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TUESDAY, JUNE 15, 2010 It may be the beautiful game, but not everyone has a happy face world cup from A1
Supporters of Cameroon cheer with a national flag and vuvuzelas before their opening match Monday against Japan.
CHIBA/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
YASUYOSHI
But it’s a familiar refrain to former player Alexi Lalas, a member of the United States’ 1994 and 1998 World Cup squads, who’s in South Africa as a member of ESPN’s broadcast team. “It’s all whining,” said Lalas,
40. “It happens at every World Cup with regard to the ball. It happens every World Cup with regard to the surface. When
you’re at a World Cup, and a bil- lion people are watching you — whether it’s a case of losing or not playing well — it’s human na- ture. You try to look for reasons other than the fact that you made amistake.”
Elite soccer players hardly
have a monopoly on complaining in sports. National Basketball Associa- tion players hated Spalding’s new microfiber composite bas- ketball so much when it was in-
troduced in 2006, saying it was slippery and cut their fingers, that the league reverted to the traditional leather model. Major league pitchers famous-
ly balked over the more tightly wound core of a redesigned base- ball that juiced up hitting averag- es and put a dent in their own ERAs. NASCAR drivers who end up wrecking are often quick to blame their misfortune on tires that can’t take the pounding or
racetrack surfaces that are over- due for repaving. But the griping at the 2010
World Cup is adding a new di- mension to the game — and not an entirely flattering or con- structive one.
Amid the controversy over the ball, FIFA secretary general Je- rome Valcke accused disgruntled Brazilian players of using the is- sue as an excuse, should they need one, if they performed poorly. Brazil Coach Dunga scoffed, noting that Valcke had never kicked a ball. Yet few would fault Brazil for
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any World Cup dramatics. Soccer in Brazil is an art form. And ex- pectations for the world’s most decorated national team border on crushing, with anything less than a sixth World Cup title sure to be deemed a failure. The U.S. team, by contrast, launched its World Cup cam- paign with more goodwill than expectation. For the Americans, who were bounced after the first round in 2006, advancing to the round of 16 would be deemed a success.
And the Americans got off to a serendipitous start in their open- ing clash with England on Satur- day, thanks partly to the much- maligned ball. After surrendering an early
goal, the United States evened the score on a shot that England goalkeeper Robert Green should easily have handled. Instead, he let it dribble off his mitts — a gaffe two British tabloids dubbed “the Hand of Clod,” playing on the infamous “Hand of God” goal scored by Argentina’s Diego Ma- radona after he committed an uncalled hand ball in a game against England in the 1986 World Cup.
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While England Coach Fabio Capello said he believed the ball was partly responsible, U.S. goal- keeper Tim Howard made a se- ries of spot-on, spectacular saves in the match, reading the ball as if it were a child’s primer. The verdict on the ball was fur- ther muddled after Germany erupted for four goals in its 4-0 rout of Australia. Clearly, some World Cup teams speak the ball’s language. Meantime, a growing number
of TV viewers are siding with players who feel the vuvuzelas are detracting from the game, and Danny Jordaan, chief exec- utive of South Africa’s Local Or- ganizing Committee, didn’t rule out the possibility of banning the horns in an interview with the BBC. But Sepp Blatter, president of soccer’s world governing body, said Monday that the vuvuzelas are here to say. “I don’t see ban- ning the music traditions of fans in their own country,” Blatter told the Associated Press. But whether the issue is an un- familiar ball or a maddening sound, U.S. coaches have stressed to their players the im- portance of worrying only about factors they can control. “The way we prepare our team is, we try to deal with the known quantities: Who we are, what we’re about, how we want to play this game, what we know about the opponent,” U.S. assistant Jes- se Marsch said. “If you start wor- rying about the ball or any of these other things that people have highlighted, you lose focus on what’s important: Having a group that’s ready to compete at the highest level.” Lalas believes that’s precisely
what distinguishes exceptional athletes from journeymen. “They not only possess the
physical ability that sets them apart, but also the mental abili- ty,” Lalas said. “And if you don’t have that quality, then you’re go- ing to struggle in international soccer because you’re going to get different types of fields, dif- ferent types of climate, different types of equipment and referees. Sure, a player would love to play in the most ideal situation. But it’s never like that.”
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