FIFA WORLD CUP GERMANY 2006

[GENESIS]

Serbian disunity clinches best of the worst

By Simon Kuper, Richard Milne, David Owen and Jonathan Wilson

Published: June 26 2006 03:00 | Last updated: June 26 2006 03:00

The FT's award for worst team of the World Cup has become nearly as prestigious as Fifa's gold trophy itself. The US won our inaugural award in 1998, and Saudi Arabia succeeded in 2002. Both were shoo-ins. But this year several favourites did not deliver. The Saudis, for instance, couldn't match their 2002 team, who conceded 12 goals without even seeming to mind.

Admittedly they were this year's worst Asian team, which is saying something. In Mabrouk Zaid they claim the Mohammed al Deayea award for worst goalkeeper - even if he kept Al Deayea out of the team. Yet the Saudis seemed unaware of their level, often trying moves appropriate to a good team. A favourite trick was backheels out of defence. This ended in schadenfreude when Khalid Aziz was stretchered off after pulling a muscle attempting it against Spain.


So Saudi Arabia don't win our award, but they do get a lifetime achievement statuette for consistently bad football. If they win our main award again, they can retire it, as Brazil did the Jules Rimet trophy in 1970.

Ukraine started promisingly, with a 4-0 defeat to Spain, but couldn't sustain the lack of pace. A sadness of this World Cup is that they, Tunisia and Saudi Arabia played in the same group and thus largely cancelled each other out in general awfulness.

If there were an award for the team that was less than the sum of its parts, France would have snatched it just ahead of England. France were contenders for our main prize until they beat Togo, their best performance since the World Cup final of 1998 and with many of the same players. If there were a veterans' World Cup, les Bleus would walk it, albeit very slowly. But no team including Thierry Henry and Lilian Thuram is going to be bad enough, ultimately, for this race.

Togo lost three out of three, and their off-field turmoil underpinned their bid. To lose your manager three days before your first ever World Cup finals fixture takes a special talent. When Otto Pfister returned and Mohammed Kader marked his opening strike against South Korea with a riding-horse celebration, you did wonder whether it was all planned, with Togo adopting some Germano-African version of the Dutch "conflictmodel" strategy. Their remaining two and two-thirds games proved otherwise.

Choosing Togo would be cruel. Normally that would be no bar, because our judges were selected for their inhumanity. But this was Togo's first World Cup, and so they lacked a crucial bad attribute, namely the refusal to learn from experience. Moreover, they only conceded two goals a game. Saudi Arabia they were not.

Argentina's 6-0 victory over Serbia and Montenegro produced the theory that the Argentines were brilliant. An equally plausible argument, however, is that the Serbs were terrible. Their "Fantastic Four" defence conceded ten goals here, ten times as many as in qualifying.

Resolute in qualifying; divided at the tournament: Serbia and Montenegro followed the Balkan paradigm to the letter. A referendum saw Serbia lose Montenegro on the eve of the tournament, but more significant for our purposes was the loss of the squad's only Montenegrin outfielder. Out went Mirko Vucinic, injured, in came Dusan Petkovic, the manager's son, and out went unity.

Belgrade's tabloids attacked Petkovic so viciously that he went home traumatised, leaving Serbia short of cover at left-back. This directly affected the Argentine match because Ivica Dragutinovic was injured, and the "Fantastic Four" had to be reshuffled.

The FT's award rewards internal splintering. Serbia jumped in our standings after a fight in training, and the return home of Mateja Kezman and Ognjen Koroman even before their team-mates. Losing their last game to Ivory Coast after leading 2-0 showed impressive spinelessness. And Serbia were the dirtiest team here, notching up ten yellow cards, one double yellow and one red.

Yugoslavia used to be known as "the Brazilians of Europe". Serbia and Montenegro, in their only World Cup as a notionally united nation, were the Saudis of Europe. Yugoslavia's collapse has already created several poor teams, including Croatia, and we look forward to welcoming Montenegro. Any further partitions - one day perhaps, the People's Republic of Southwest Nis & Petrol Station - and Saudi Arabia's supremacy may end. Serbia win our award. They can dismiss it as a western conspiracy if they like.

[Sich]

uspeli smo u zivotu, to je najvaznije

[stefan]

ali obrukali smo se!!

[GENESIS]

04.7.2006.       GER   :   ITA      21:00   h
05.7.2006.      POR   :   FRA      21:00 h

Zavrčnica svetskog šamionata u fudbalu GERMANY 2006.