It's all gone a little bit flat
Cristiano Ronaldo: He believes he can fly
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Ok so England went out at the quarter-final stage of a major competition. |  |
Tuesday, 06, Jun 2006 01:17
The World Cup appears to have lost a little of its fizz in the last few days. Not that it was exactly vintage champagne in the first place.
Despite the fillip of a decent semi-final between Germany and Italy (although it was not the rare classic that Clive Tyldesley and David Pleat would have had us believe on ITV) the tournament is not likely to go down in history as one of the best.
There have been no real stars, too many big fish underperforming and a deeply worrying movement towards playacting.
The latter has been widely documented, with players like Thierry Henry, who has shown little desire to feign injury in the Premiership, also jumping on the diving bandwagon driven around Germany by Cristiano Ronaldo and co.
It's a dangerous trend and Fifa has to crack down on it as soon as possible or run the risk of losing the dignity of the game permanently.
But diving is not new, as Rivaldo's disgraceful antics in the last World Cup are testament to, and has not led to previous tournaments falling as flat as this one is in danger of doing.
Should Italy and France put on a show on Sunday then there is still a chance that Germany 2006 will be seen as a success, but the stats suggest that will merely be a gloss on an otherwise dull tournament.
Let us look at the knockout stages. Take away the penalties and extra-time strikes and there have only been 18 goals in 14 games, and that includes two one-sided games (Ukraine's capitulation against Italy and Brazil's win over Ghana) which both ended 3-0.
That hardly suggests a stream of scintillating clashes between the best teams in the world and anyone who witnessed the dire 0-0 draw between Switzerland and Ukraine in the second round would certainly empathise with that view.
There have also only been a smattering of really close, intense encounters - most of which occurred in the early stages. Think Ivory Coast's three group games, Australia v Croatia, England v Sweden and a handful of others.
Portugal moved within a whisker of the final without looking as if they knew how to score and France made it all the way with a team that is not as good as it was when dumped out in the first round in 2002.
England never got going, Argentina flattered to deceive and Brazil seemed to believe their own hype and their limp exit to the French was as muted a defeat as the South Americans have experienced in many years.
Indeed, the teams that really threatened to set the tournament alight, Spain and Australia, went out in the last 16 stage, thus robbing the tournament of some much needed interest.
Had it not been for the host nation, whose attacking football and sheer determination to prove their numerous critics wrong was a shining light, and a few intriguing side stories about minnows Ghana, Australia and Trinidad and Tobago, then there really would not have been an awful lot to shout about at all.
Perhaps this is a little harsh. After all the World Cup can never really live up to the build-up it now gets, but that is the general feeling left by such a drab last few games.
Players like Ronaldinho, Frank Lampard and Andriy Shevchenko did not shine as they do week in, week out for their clubs and there are few stories to tell the grandchildren about this one.
Are we asking too much of such players? Has the passion gone because of their obscene paycheques? Does the threat of going out lead teams to play more negatively? Are there just too many European teams making it to the latter stages?
These are questions that those better qualified than me should try to answer, but they need to address them quickly.
Football is in danger of becoming a sport that is losing its sense of reality, losing its passion and, eventually, losing its supporters.
But it also still a beautiful game that transcends class divides and nationality like no other. Let's keep it that way and make South Africa 2010 a tournament to remember.
Martin Ashplant