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World's waiting
Six of eight teams left have won the big prize
Fri, June 30, 2006
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HAMBURG, Germany -- It's like the world is still waiting for the World Cup to get going.
Fans of most of the top teams haven't been overly impressed with the way their sides have played so far. There's been a severe shortage of flow-and-go gorgeous games. And the refereeing has been abysmal.
But it's not too late for this World Cup to be great. In fact, it's all set up to be something special.
Never have Brazil, Argentina, Germany, England, France and Italy - all World Cup champions - made it to the quarter-finals the same year together.
That's what we're dealing with here.
Some say that the European championships are better tournaments because right from the start you're dealing with top teams. No Togos. No Trinidad-Tobagos. No Ivory Coasts. No Angolas. No Irans. No Ghanas. No Tunisias. No Saudi Arabias. And that's true enough. But the World Cup, when it gets to this stage is the ultimate stage, the show of shows. And it doesn't set up any better than this.
EUROPE VS. SOUTH AMERICA
The World Cup, when it gets to this point, is Europe vs. South America. If you're scoring, it's South America 9, Europe 8 going in. Defending champion Brazil has won five, Italy and Germany have won three each. Argentina two and Uruguay (host and winner of the first World Cup in Uruguay and another not long later) have also won two, England and France once each.
With six teams through, history is definitely on the side of Europe. Eight of the nine tournaments staged in Europe so far have been won by teams from the old sods. Brazil won in Sweden 48 years ago. Yet it's still a good bet this one could feature a Brazil-Argentina final. Regardless of what happens, there are fascinating matchups the rest of the way.
First, there's Argentina-Germany.
"That's a game the whole world will be watching. It's a World Cup classic, probably worthy of being the final itself," said FIFA boss Sepp Blatter.
FOUR TIMES BEFORE
Twice Argentina-Germany has been in the World Cup final.
The two nations have met four times in previous tournaments, including Argentina's 3-1 win in 1986 at Mexico. Four years later they had a do-over in Rome and Germany won 1-0 with current German coach Juergen Klins-mann in the lineup.
If there is a game which should provide some of the pretty play which has been missing from so many matches, maybe this is it.
Brazil-France is also a former World Cup final. Eight years ago in Paris, France won 3-0. Seven players are still around from that game.
But this is a quarter-final. Brazil, the only team to play in every edition of the event, has only lost one quarter-final and that was 52 years ago.
England-Portugal meet every 20 years at the World Cup (England 2-1 in a semi in '66 and Portugal 1-0 in group play in '86) so there's no real sizzle provided by history.
The focus on this one has been the showdown between coaches.
Luiz Felipe Scolari now coaches Portugal. He led Brazil to the last World Cup and is now on a record 11-game winning streak at the event and was widely rumoured to be replacing much-maligned England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson before the tournament began.
A volcano, Scolari is a complete contrast to librarian-like Eriksson on the sidelines and is 2-0 vs Eriksson's England, winning the World Cup quarter-final in 2002 with Brazil and the quarter-final of Euro 2004 with Portugal.
Ukraine-Italy will focus on one player.
Andriy Shevchenko, for seven years with AC Milan, has been the king of unlocking Italian defences.
He's scored 173 goals in Serie A, the top Italian league. It's been his first time in the World Cup and he's been a force with the world watching. On the other hand, he's pretty much all Ukraine has going for them and the best of the always defence-first Italians know him only too well.
Put me down for Argentina, Brazil, England and Italy. But just about any combination would work as a final from this collection of teams and talent. It'll be a fascinating finish.
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