THE more one watches World Cup tournaments, the more amazed one is by the odd choices of managers and coaches, ever entangled in a mess of their own making.
There have been several flagrant examples of this in Germany. Emphatically in the dock is Raymond Domenech, the France coach. It seems extraordinary that he should not bring to Germany a winger in such lively form as Ludovic Giuly, who has been shining for Barcelona. A baffled and disgusted Giuly announced that he would not even be watching the World Cup finals and went on holiday.
Similarly perverse has been Domenech’s reluctance to use, in a team who have largely been firing blanks, the opportunism and pace of David Trezeguet, the Juventus striker. In the draw against South Korea - which would have been won by France had Patrick Vieira’s “goal” been allowed - Trezeguet was brought on only in the final phases.
The same charge could be levelled against Dick Advocaat, the Dutch coach of South Korea. It was amazing to those of us who watched South Korea’s narrow win against Togo that Ahn Jung Hwan should not have come on against France until about the last 20 minutes. Surely it had been perfectly plain in the match against Togo that as soon as Ahn appeared, after half-time, the team were galvanised by his incisive play with Park Ji Sung, the Manchester United midfield player.
Advertisement
True, Ahn has had four up and down years since the previous World Cup finals, but as an international striker he is surely irreplaceable in a team who find goals hard to score outside Asia.
England, alas, have infinite examples of such error. It seems more extraordinary than ever that Sven-Goran Eriksson should have left Jermain Defoe at home, preferring the shallow stunt of picking Theo Walcott, an untried 17-year-old, and not finding the courage to use him even on the two occasions that he has substituted Michael Owen.
Stanley Matthews, surely the star of stars and the ultimate example of longevity, was forever in and out of the England team. He was not even initially picked for the 1950 World Cup finals in Brazil, being sent instead on a meaningless FA tour of the United States. At the last moment, he was called up to play one game, the third, in Rio de Janeiro against Spain.
In 1958, although England had lost Tommy Taylor, their prolific centre forward, in the Munich air crash, they took only 20 of the permitted 22 players to Sweden. Nat Lofthouse, of Bolton Wanderers, was inexplicably not among them, although he would return to the team the next autumn.
Bobby Charlton did go to Sweden but did not get a game to popular outrage in England. True, he had had a poor match when England crashed 5-0 to Yugoslavia on the way to the finals on a hot afternoon in Belgrade. But who had done any better?
In 1962, Johnny Byrne, arguably England’s most talented and elusive centre forward, did not go to Chile, allegedly because the former Crystal Palace and Fulham player had had a fracas in the tunnel at The Hawthorns with Don Howe, of West Bromwich Albion. Jimmy Adamson, voted Footballer of the Year, did go, but as a coach, not a player.
Advertisement
Even Diego Maradona, already a star at 17, was not picked for Argentina’s 1978 World Cup squad by his own mentor, Cesar Luis Menotti. And going farther back, Germany never chose Bert Trautmann, the idol of Manchester City, seemingly because he had never figured in domestic German football.