PRETORIA, South Africa – The proud African nations have surely handed off gifts to World Cup 2010. The people of this vast continent have provided the joyous spirit of song and dance, brilliant colors and a pride of their lands that can’t be manufactured.
Dispatches From South Africa: The Old African Bugaboo Behind Disappointing Results
But, uh, they left their soccer boots somewhere else, apparently.
What has become of African soccer here? This was supposed to be African soccer’s moment, where a team built from such talent and ability could finally push beyond a quarterfinal. There was hope that Elephants would dare, that Super Eagles would soar, that the Black Stars would star or that Indomitable Lions would be, well, indomitable. And maybe even that a typically overmatched Bafana Bafana would rise up, lifted by the power of hope and the critical mass of national pride and shock the world.
My, how none of that has come to pass. African soccer through 30 matches was a wretched 1-7-4.
Even the frequently maligned Asian confederation is better at 2-5-1 (although North Korea dragged down the Far East collective effort with that second half capitulation against Portugal on Monday.)
South America, by comparison, is a sterling 7-0-2 through 30 matches. We’ll talk about the winners so far at South Africa 2010 some other time. For now, let’s stay on topic of the African disaster.
How has this happened? For me, it’s mostly the old African bugaboo: poor tactical discipline.
You have to be careful about these things, ensuring that they don’t become urban legend and old myth that in reality no longer apply. You know, the way England playing long ball, kick-and-run soccer is really just something trite that some people still say, even though it’s no longer true. England is playing bad soccer here; let’s not make any mistake over that. It just isn’t kick-and-run, long ball bad soccer.
Conventional wisdom would suggest that as more African players merge into Europe and gain the more disciplined (some would say stodgy or cynical) ways, it would seep into the water of African soccer. Plus, only one African team is actually being coached by and African. Otherwise, the tactical arrangements are being set forth by men from Sweden, Brazil, Serbia and France. So, you’d think they’d have learned some lessons.
But the defending has been horrendous at times. Look at the goal Denmark’s Dennis Rohmmedahl scored against Cameroon. The Lions left fullback needed to show Rohmmedahl the byline. His fellow defenders were marking inside the six, expecting the Danish winger to break toward the line, preparing to deal with the cross. It’s basic defending.
If the fullback has help inside, perhaps then he can guide the attacker that way – although some managers prefer to always show the byline, just so everybody knows what’s coming, confident that the center backs can deal the cross if the fullback can’t shut off service.
But the Cameroonian fullback wasn’t locked in mentally, and his body positioning was all wrong. Rohmmedahl recognized as much, cutting inside and taking advantage of all the space available, curling in a very nice (completely unchallenged) shot.
It was a critical goal, the one that put Cameroon out of the tournament.
Anyway, it was just one goal. But we could break down several of them similarly. They are mistakes that just shouldn’t be seen at this level.
Maybe there’s too much pressure. Teams can be overcome by the moment, after all.
Maybe that helps explain the lax discipline (the other kind of discipline, that is, not just tactical discipline). Nigeria’s Sani Kaita crushed his team’s chances with that petulant kick at a Greek player. And speaking of poor discipline and shenanigans, Ivory Coast’s Abdelkader Keita should be out of the this tournament for duping referee Stephane Lannoy, who sent off Brazilian super star Kaka after a non-incident incident Sunday.
It was a pitiful punctuation mark on another African team collapse, as Ivory Coast went down to the South American samba kings. The cynical theatrics by Keita were shocking. Unfortunately, the result wasn’t; it was just another moment in the ongoing trend.
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