Pete Barrow: Looking out for No. 1
Dec 11 2009 by Peter Barrow, Huddersfield Daily Examiner
NEVER have so many football pundits contradicted themselves so often in such a short space of time.
Last week’s World Cup draw in Cape Town caused consternation for just about every ex-player, former manager and broadcaster asked to react to England’s group after they had drawn Algeria, Slovenia and USA.
If ever there was a honey trap this was it.
If there was one pundit who didn’t follow comments such as ‘There are no easy games at this level’, ‘England cannot afford to be complacent’ and ‘It looks a good draw but the games have to be won’ some 30 seconds later with ‘And we will play Spain/Germany/Brazil in the final’ then I would struggle to name him.
Sure, it is a favourable draw and England should make good progress in the tournament, but perhaps the one thing in our favour as the nation suffers another bout of premature elation is that we have an Italian at the helm.
I cannot see Fabio Capello being drawn into self-congratulatory euphoria that was bandied about in the red tops after film actress Charlize Theron showed that she was a decent ball handler – a draw that prompted the Sun to run the headline England, Algeria, Slovenia, Yanks so the capital letters read EASY.
England followers at times seem to suffer from something of a selective memory.
In Mexico in 1986 apparently it was the hand of a short tubby Argentine that wrecked our World Cup hopes – forgetting that we barely came through the group stage finishing in second place behind those giants Morocco (with whom we drew 0-0) and having lost to a Portugal side who at the time were pretty much pants.
In Italy in 1990 it was Chris Waddle’s attempt to hit row Z of the Stadio delle Alpi in Turin in a penalty shootout that killed off the chance to play in the final – forgetting our passage through the group stage was only achieved with a 1-0 win over minnows Egypt after draws with a fairly decent Irish side and a poor Dutch outfit.
To be fair the group stage is just about qualifying – ask the Italians who are past masters at leaving the best until last in these tournaments – but over-confidence can kill.
Just remember the words of the Great Prophet Ally.
Heading to Argentina in 1978 to play in a group against the admittedly stylish Dutch, an ageing Peruvian side and rank outsiders Iran, Scotland boss Ally MacLeod predicted his side would ‘come home with a medal’ and asked what he would do after the World Cup he said ‘retain it’.
Instead they were walloped 3-1 by the South American veterans – a game in which Don Masson apparently couldn’t bear to watch a crucial penalty for the Tartan army, sadly he was taking it.
They then managed a 1-1 draw with Iran with the Scots’ goal coming from Iskandarian, who put through his own net but it is rumoured that Ally was so befuddled by this stage that he could easily have been convinced that he had selected him for the tournament from Forres Mechanics.
But the navy shirts rounded off their failure of a tournament with a 3-2 win over the one side who really should have ripped MacLeod’s side to bits.
Surely one of the main reasons we love football is the unpredictability of it all – if you need to dampen your enthusiasm further just Google the name Joseph Edouard Gaetjens!
