The final countdown
27/05/02 | by Alastair Gunn

The World Cup is now less than a week away. Britain’s workforce is desperately trying to fall ill, get injured or simply get sacked. And who can blame them? For the meagre student like myself, I am simply hoping that that my A-Level exams do not clash with any big matches. Especially not England ones.

So the least I can expect is for the competing nations and players to excel themselves, providing a skilful exposition of the beautiful game. With players like Zidane, Figo, Rivaldo and of course David Beckham, all masters of the art, how can we doubt that this will happen? How can it be that the best trained, the fittest and the best paid players the world has ever known will not provide the most entertaining game of all time?

There are two reasons for my scepticism. Firstly, as was seen on the island of Jeju, the pitches are not what most players are used to, and are not conducive to fast, flowing football. The grass is too long. The humidity may be stifling and will ask questions of almost all the squads in terms of depth and fitness. We are threatened on this score with a series of Seria A-style, slow paced walkabout chess games.

There will be no plucky dark horse outsiders because they will tire, and be outwitted by the ultra structured, ultra professional teams, namely Italy and Germany. Exciting wingers, flying wingbacks, will be wading through walls of long green things like an explorer through the Amazon rain forest. Brazil’s Cafu and Roberto Carlos may have to take lessons in defending, if Brazil is to pose a continued challenge throughout the tournament. Ashley Cole’s prodigious talent is in danger of redundancy. The best tactic may even prove to be long balls.

Aside from this, there is an added problem that all our players are utterly worn out. Nicky Butt’s run in the Man U squad and Danny Murphy’s club efforts over this extended season have been rewarded with injuries. Wes Brown, on the back of an at best anti-climatic return from injury may be our secret weapon, because he hasn’t been getting any games.

This draining effect has impacted upon our U21 players, as they crashed out of the U21 European Championship with out any spark of talent. I suspect this phenomenon has also affected other teams with European based players. Rivaldo, like Beckham, has had to overcome an injury to make the tournament. Figo is shaking off an injury of his own, which dulled his performance in an otherwise exciting European Cup final.

Any team which relies on European based players is liable to fatigued performances and slow paced games. As the only teams who do not have European based players are Asian and North American, this leaves no quality nations unaffected by the ludicrous fixture lists that have taken so much out of their players. The commercial power of television and the self important nature of UEFA may have ruined our summer entertainment.

On the other hand, we could be looking at four weeks of intensely fascinating stuff. Can France retain their title? Is Spain going to fulfil their potential? Will Germany NOT live up to their billing as big tournament specialists? Will the latent potential of African football be realised in the form of Cameroon or Senegal? Will Asia announce itself on the fore front of world football by doing well in its own continent, as has always happened before? With a pathetically easy group, Japan could go quite some way. So many questions, I cannot fail to be enthralled by the prospect of finding out the answers, not least confirmation of my belief that England are a fading force in world football.

All eyes will be on Christian Vieri, Raul, Rivaldo, Batistuta or Crespo, or even Nakata to see if they can do what Zidane did last time, and take the World Cup by storm. Joe Cole, Julius Aghahowa, Ronaldinho, Djibril Cisse and Samuel Eto’o Fils will be amongst those vying to be seen as the best young player at the tournament, trying to emulate in the eyes of their countrymen past heroes, and instil hopes for the future.

So there is a lot to look out for. Billions has been spent on the tournament by the Japanese and South Koreans, vindicating the decision to let them host the tournament. A lot is at stake. Anticipation around the world of a great show is rampant. My only fear is that those disturbing trends in football of commercialism and exploitation of players will rob football’s crown of its glittering shine.

I passionately believe that this World Cup can be the best of the lot, even without the Dutch. Let us hope that our hopes are answered, not fear that my fears are well founded, and that this World Cup can provide Nottingham Forest’s hapless fans with a little tonic before another hard season back in the Reality Division.