wc06: it's down to four

The 2006 World Cup is down to four nations and three meaningful fixtures left (I refuse to count the abhorrently meaningless “3rd-place” match that’s played the night before the final; can anyone honestly remember ANY of the 3rd-place finishers from the past 20 years? Does anyone really care about this meaningless match? It’s just an excuse for FIFA to gouge the paying public an additional time).

It’s been an entertaining overall competition, to say the least, but one in which the officials and abysmal quality of refereeing have stolen too much of the spotlight. FIFA need to overhaul their precepts regarding what the officials deem booking and expulsion offences. The fact that nearly 350 cautions and almost 30 expulsions have been meted out is madness. The focus by FIFA on cleaning up the game has resulted in their missing the point and in interrupting the flow of the game.

Eliminate diving, flopping, players begging the officials or linesmen for red/yellow cards, grabbing one’s face in agony when it was the stomach that was hit, rolling around on the pitch like a drunken pirate on a ship listing in a typhoon, and other pussyfoot indiscretions and we might be getting somewhere.

When players such as Thierry Henry and Gary Neville–neither of whom have a history of such antics; Henry’s constant look of haughty indignation when flagged for offside or a foul are not antics to which I’m referring–start insinuating that they’ll have to begin resorting to licentious tactics in order to level a playing field full of thespians, it’s time for FIFA to get its collective head out of its collective arse and become aware of the game’s current course.

Anyway, on to the remaining matches…

Semifinal I: Germany v. Italy (4:00a, Wednesday morning, Korea)

Many of my friends who are German, or who have lived in Germany, or who drink Beck’s or St. Pauli’s Girl or Jaegermeister, or who just plain like German footie have been begging me since last weekend’s quarterfinals finished not to predict a German victory for fear I will hex the red, gold, and black.

Okay. I get it. I won’t.

However, even in the spirit of cooperation and good taste, I still can’t bring myself to type or utter the unthinkable: that a certain squad that wears not a kit resembling any part of its national flag will advance past the hosts and into next Monday morning’s (Korea time) final.
I can’t do it, so I’m not predicting a winner.

What I can say is this: I’m very suspicious of Torsten Frings’s being suspended for this fixture because of his alleged punching of an Argentine player in the after-match aftermath of their quarterfinal PSO.

That he was suspended is not the issue; punching a player while on the pitch or in the tunnel after the match is a deserved suspension. That it took an Italian crew of announcers and cameramen to bring this to light, and then for FIFA to act upon it as they did reeks to me. Am I the only one who sees a conflict of interest here?

Regardless, what’s done is done, which brings us to this: there are several tangents hovering above this match:

• Several months ago, when Germany were playing shite football and hearing whistles of disapproval from all sectors of the nation, the Azzurri blasted them, 4-1, in Florence.
• Germany have never beaten Italy in a World Cup fixture
• Italy have not lost a match since 2004, to Slovenia in a World Cup qualifier
• The site of the match, Dortmund, is a good-luck charm of sorts for the Germans: they’ve never lost an international match there

With the influential Frings out for Germany, expect coach Jurgen Klinsmann to insert Tim Borowski in his slot alongside Michael Ballack, who cheekily proffers that Germany “have no chance” against Italy, given the history between the two national squads.

For Italy, there is good and bad news regarding players fit or eligible to play: bad) defensive stalwart, Alessandro Nesta, is still unfit to play because of a leg injury; good) defender Marco Materazzi will return from suspension to shore up the defence in Nesta’s stead.

Italy have not conceded a goal scored by an opponent in their five matches thus far while Germany have the two leaders for the Golden Boot, Miroslav Klose and Lukas Podolski. Germany’s defence hasn’t been bad, but it’s not been its usual stout brick wall, either; meanwhile, until the quarterfinal match with Ukraine, Italy had been struggling to score goals since their opening match with Ghana.

In addition to the suspicious circumstances surrounding Frings’s suspension, the two nations have been trading potshots in the press since the tournament started and then throughout the competition itself. Let’s hope we have an official overseeing the match who will let the players play and will be invisible until necessary to make a call. It will be not be good if this one comes down to an Italian dive or a bad red card for either team.

With all this having been said, this should be an excellent match between two of the top teams in the world–there are six stars between the two nations, with each having won the Cup three times in their respective histories. The winner of this match will have a good shot at affixing a fourth star to their strip in the final at the weekend. Dortmund will be in a frenzy, the players prepared.

But I still won’t predict the winner, out of deference to what the first paragraph of this Match Preview mentioned…

Enjoy and may your team be triumphant!!