by Nick Holt
Cannavaro was born in Naples and started with Napoli before moving to Parma in 1995. After seven years he made his first move to one of the wealthy powerhouse clubs, Inter, and moved on to Juve two years later. Cannavaro won two Serie A titles at Juve, but both were scratched off after the bribery scandal which saw them forcibly relegated from Serie A. Cannavaro left to join the Galacticos at Real Madrid, where he finally won a league title that he could keep. He retired in 2010 after the World Cup when it became evident he no longer had the pace to compete at the very top, but played one more year in the less demanding Emirates league.
Team of the Tournament, 2006:
Buffon (Italy)
Friedrich (Germany) Carvalho (Portugal) Cannavaro (Italy) Grosso (Italy)
Maxi Rodriguez (Argentina) Pirlo (Italy) Zidane (France) Ribéry (France)
Klose (Germany) Henry (France)
Subs: Schwarzer (Australia); Lahm (Germany);
Gattuso (Italy); Vieira (France); Saviola (Argentina)
The official team was expanded to a full squad of twenty-three so I haven’t bothered with comparisons; it included John Terry and Luis Fifo. ’Nuff said.
Heaven Eleven No.15
Mediterranean Select (Greece,
Portugal, Turkey & North Africa)
Coach:
Luiz Felipe “Big Phil” Scolari – okay, he’s Brazilian, but he coached Portugal . . .
Goalkeepers:
Ricardo (Portugal): one of the best so far this century
Antonios Nikopolidids (Greece): solid goalie at Euro 2004 and beyond
Alberto da Costa Pereira (Portugal): the first great Portuguese ’keeper after the war
Defenders:
Mário Coluna (Portugal): old-style ball-playing centre-half
Fernando Couto (Portugal): mopsy-haired central defender in the ’90s
Noureddine Naybet (Egypt): calm and consistent defender
Salem ben Miloud (Egypt): great full-back in the early years, played fifteen years for Marseille
Hatem Trabelsi (Tunisia): great attacking full-back around the turn of the 2000s
João Pinto (Portugal): great right-back for Porto and Portugal
Giourkos Seitaridis (Greece): neat full-back with the Euro-winning team
Midfield & Wide:
Luis Figo (Portugal): never quite as great as everyone wanted him to be
Lakhdar Belloumi (Algeria): exciting winger in their strong eighties team
António Simões (Portugal): left-winger who supplied bullets for Eusébio
Ali Fergani (Algeria): playmaker in the ’70s and ’80s; great passer
Jaime Graça (Portugal): creative half-back in the ’60s
Mohamed Timoumi (Morocco): exciting attacking midfielder in the ’80s World Cup team
Theo Zagorakis (Greece): the go-to guy for Greece for over a decade
Tugay Kerimoglu (Turkey): the creative spark in their greatest side
Forwards:
Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal): he’s very very good, you know
Eusébio (Portugal): oh, I say
Jose Torres (Portugal): towering presence in the ’60s
Mimis Papoiannou (Greece): great striker with strong AEK Athens side in ’70s
Lefter Küçükandonyadis (Turkey): first great Turkish player in the ’50s, and I refuse to pick the vastly over-rated Şükür
Likely first XI:
Da Costa
Joao Pinto Couto Coluna Miloud
Zagorakis Tugay
Belloumi Ronaldo Simões
Eusébio
8.4 WORLD CUP 2010
The venue for the 2010 Finals was a cert to be in Africa, in line with a FIFA policy, since revised, of rotating the hosting amongst the continental bodies. The final vote was effectively between South Africa and Morocco, as Egypt polled no votes even though their bid was never officially withdrawn. South Africa had been unlucky in losing out to Germany for the 2006 tournament, but Morocco had bid to hold the tournament on a number of occasions and lost out, so both had a strong case.
FIFA were taking a risk whichever country won. The structure for domestic football and the general transport and support infrastructure in Africa was less well established and less stable than in other parts of the world. South Africa had a handful of readymade Rugby Union grounds and some residual wealth to fall back on, while Morocco, like most North African nations, had a better-attended domestic competition, and was prepared to invest in new stadia and use the tournament to promote itself as a tourist destination and new economy. South Africa won the final vote by fourteen votes to ten. There were murmurings throughout the preparation that the stadia wouldn’t be fit for purpose and the infrastructure would not sustain a tournament of this magnitude. The South Africans bent their backs in the final stretch and delivered a tournament that was no paradigm of efficiency, but equally was not the disaster many predicted.
There were few major surprises amongst the qualifiers; the inclusion of thirty-two teams meant the chances of one of the big nations coming a cropper in qualification were significantly decreased. In Africa four out of the five top-ranked teams made the Finals. Ghana, Ivory Coast and Cameroon won their final qualifying group with something to spare, Nigeria theirs by a squeak. Nigeria were two points adrift of Tunisia with one match to go, and after eighty minutes of the last round the Super Eagles were level at 2–2 with Kenya in Nairobi while Tunisia were at 0–0 in Mozambique. A winner for Nigeria from Obafemi Martins and Dário’s goal for Mozambique decided the issue firmly in Nigeria’s favour.
Group C of the final round of African qualification was one of the most controversial in World Cup history. Egypt needed to beat their neighbours Algeria by two goals to equal their record in the group; if they won 2–0 the teams would finish with identical points and goal difference and a play-off would be needed.
Algeria arrived in Cairo two days before the game, and their bus was stoned on the way to the hotel; Algeria protested vehemently and the Egyptian press responded with accusations that much of the damage to the bus was caused by the Algerians, who were trying to escalate the significance of the incident. The game went ahead, with FIFA asking the Egyptians to guarantee the safety of the Algerian players and supporters. An early goal gave Egypt momentum, but the second, crucial goal came only after the South African referee allowed over five minutes of injury-time. In the referee’s defence Algeria had indulged in some cynical time-wasting so were hoist by their own petard. There were riots in both capitals after the match with many injuries and an awful lot of damage, and nearly 500 Algerians were arrested during disturbances in Marseilles, France.
The play-off took place in Omdurman, Northern Sudan. The neutral venue was requested by Egypt, but despite this the locals favoured Algeria and it was the Egyptian FA’s turn to cry foul about the hostility shown towards their team before the match. The game itself was less interesting; a tense affair ended 1–0 in Algeria’s favour after Antar Yahia’s fortieth-minute goal. Recriminations and disturbances followed after the game, with statements and interventions from President Bouteflika of Algeria and President Mubarak of Egypt. Sixteen months later both Presidents were under pressure after the disturbances of the so-called Arab Spring of 2011; Bouteflika survived and remains in office, but Mubarak was forced to stand down and face trial by the administration that replaced his government.
2010
SOUTH AFRICA
After a few traumas (and a couple of strikes) South Africa came up with ten grounds fit for purpose for the 2010 finals.
Johannesburg: First National Bank Stadium & Ellis Park
The FNB in Soweto is the main football stadium in South Africa and hosted ten games in the Finals, including the Final itself. The stadium is often referred to as Soccer City; it holds over 90,000 but the paying capacity for the World Cup was around 85,000.
Ellis Park was primarily a rugby union ground before the 2010 finals, and it hosted the 1995 Rugby World Cup Final won by South Africa in front of Presi
dent Mandela. It now plays home to the Orlando Pirates as well as regional rugby sides and the Springboks.
Pretoria: Loftus Versfeld Stadium
To the north of Johannesburg lies Pretoria, and the old Blue Bulls rugby stadium, the Loftus Versfeld. The ground hosted six games during the 2010 Finals, but never reached its 50,000 capacity. It is the home ground of the Mamelodi Sundowns.
Go west and you reach Rustenberg; in Phokeng nearby is the sports stadium run by the local tribal authority, the Royal Bafokeng Nation. The stadium hosted six games including England’s opener against the USA.
East of Pretoria lies Nelspruit and the built-for-purpose Mbombela Stadium, used for four group matches. The ground’s 40,000 capacity is hardly ever satisfied.
Polokwane is in the north of the country in Limpopo province and the Peter Mokaba Stadium is one of five brand new stadia built for 2010. It is now the home to the Black Leopards soccer team, but the 40,000 seater ground is rarely filled.
Bloemfontein is the capital of Free State in the centre of South Africa. The Free State Stadium was built for the 1995 Rugby World Cup and witnessed England’s humiliating defeat by Germany in the second round.
Another purpose-built stadium, the Moses Madhiba Stadium, was located in Durban (Kwa-Zulu Natal) over on the east coast of the country. The games in Durban were among the best attended with the ground nearly reaching its 62,000 capacity for all six matches, which included the Spain versus Germany semi-final.
In the far south-west wealthy Cape Town built itself a brand new football ground on the site of the old Green Point Stadium. The Cape Town Stadium hosted eight matches including one in each knockout stage up to the semi-finals. The city uses the ground for its local team, Ajax Cape Town, and for some huge rock concerts.
Along the coast in Port Elizabeth another new stadium sprung up, the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, which now houses the Southern Kings super rugby franchise as well as hosting concerts and events.
In Asia, North and South Korea managed to play each other twice without triggering a diplomatic incident, and both qualified for the Finals, as, predictably, did Japan and Australia. Saudi Arabia suffered some tough luck; they were pipped in their final group on goal difference by North Korea, and then beaten over two legs by Bahrain for the right to play the Oceania winners, New Zealand. There was only one goal in three hours of football between Bahrain and New Zealand and it came from Plymouth Argyle’s Rory Fallon for the Kiwis.
The United States and Mexico qualified in the CONCACAF section, and Costa Rica were set to join them until four minutes into injury-time in their last match in Washington, DC. Jonathon Bornstein’s late equaliser for the Americans meant two first-half goals from Bryan Ruiz were in vain and Honduras’s win in El Salvador meant they sneaked past Costa Rica on goal difference.
This setback condemned Costa Rica to a play-off against Uruguay, fifth in the South American round robin. A good away win for Uruguay was followed by a 1–1 draw in a foggy Montevideo; Costa Rica protested but the better team qualified.
The battle for the last couple of places in the CONMEBOL section was complicated. From around the midway point (it’s a long drawn-out affair in South America, each team play eighteen matches) three teams, Brazil, Chile and Paraguay, pulled away from the rest. Argentina, comfortable at halfway, were in trouble after a humiliating 6–1 defeat away to Bolivia and three consecutive defeats to Ecuador, Brazil and Paraguay. With two games to go qualification was on a knife-edge; Ecuador were a point ahead and Venezuela, Uruguay and Colombia in close attendance. Maradona’s selections were becoming increasingly bizarre and paranoid, and he was ridiculed at home and abroad when he selected the thirty-six-year-old Boca Juniors striker Martin Palermo in his squad for the game against Peru. When Peru scored with a minute to go to make the game 1–1 Argentina looked shot, but Palermo’s last-gasp winner and defeats for Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador gave them a reprieve. Maradona’s extraordinary rant to the media seemed to imply that they should trust in his genius and that his decision to pick Palermo was utterly vindicated. Actually they had scraped a win against the bottom team in the group and the decision to select Palermo ahead of Tévez or Agüero was borderline insane. Uruguay had won late as well, Forlán’s injury-time penalty giving them a 2–1 win in Quito against Ecuador.
Effectively Uruguay versus Argentina in Montevideo was a showdown for the last qualifying spot. The game was predictably rough, and Argentina needed another late goal from a controversial selection, Mario Bolatti, on loan at Huracán, as well as two red cards for their opponents, also both late in the game. Uruguay survived to fight another day; Argentina qualified despite having no idea who should be in their best eleven, and no idea how to get the most out of the world’s best player, Lionel Messi.
In Europe five of the top teams qualified without any fuss. Spain and Holland won every match, Germany and Italy were unbeaten and England lost in the Ukraine but won all their other nine matches, including a very satisfying 4–1 away win in Zagreb over Croatia, the team that denied them a place in the 2008 European Championship Finals. The game saw the emergence of Theo Walcott, who scored a hat-trick, as a potential superstar. Sadly we’re still talking about what Walcott could achieve rather than celebrating a superstar. Wayne Rooney, too, was playing like a genuine top-class international striker, and scored nine goals in qualifying.
In two of these strong groups Wales and Scotland barely flickered, winning games only against low-ranked sides and playing no part in the shake-up. Ireland did better, finishing second to Italy without losing a game, but they too had cause for concern, beating only Cyprus and Georgia and failing to score in two matches against Montenegro.
Greece’s win at Euro 2004 earned them a seeded place and an absurd group containing only Switzerland as a genuine threat. Switzerland started really badly, surrendering a two-goal lead away to Israel and then losing calamitously at home to Luxembourg. This was only Luxembourg’s third-ever win in a World Cup qualifier, their first for thirty-five years and their first away from home. It was a rotten start for new coach Ottmar Hitzfeld, dual Champions League winner with Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich, but he soon whipped them into shape and home and away wins against Greece were enough for them to top the group and send the Greeks to the play-offs.
In Group 1, a tough section, Denmark started well and just about held on. A goal from Jakob Poulsen in a 1–0 win over Sweden in Copenhagen was crucial for the Danes, while a home draw with Albania cost Portugal and meant they would have to try again in the play-offs. Drawing games they ought to have won consigned France to the same fate. They took four points off Serbia but lost in Vienna and drew twice with Romania; the Serbs could afford to lose their last match in Lithuania and still top the group.
The Czech Republic were grouped with their former state-mates Slovakia, Slovenia and Poland, with Northern Ireland and San Marino along for the ride. In the event Northern Ireland did rather well and were in contention until a home defeat to Slovakia. The Czechs and the Poles looked a shadow of earlier teams and it was Slovakia and Slovenia who slugged it out for top spot. Slovenia beat their rivals home and away but their away form was ordinary and a win in Chorzów, Poland in their final game clinched a first Finals spot for Slovakia.
In the play-offs Portugal had the easiest passage, beating Bosnia-Herzegovina 1–0 home and away, while Greece sneaked a win in Ukraine after being held at home. It was a typically obdurate defensive performance and a goal by the Panathinaikos winger Salpingidis was enough.
Russia looked in control of their tie against Slovenia after two goals from Everton’s Dimitar Bilyaletdinov gave them a two-goal cushion, but a late goal from Pecnik suddenly made the second tie much trickier. Zlatko Dedic’s goal in the second leg put a strong Russian side out and ended Guus Hiddink’s run of taking teams to the Finals. It was a disappointing end to his tenure; the Russians looked a gifted side in the 2008 European Championships where they reached the semi-finals.
The mo
st controversial tie was the one between Ireland and France. It was a tough draw for Ireland; France were the strongest of the sides in the play-offs, and when Nicolas Anelka’s goal gave them a win in Dublin it looked like the end of the road for Trappatoni’s Ireland team. A good Robbie Keane finish (what will they do for goals when he finally quits?) and a stubborn rearguard performance orchestrated by Richard Dunne took the tie into extra-time in Paris. Ireland looked the likelier winners until a piece of uncharacteristic chicanery from Thierry Henry turned the game. Henry kept a bouncing ball in play on the wing with his hand and ran on to cross to an unmarked William Gallas. It was cruel on Ireland and left a sour taste, and it tarnished Henry’s image in the British Isles irreparably, but it wasn’t worthy of the yards of print it was afforded in the British and Irish media.
Favourites? Spain, unquestionably, with Holland looking the next best of the European sides. Of the South American qualifiers Argentina had the most talent, but also the indeterminable Maradona factor – would he be an inspiration or a hindrance? Brazil can never be discounted at a World Cup, and some whispered about how strong Ghana and the Ivory Coast looked in qualification.
GROUP A
South Africa were realistic about their chances, they knew they were not a good side, but being drawn with an out-of-sorts French side who were lucky to be there, a Uruguay team that also scraped through qualifying and perennial also-rans Mexico gave some cause for hope.
The first two games were drawn, one a reasonably open game that saw Mexico’s captain Marquez cancel out Tshabalala’s excellent strike from a lethal South African break. The other match was a dull affair that saw Uruguay comfortably hold an unimaginative French team, despite going down to ten men for the last ten minutes. The games introduced the watching TV audiences to the vuvuzela, a cheap African instrument that produces a sound not dissimilar to a comb and paper, for those old enough to remember granddad’s idea of Christmas entertainment. A couple of thousand of these plastic horns produced a migraine-inducing buzz around the stadium. I think I preferred the Mexican wave.