Crunch
time has come for national teams wishing to qualify for the World Cup that is
slowly creeping up on us. Qualifying is an interesting process. We take the
first few games our nations play lightly, knowing that the next World Cup is
still some 3 years away and these first games are not really important; a tune
up if you will after a long(and short) World Cup. Then, suddenly, we are
staring qualification (or elimination for that matter) square in the teeth and
we start wondering about the team sheets the managers are posting, we hastily
compute what games we have to win and which ones we can afford to tie, and how
many goals we have to score to progress to the next round of qualifying. It
becomes a veritable game of Russian roulette (how about those Russians!); never knowing who is going to be
injured when, clubs having as much say as they can in whether or not their
players are “fit” enough to report to the national camps, wondering if your
nation’s “Messi” is going to repeat his club form on the national level (which he did, by the way), and if
you are going to have a French-style implosion when things aren't going your
way. I have a couple thoughts on these issues as they stand right now (because
they change all too quickly, right?)
The Invincible Spaniards
Spain.
Oh, Spain. The Spain who can scythe through defenses with the flick of a boot,
turns out to be the same Spain that can only accidentally score more than one
goal per game. What’s the deal? We have a treble nation, the first nation to
win the Euros, World Cup, and Euros consecutively, a nation that finally broke
the curse that England is still suffering from, a team that seems invincible….
And that is where we find the problem. Invincibility always seems to be ever so
ironic. It can become your own downfall. Consider Barcelona in last year’s
Champions League Semi-final. Everyone (and I mean everyone) knew, whether they
wanted to admit it or not, that mighty, invincible, Barcelona was going to be
too much for brave little Chelsea; and then everyone stood dumbfounded as
Chelsea won the first game, and scored two goals with a man down at the NouCamp. Similarly, at the FIFA Confederations Cup in 2009, everyone knew that
Spain would be too much for brave little USA, whose run had been heroic, to
handle. Then, USA won. Every team has cracks (Spain's defense…), some much
smaller than others, and some not discernible to the naked eye, but they are
there, if for no other reason than that a team cracks itself. Spain showed this
by giving up a last-gasp tying goal against France on Tuesday. I have yet to
see a team that lacks these cracks. Spain and Barcelona may be the closest at
this point to eradicating them, but, then again, that’s when you are most
vulnerable.
Our Procrastinating Nation
We move
across the lake to the United States, who always seem to come through when it
matters and when you least expect it, and then again, never seem to come
through when it matters and when you least expect it. Yes, we made it to the
Hexagonal. Yes, we showed the same clinical style to beat Guatemala as we did
to get to the round of 16 in the 2010 World Cup. But it’s how we got to that
point that deserves the talking. If we had won the games that we had every
right to win earlier in the qualifying rounds, such as against Jamaica and
Guatemala, we wouldn’t have been put in a win or die situation. Then again,
perhaps I shouldn’t complain about being put in those situations, as we often
seem to come through. We came through in the Confederations Cup in 2009 after
losing to Italy and Brazil in the group stages. We came through in the WorldCup 2010 group stages after tying our first two games to beat Algeria and
progress. And we came through on Tuesday night to win the game that could have
potentially put us out of Qualifying. But I am not especially fond of this
living on the edge, as it has been known to backfire. For instance, if we had
taken the chances that we had and converted our massive advantage in possession
into goals against Ghana in the round of 16 in World Cup 2010, we would never
have found ourselves in an unpredictable extra time situation that ultimately
spelled the end of our World Cup. Consistency is the name of the game for the
United States right now if we ever want to compete at the highest level. We
have a bad habit of waiting until we see what level the opposing team is at
before we decide what level to play at ourselves, and often, although not
always, it is too late. Our big players, Bradley, Dempsey, Donovan, don’t seem
to have a problem with this concept; it is our fringe players that need to
start delivering. I realize Klinnsman is still experimenting to see what works
for him, but writing a consistent backbone of players onto the team sheet,
especially at this point in World Cup qualification, would go a long way to
cementing the consistency we desperately need to qualify and do well at World
Cup 2014.
Prediction for 2014
One
more note in closing concerning my predictions for World Cup 2014. I shouldn't even
be doing this because it is a straight shot into the foot for anyone daring
enough to make predictions concerning the outcome of the tournament in a year
and a half. But, since when have I cared about making stupid predictions? I am
all in for Spain to do well at this coming World Cup, and I think they will
have a healthy chance of winning it all, but only if they learn to unlock their
scoring, because nations are learning how to play their game. The United States
can go far but it depends on two things: they must have a favorable draw and
they MUST have Donovan, Bradley, Dempsey, and Bocanegra fit as well as an in
form striker. I will reserve my comments on England for another day, but they
have an EXCELLENT generation of youth about to break into the senior team. I don’t
know about the rest of you, but the Summer of 2014 cannot come soon enough.
Joga Bonito
Dallin Lindstrom
