Review Of Group Stages

June 26, 2010

I have just finished watching Brazil Vs Portugal, a 0-0 draw which just might have summed up this years world cup. What on paper was regarded as the best game of the group stages proved to be an anti-climax, summing up the 2010 world cup so far. The opening week of the tournament was worryingly bad, a shortage of goals, an increase in red cards and goal keepers scared to catch the new ball.

That off the field events were making more headlines than the ones on the pitch summed it up. In the first couple of weeks the only noted goings on were who was rowing in the France squad and John Terry’s press conference.

What got me thinking though was something a lot less profile. It was Cameroon in the tunnel before their second match against Denmark. What was noticeable was there wasn’t a smile on any of the players faces. Adrian Chiles then informed the viewers that there had been a rift within the squad. Why? Well Cameroon had lost their opener to Japan. That got me thinking, isn’t the world cup meant to be the pinnacle of a players career, the holy grail? Yet the pressure and spotlight has been so huge it has made certain teams forget that football is meant to be enjoyable. From the second France touched down in Africa they let the pressure tear them apart, not one player seemed to care enough to put an end to the squabbling for the sake of the world cup.

England have been crippled by the fear of failure, from Rob Green looking terrified in the tunnel to Wayne Rooney under-performing. Not that Rooney is the only one. None of the so called top players have yet to light up the competition. While Italy have buckled under the weight of being defending champions, Spain have struggled with the expectation of being favorites. Only Holland, Argentina, Brazil and possibly Portugal out of the so called big sides have impressed.

Naturally in the last week the action picked up. with teams needing to draw or win in their final 2 group games, they had no choice but to be positive. England were better against Slovinia and Slovakia Vs Italy, Denmark Vs Cameroon, South Africa Vs France were all entertaining.

So with the knock out stages on the horizon it could go two ways, because teams have to win will the positive football remain, will teams start to embrace the world cup or will the fear of failure again cripple the sides and make them revert to a negative style.

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