A sting in the (fairy)tail
Germany has been a different place since 11.30 on Tuesday night. Just moments before Italy’s Andrea Pirlo’s exquisite pass had bisected the hitherto resilient German defence and fell to Fabio Grosso, whose stunning cross-goal curler belied the fact that it had come from a defender’s boot. A sublime goal that deservedly decided an intense, zestful semi final in Dortmund where every square inch of turf was battled for. Although Del Piero’s chipped finish from Alberto Gilardino’s reverse pass, which followed Grosso’s masterpiece, was arguably the better goal it was a cruel dagger to the already broken heart of the deflated Germans, who were just seconds away from another penalty shootout and a probable win. So my first experience of watching the hosts of this World Cup play live was a dramatic one with a bitter end for 80 million Germans.
They were justifiably convinced that after overcoming the threat of Argentina that a final berth was likely. Streets had been ringing with the chant “Berlin, Berlin, wir fahren nach Berlin” (Berlin, Berlin, we’re going to Berlin) for weeks but most people had actually started to believe the hype after the conquering of the Albiceleste. The signs had looked promising during 119 grueling minutes for Jürgen Klinsmann’s men in the fortress known as Dortmund’s Westfalenstadion. This is a stadium I know intimately from my time on its terraces supporting Borussia Dortmund but the partisan atmosphere concocted on Tuesday evening was unlike anything I have witnessed there in the Bundesliga. The whistling that developed every time the Italians even pondered about playing defensively was so shrill that I had to cover my ears at one point. Of course, the irony is that it was the Germans who seemingly settled for penalties in extra time, playing cautiously with their supreme spot kick record, as well as the Italians’ miserable one, in the back of their minds. The fox of a coach Marcello Lippi was also fully aware of the likely outcome of penalties and has to be praised for his bravery of endowing his team with four attackers, who, luckily for him, breached the German rear guard in the nick of time to produce the game’s thrilling denouement.
The scene of the crime were eerily silent after the game. Nobody was defiantly singing, no one was bemoaning the result, everyone just trudged away into the sultry night with heads bowed. It was the end of the most improbable of dreams. Klinsmann’s much maligned revolutionary approach, including American fitness coaches demanding the players drag heavy weights around the training field, days spent repairing watches and archery lessons (to aid co-ordination and concentration), had forged an enviable team spirit and culminated in a joyous World Cup for the hosts after months of dubious friendly results and ceaseless sniping at the ex-Spurs player. But now it was over, well, almost over. The hosts still had to play in tonight’s pointless third place playoff. This is not the Olympics! Despite this, Germany have performed so admirably in this World Cup that this land has experienced a new wave of patriotism. Waving the German tricolour and chanting “Deutschland, Deutschland” used to be the preserve of neo-nazis. The maxim of left-leaning Germans, in contrast, was “nie wieder Deutschland” (never again another Germany). But, the fact they were hosting the world’s biggest sporting event where all the guests were proudly decked out in their nation’s colours caused the Germans to throw off their shackles of national embaressment. I was also here two years ago whilst Euro 2004 took place and saw a mere handful of flag waving during the tournament. So things have changed a hell of a lot in the space of a couple of years. Admittedly the die hard nationalism was not quite as hysterical as in England or Holland but there is a feeling now that a major psychological barrier has been crossed.
The national fervour has naturally dampened since Tuesday’s disappointment with some of my German friends even complaining that things were “typically German” again, by this they meant people walking around with scowls on their faces. The general consensus though is that this tournament has gone a long way to restoring peoples’ pride in their country as well as providing a must needed boost (albeit short term) to their ailing economy. The competition has also radically altered the rest of the world’s (and especially England’s) perception of Germany. It is now left to time to determine if Germany’s reborn confidence and England’s revised impression of the country will endure. This may seem fanciful but then who would have predicted a few weeks ago that the World Cup final would be contested between and ageing France and a corruption scarred Italy? After a similarly miraculous turnaround in ticketing fortunes, I will actually be there! The wonders of the World Cup.
Déjà Vu
Saturday was a day when love and football collided for me and resulted in a double heartbreak. It was not only England’s final day in Germany but also that of my girlfriend who has now gone to Guatemala. Timing had it that, strangely enough, the England game would be our final rendezvous and we chose to catch the match near her house at Düsseldorf’s Paul Janes Stadion. Despite being a very modest stadium and home to third division Fortuna Düsseldorf, this was meant to be the biggest World Cup fan event outside of a host city. The arena had been sold out the previous day for Germany’s monumental win on penalties against much fancied Argentina and I was hoping for a similar showing from the England fans who had based themselves in Düsseldorf prior to the clash with the Portuguese in Gelsenkirchen. Unfortunately, the thousands of England fans who had congregated in Düsseldorf’s Altstadt on Friday night (again testing the hosts’ tolerance with boozy chants of “ten German bombers”) decided against watching the game in the city, instead opting to be closer to the action in Gelsenkirchen. This, combined with the Germans nursing collective hangovers produced a distinctly empty and subdued stadium. The 40 square metre screen was impressive, however, and was set up at one end of the stadium allowing spectators to either sit in the stands or on Fortuna’s hallowed turf. We chose a patch in the shade of a sausage stall on the grass and settled down to watch the drama.
I must say that I was not too optimistic going into the game bearing in mind Sven Goran Eriksson’s record against Phil Scolari and England’s diluted performances in this edition of the World Cup. Once again, though, England raised their game, especially when the chips were down after Rooney’s petulant sending off aberration, and served up their best performance in Germany. The reason why it was not ironic that we lost despite our best display is the fact that the game went to penalties. I know we were physically stretched by Rooney’s premature absence but to seemingly settle for spot kicks against a toothless Portugal was managerial folly. This may have worked out in Germany’s favour just 24 before but with England it is equal to gifting the opposition a match clinching own goal. Penalties are almost entirely a matter of psychological conviction and confidence. England’s abysmal record in this domain automatically undermines their chances before the first spot kick is struck in anger. The fact that the last team to conquer them by means of a shootout was Portugal in Euro 2004 confirmed, in my mind at least, that the outcome would again be sorrowful. The irony of the game instead lay in the fact that England’s most vilified and doubted player, Bayern Munich’s Owen Hargreaves, turned out not only to be the man of the match, but also the only player who netted a penalty for the three lions.
Hargreaves’ mildly teutonic sensibilities and lilt in his accent have caused the midfielder to become detested by some elements of England’s press and support, who clearly feel that everyone who is capped must be “100% English.” The stark truth is that England need to be more rather than less Germanic in their approach to football and especially penalties in major tournaments. The fact that Saturday marked the fourth time in a row where England crumbled when faced with spot kicks whereas Friday was the fourth successive penalty competition where every single German player has converted robustly justifies this claim. Penalties are so often lazily branded by the pundits as a “lottery” but when England are involved this game of chance becomes one of futility.
So England’s World Cup exploits, Sven Goran Eriksson’s managerial reign and David Beckham’s captaincy have all come to a bitter end. Seeing as Beckham had a generally good tournament, having a direct influence in exactly half of England’s goal tally, I will restrict my judgement to Sven. He has woefully underperformed with the team at his disposal. Of course, one could argue that by not taking a fifth striker in the squad he had diminished the team’s chances before they had even set foot on German soil. I supported the inclusion of Theo Walcott as a positive gamble by the England coach. It has obviously materialised since that Eriksson had never even seen the Arsenal youngster play and had decided very quickly that he would take no part in the tournament. The Swede’s comment yesterday that he had to take players who he thought “would be good for us in the future” is baffling. This may well have been a magnificent learning experience for the 17-year-old but the World Cup is all about bringing a team on excellent form and not one full of potentials. Who knows what would have happened if Jermaine Defoe or Darren Bent had been included but at least neither would have been dead wood in the team. An extra striker, in place of Tottenham midfielder Jermain Jenas, would have meant that England would not have been so crippled by Michael Owen’s cruciate ligament injury sustained in the Sweden game and Wayne Rooney’s ineffectiveness after injury. Once Rooney had been dismissed against Portugal, England would have been better served by an injection of counter-attacking pace rather than Peter Crouch’s height advantage. Aaron Lennon expertly demonstrated how prone the Portuguese defence were to this asset and had Defoe or Bent been available then they may well have grabbed a decisive goal hence avoiding the penalty showdown. This is the main bone of contention as I feel that our back line performed admirably, except for their blip against Sweden, and the midfield functioned as we knew it would, with Gerrard and Lampard canceling each other out letting Joe Cole, Beckham and Hargreaves take the limelight.
I will not lament the departure of Sven Goran Eriksson. He went from being a ray of revolutionary light through the dusty, staid corridors of the FA to a passionless (and seemingly clueless) figurehead whose only maverick moment (the selection of Walcott) backfired drastically. The passing of the baton to Steve McClaren does not, in my mind, augur well especially considering Sven’s successor could so easily have been Guus Hiddink or Phil Scolari, both of whom have vastly superior CVs to McClaren’s. So it is quite easy at the moment to envisage England continuing to shatter a nation’s dreams. As Shirley Bassey may have purred, watching England’s penalty nightmare on Saturday “was all a little bit of history repeating.”