclusions in the ever popular my-league-is-better-than-yours game? Probably not. The numbers seem to simply correlate with the amount of foreigners, who play in the respective leagues. The average Premier League squad includes 64,2% foreign players, compared to 48,9% (Bundesliga), 43,3% (Serie A), 42,4% (Ligue 1) and 35,1% (La Liga). To conclude this little numbers game: England, Italy and Germany are the only countries who recruit all 23 players from their domestic leagues only. Although in case of England and Germany, injuries to David Beckham and Michael Ballack contributed to this result. Nigeria, on the other hand, relies solely on players, who play outside their country, closely followed by Ivory Coast and Cameroon with 22 foreign based players and Australia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Uruguay with 21. FC Barcelona will be the club with the most players in World Cup action with 13. A title that would have been Chelsea’s, if it hadn’t been for the club’s strange injury curse. Chelsea are second with 12 players, but could be down to 11, should Didier Drogba be ruled out for the whole tournament.

Soundoff: Your World Cup Group E Predictions… Posted: 06 Jun 2010 06:49 AM PDT Moving through the groups at a pace now, and we find ourselves in Group E. Time to put our necks out and say who we think is going to get through this one. I haven’t been finding it too easy to rank the teams in each group from 1-4, and E is not really an exception. This group finds Holland, Denmark, Japan and Cameroon together. Four teams with a varied, but rich history in International football. And of course, this group might have got that little bit closer with the news that Arjen Robben, possibly Oranje’s best player limped off in a warm up match. He’s having a scan tomorrow, which makes doing predictions today somewhat trickier. But I’m going ahead anyway. Because regardless, I think Holland will win the group. Even if they go into the group stages without Robben, they still have a wealth of absolutely quality attacking options, and Dirk Kuyt. They don’t look as strong at the back (despite a deceptive qualifying run), which I think makes them Dark Horses rather than Tournament favourites, but pre-Robben’s hamstring I was tipping them to go to the last four. Its a bit trickier putting the rest in order. Denmark won their qualifying group, which was, on paper a really tough one. Sweden and Portugal were also in their group, but the Swedes seem to have lost the power they had a few years ago, despite Zlatan’s magic, and Portugal never looked particularly convincing regardless of the fact they have Ronaldo in their side. So them winning that qualifying group is not, for me, as convincing as it seems. Cameroon lit the fuse for African football back in 1990, when Roger Milla and co captured the imagination of the world, but they’ve had a pretty miserable time since, and they didn’t even qualify for the 2006 World Cup. They also only made the Quarter Finals of the 2010 African Cup of Nations. But one African Team is going to get into the knockout stages, I just feel it. I love Japan. I really enjoyed the show they put on with South Korea in 2002, And I love that their fans get into the spirit of Second Teams and continue to love the tournament even after their country has exited. Clearly, they love their football. The fans have had plenty of time to watch their team this year – they’ve played 10 friendlies since January. They have had really mixed results, and though they look organised, they don’t seem to take to pressure that well. So bearing that in mind, I’m going to say Holland Cameroon Japan Denmark I think. I’m not very confident, and I’m not a betting man. But lets hear your predictions, how do you see Group E finishing?

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World Cup 2010 Blog: “Referees at Work (and in Private)” plus 3 more

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• Referees at Work (and in Private)
• 2010 World Cup Curse: Who broke out the voodoo doll?
• Soundoff: What’s Your Lucky Ritual Before World Cup Matches?
• Can Bielsa’s Chile Accomplish what his Argentina Couldn’t in 2002?

Referees at Work (and in Private) Posted: 05 Jun 2010 05:39 PM PDT In about a week, and once the first controversial call has been made, googling a referee’s home address, scouting the area with streetview, writing death threats and painting little Hitler mustaches on his face will become one of the Internets favorite past times. Carrying out these hate and anger filled tasks is of course much easier, when you emotionally distance yourself from your target as much as possible. Which isn’t that difficult, as referees are usually presented to us as rather flat anonymous characters, who are just getting in the way of enjoying a football match. Giving a more in-depth and balanced insight into the work of referees and their private lives with friends and family, is the documentary feature Les Arbitres (The Referees – or Referees at Work/Kill the Referee) by French filmmakers Yves Hinant and Jean Libon. A film crew followed a couple of referees and their families around during the European Championships in Austria and Switzerland. Thanks to the support of UEFA, the film makers were also given access to the recorded headset conversations between the referees during a match. So, what do we learn from the documentary? As the above clip shows, we learn that Italian referee Roberto Rossetti doesn’t like all the gesturing of Greek midfielder Karagounis. We also learn that the role of the fourth official is really only to try to distract the referee with useless small talk about the weather. They can’t count down to zero properly either. A larger part of the movie is dedicated to English referee Howard Webb, whose officiating of the Austria – Poland group stage match wasn’t particularly well received by Polish fans – to put it mildly – and who was subsequently given the standard Internet treatment. We meet his family, see a debriefing by UEFA and their analysis of the mistakes and are generally given a feel for some of the things that take place behind the scenes during a major tournament. And without spoiling too much, Peter Fröjdfeldt is the Matthew McConaughey of referees. Les Arbitres has toured a couple of film festivals so far. I haven’t yet read anything about a potential date for an English DVD/BD, but it has been released on DVD in Germany in time for the World Cup. As part of the launch PR, the German video portal MyVideo is streaming the documentary online. As a lot of the action centers around Howard Webb, it’s in English for the most part. The more Italian, French and to some extent Spanish classes you took at school the better. I think English + Italian will allow you to watch 90% of the movie. Otherwise you may need to type some German subtitles into Google Translate. Every ten minutes, the site will interrupt the movie to try and sell you a Toshiba TV, promising you your money back, should Germany win the World Cup, but I think it’s still worth taking a sneak peak. Referees at Work (German subtitles)

2010 World Cup Curse: Who broke out the voodoo doll? Posted: 05 Jun 2010 12:00 PM PDT Who is playing Voodoo on the World Cup’s stars? While rumors of looming disaster in South Africa have been swirling around for a few years, rumors of the World Cup being cursed are running amok in both the blogosphere and in twitterland as the sport’s biggest stars are dropping like flies before the tournament has even begun!  The alleged cause of the bad luck ranges from an Irish-hex to a fashion disaster with unexpected consequences.  So, dear readers, which theory (or theories) do you subscribe to? Options below the jump… Several players who recently received some very dissapointing news  took part in a photospread in Vanity Fair.  Brazil’s Alexandro Pato didn’t even make the final squad, Drogba fractured his elbow and is likely out of  the World Cup and Muntari was rumored to have gone AWOL for a few hours recently.  The shoot – a clear fashion disaster (Landon Donovan was wearing underwear ON HIS HEAD, need I say more?)- appears to have been a disastrous choice for their careers as well.  (Credit to Laurie from Seattle Offside for this one!) Or perhaps, its not just the Vanity Fair shoot, but all players who dared to become a covermodel for the tournament.  ESPN’s latest cover featured Giuseppe Rossi…who failed to make the Italian team last week. Another theory is the curse of the English Premiere League.  Ballack, Drogba, Ferdinand, Jon Obi Mikel and Essien all play for English clubs…and as the World Cup Blog pointed out on twitter, all of them except Rio play for Chelsea.  What exactly was the price of Chelsea’s title this season?  Apparently, a chance for Germany, England, the Ivory Coast or Ghana to win the World Cup!  I guess Rio was just collateral damage… Or perhaps you prefer to take the Dirty Tackle approach and blame it all on the French… So if the World Cup is cursed, what (or who) do you think is to blame?  And what’s Pirlo’s excuse?

Soundoff: What’s Your Lucky Ritual Before World Cup Matches? Posted: 05 Jun 2010 11:08 AM PDT Luck does not exist. As a rational person, I know this. The world is, as I see it, a mess of chaos and randomness, one person’s choices affecting everyone else’s choices until the whole world is just a mess of chaos, that naturally we try to sense some order in. But with Football…I can’t take football rationally. And so Luck seems to play a massive, massive part in the way my teams play, and I act entirely irrationally. I think it started when I watched football at club level – the first game I ever went to see my team play, they lost. And then they lost the following 8 home matches in which I was in attendance. My friends lost patience with me, announced I was a jinx, and I was never invited to watch a game with them again. I watched the next game in different company, in a different stand, and they won. This belief in the entirely silly desire to believe something I do has an influence on my team reared its ugly head again recently. I bought a 1982 England Replica Shirt (i’m not old enough to remember 1982, I Just like the shirt) and wore it as England beat Mexico in a recent friendly. England then took on Japan, and as England were wearing Red, I put on my World Cup 2002 Red England shirt. England were losing at half time, so disgusted, I switched shirt to the 1982 Home shirt. England won 2-1. So obviously, I’m going to wear that 1982 shirt until England lose again. For games where England play in Red, I’m going to switch to the current away shirt, in the hope that’ll be lucky. I know it makes absolutely no sense. Obviously what shirt I wear has no influence on the game. My rational mind tells me this. And yet, when I’m watching I still follow these odd rituals when they come up (I’ve still never watched another game in the stand where I watched my club team lose those opening matches) and I can’t resist them – I don’t want to tempt fate and feel somehow responsible. So, what I want to know is what you’ll be doing before your countries games. Is there a lucky shirt, or lucky socks, or a record you have to listen to before the game?

Can Bielsa’s Chile Accomplish what his Argentina Couldn’t in 2002? Posted: 05 Jun 2010 01:18 AM PDT Marcelo Bielsa may never be forgiven by Argentina fans for crashing out of the 2002 World Cup in the first round.  His Argentine team were considered favorites after winning the CONMEBOL regional qualifiers, but couldn’t get past either England or Sweden in the group stage.  In hindsight, his tactics (once praised) were dubbed too inflexible, predictable and stifling to talented individual players who required freedom to display their talent.  The team showed up to the tournament exhausted, with many players struggling with injuries.  The conditioning and preparation for the tournament was brutal, appearing to overwork the players who were already fatigued from their club obligations.  For Bielsa, success is attained through hardwork, obsessive attention to detail and repetition- and each of his carefully designed coaching methods is based on this philosophy.  Though Bielsa left Argentina in 2004 (with an Olympic Gold medal), his methods and philosophy don’t appear to have changed in his tenure with the Chilean Federation.  Of course, the million dollar question is if Bielsa’s methods can help Chile pull off what an “invincible” Argentina side could not in 2002? Chile vs. Argentina Chile and Argentina share a lot of similarities:  they are both South American, share a the 3rd longest international border in the world and have extensive economic, military and diplomatic ties.  But, in terms of football- the two nations don’t share much.  The Argentines have been spoiled by their extensive history of success both at the international and club level- so extensive in fact, it required two posts for Daryl to recite it all.  Argentina are about to make their 20th total and 10th consecutive appearance at the World Cup finals.  This will only be Chile’s 8th time qualifying for the tournament in their history and they didn’t record a single win in four of their participating years.  Argentina reached four World Cup finals and won twice before Chile ever made it out of the group stage in a World Cup they weren’t hosting in 1998 (previously, they placed third as the tournament host in 1962).  The Argentinean squad is filled with star players like Messi, Aguero, Mascherano, Tevez, Higuain…the list goes on.  The Chileans are undoubtedly a talented group, but remain players on the cusp of greatness and fame…thus, largely unfamiliar to casual fans of the game. Given, this pretty significant gap in the pool of talent and World Cup legacy- no one though Chile would be able to overcome their regional rivals.  Especially since at the time of the encounter, Chile had only won 5 of the last 77 matches between the two.  But Chile managed to pull off the shock win.  And they did it with class and style.  Argentina certainly didn’t play well that game – but that shouldn’t take anything away from the focused, disciplined performance by Chile.  I had a hard time finding full highlights, but here is a video of Chile’s game winning goal. After losing to Chile, Argentina made drastic moves.  Perhaps missing some of Bielsa’s colorful habits and opinions, they fired Alfio Basile and hired Diego Maradona to lead Argentina to the World Cup. While Diego did little to steady the ship, Argentina eventually succeeded in qualifying for South Africa after enduring a very rocky campaign.  Chile, on the other hand, seemed to be inspired by the victory.  They followed up the win with subsequent wins over Peru, Paraguay, Bolivia, Colombia and Ecuador.  Even though they only managed a draw with Uruguay and lost badly to Brazil (4-2), Chile surprised everyone by qualifying as second behind Brazil in the CONMEBOL region. Unorthodox Methods To achieve this feat, Bielsa instituted some radical and unorthodox policies which are familiar from his days coaching the Argentina dream team.  Described as a “tortured intellectual,” he once told a player “While you are sleeping, I am thinking of ways for the team to win.”  He is obsessive to a fault with a clear strategic vision of what he wants his team to produce on the field.  It is said that he makes his teams watch endless hours of video and film (that he has personally edited) on the opposing team’s tactics to analyze, dissect and pick apart the flaws and cracks to exploit.  Plus the additional hours of footage of Chile’s own games.  For a description of his editing technique that is so obsessive it seems like Bielsa wrote it himself, see this Guardian article written on him in 2002. Every decision he makes is based on his precise understanding of the game’s conditions- he is known to measure the length of the field to determine the team’s formation and to hold separate practices for each field position (strikers, midfield, defenders).  It’s not wonder why he is (affectionately) known as “Loco” Bielsa. Though he has endeared himself to the Chilean public, he remains a cold figure that is fiercely protective of his private life- aloof to his players and the media alike.  His distaste for exclusive interviews is widely known- instead, he prefers to speak to journalists in public press conferences.  But critiques of being inaccessible are unfair as he is known to field every question in the room…even if that requires a 5 hour press conference. But, can the results be different if the build-up is the same? So despite having endured a terrible result in 2002, Bielsa has clearly remained loyal to the methods which initially led Argentina to their successful campaign to qualify for the Korea/Japan edition of the World Cup.  Last week, he even arranged for his team to participate in two friendlies…on the same day. The physical preparation for the Chilean team is rumored to be intense.  It has to be for the players to have the endurance to execute Bielsa’s high-energy, face paced attacking style (which also hasn’t changed much since he coached Argentina) over several matches in such a short period of time. To be honest, I’m not sure.  Last week, Chile played three friendlies in one week- including the famous aforementioned two in one day.  To their credit, they won all of them (Northern Ireland, Israel and Zambia), but Bielsa wasn’t impressed with the quality of the opposition so he penciled in some additional, intense training sessions.  And this scheduled is a pared down form of their original calendar of friendlies, many of whom were cancelled due to the earthquake Chile sustained in February 2010.  His intense schedule of workouts may be a better fit for this Chilean team than his former Argentine groups- the lack of stars means that many of his player’s season were shorter and likely to be less intense.  However, there is still a fear that perhaps history is repeating itself and Bielsa’s team may have physically peaked too soon.  In the recent friendly against Israel, the team’s talisman, Humberto Suazo (picture below), picked up a hamstring injury that is expected to make him unavailable for three weeks.  Since the injury, some media outlets have suggested that the treatment Suazo is using to accelerate his body’s healing (platelet injections) may cause him to fail a drug test if too many injections are taken. For better or for worse, Chilean fans won’t have to wait long to see how their team cope with the physical stress and loss of their key striker.  Chile are set to face Honduras in their first World Cup group match on June 16th before they face Switzerland on the 21st and Spain on the 25th.

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