Happy Trails...

This is probably how a lot of you felt after witnessing some of the coaching decisions made in the 2006 World Cup.


...to the World Cup, but as I've said repeatedly, not this blog. Hope you all still have me bookmarked and will check in on occasion. The plan is to write 2-3 times per week, usually on Mondays to review the weekend's games, and Fridays to preview them. The occasional middle of the week column will also show up, depending on what's happening in the news.

So, as promised, I've finally compiled my list of coaching blunders for 2006. I've got 5 shoo-ins who had to be in the list, and added 3 others in the "alternate" group, because I didn't feel you could blame the coach for all of the woes of the team. Let's start out w/ those:

1. Togo - This one's pretty much a no-brainer. Both the coach and the team made spectacles out of themselves from the moment they stepped off the plane. First, coach Otto Pfister resigns before the first game, then comes back at the last minute. Next, the team is still unhappy with the money promised to them and threaten to boycott their 2nd game against Switzerland, and then don't have anything to play for in game 3 because they've already been eliminated. The story of African football in this Cup was overwhelmingly Ghana and the Ivory Coast, 2 teams on the rise. However, Togo's actions and antics in between kickoffs was an embarrassment to their country and their continent. Hopefully they can get their act together before 2010.

2. Serbia and Montenegro - Again, there were issues before the tournament even started. Serbia and Montenegro had decided to split into 2 separate countries. They played alright in their first match against Holland, albeit losing 1-0, but there were hopes of a draw w/ Argentina and a win over Ivory Coast, and the team could sneak into the 2nd round. However, it fell apart about 36 hours after the first game. There was a training bust up between players from each of the representative countries, then the loss of center back Nemanja Vidic in training, and then striker Meteja Kezman gets ejected late in a 6-0 blowout to Argentina. The old saying is that the team needs to be blown up and start again, but thanks to politics, it's already happened.

3. Ricardo Lavolpe (Mexico) - He's very much on the border (no pun intended), and I think he did enough in the first game to keep him out of the "top 5." His subs made him look like a genius against Iran, when they scored 2 late goals to pull away and win 3-1. However, superstar Jared Borgetti's injury would keep him out of the next 2 matches. Can't blame Lavolpe for the injury, but the fact that he had no other striker on the roster who could create the havoc of Borgetti, and so I submit the name of...Cuauhtémoc Blanco. Sure, he and Lavolpe didn't exactly see eye to eye, but Blanco'somissionn from the roster gave Mexico a thin and out of form group ofstrikerss who struggled in a draw against Angola and loss to Portugal's reserve team. Had Blanco been given a chance, they might have gotten the win over Angola and a draw or better w/ Portugal, setting up a date w/ a more beatable Holland team rather than Argentina.

Okay, now for the real top 5:

5. Ecuador's Luis Fernando Suarez - I'll give him some credit for getting his team into the 2nd round, but when they got the round of 16, Suarez' brain seemed to go on vacation. England was playing horribly, it was hot, and there was no rhythm to the game. An early breakaway was missed, but that should have been evidence alone that England was tentative. Instead of using his formidable attacking trio of Tenorio, Delgado, and Kaviedes to run England into the ground (remember Beckham puking on the field?), Suarez played a conservative, almost fearful approach in a game where the other team had "defeat" written all over them. Even after England took the lead, there seemed to be little life and urgency from a team that was one of the few genuinesurprisess of the 1st round.

4. Holland's Marco Van Basten - Truth be told, I expected a bit more from him. They won their first 2 games in impressive fashion, then rested his regulars in the finale against Argentina, having secured a place in the next round. The game w/ Portugal was hyped to be the most equal match of the round of 16, and it was, in terms of a bloodbath. 4 red cards and 16 yellow cards marred this game, as in dissolved into chaos, fouls, and flops. Although he hadn't been in great form at the Cup, Ruud Van Nistelrooywouldd have been the perfectsubstitutee when it became apparent how the game was going to go. Ruud's size, strength, and attitude would have literally brought an extra punch to the trailing Dutch, but Ruud was adamant about keeping one of the top strikers in the world on the bench, as once again, Holland continued its history of World Cup disappointments by losing 1-0 in a game they probably could have/should have won.

3. The U.S.'s Bruce Arena - You knew this was coming, didn't you? With Arena, it wasn't just one major problem, there were several smaller ones that added up to a lot over the course of 3 games. First, his formation; no matter how he tried to explain how his midfielder were actually attackers, it was still a 4-5-1 w/ McBride alone up top. That has never worked for Arena, and it kept arguably his most explosive player, Eddie Johnson, on the bench. After the first game debacle against the Czechs, he threw several players under the bus, like Beasley, Donovan, and Keller. While Arena can be a hard ass, he usually does that behind closed doors, which the players will take to heart rather than get defensive, which is what Beas and Keller did. Next, his substitution pattern (or lack thereof). He can crow all he wants about leaving his 9 guys on the field in the Italy game because he liked what he saw, but wouldn't an Eddie Johnson or Josh Wolff have been a great sub to keep the Italian defenders back 10 or 15 yards, thereby taking pressure off his defense? I could probably go on, but you get the idea. Bruce stuck w/ certain players way too long, stuck to tactics that didn't work, and ultimately stopped being the brilliant Bruce Arena from before and publicly morphed into what those of us in the media have known for years; that he's a sarcastic, narcissistic, and arrogant man who believes he's smarter than everyone else in the room.

2. England's Sven Goran Ericksson - Was there a more boring team to watch in this tournament? I kept waiting for the offense to click, for the passes to be sharp, for the runs to be swift, and the shots to be lethal. We got none of that from this squad. Like Arena to a degree, Sven kept players like Gerrard, Lampard, and Beckham on the field despite their terrible play. He changed from 2 forwards to 1 when Rooney got healthy, and while he had some terrific plays, they were few and far between. Peter Crouch, although not the best player on the field, added a target player and "over the top" options, but Sven benched him so he could play his 5 midfielders. After Owen went down early w/ a severe knee injury, Sven didn't have the depth to draw on for add'l option up front. Where was Jermain Dafoe? Why bring a 17 year old whom you don't trust to put onthe pitchh in the most crucial of games? I think this was England's last best chance to win w/ this group, and they blew it. New boss Steve McClaren is now charged with bringing in some fresh blood before Euro qualifying starts this fall.

And the #1 coach blunder goes to:

1. Argentina's Jose Peckerman - It would take a book to write about the numerous mistakes he made, but let's concentrate on the Germany game, which might just be the single-worst coaching job I've ever witnessed at this level. They played the hosts to a standstill in the first half, then scored early in the 2nd to take a 1-0 lead. Now, if you have arguably the most skilled attackers in the tournament on your team, and you know the other team now has to open it up to score, what do you do? If you're Jose, you gradually bring off your offensive stars and replace them with defenders and hope you can hold out for 40 minutes, plus another 30 of OT. First, he took out Riquelme, who seemed irked that he was being replaced. He replaced him with the good but defensive-oriented Cambiasso. There goes your midfield. He then took out an exhausted Crespo and put in Julio Cruz, who had only gotten about 70 minutes in the meaningless game against Holland. 2 of the best attackers in the world, Messi and Saviola, sat on the bench. Granted, the inury sub for the 'keeper made a difference, but once all of Jose's offense was out, you knew Germany had no fear of being scored on again, and pushed, pushed, pushed, until they got the equalizer literally 2 minutes after Cruz stepped on the pitch. Game over, essentially. They had 1 or 2 threats in OT, but nothing to make the Germans fear the players in front of them. I could go on, but I've rambled long enough.

So there you have it. I'm sure there are coaches out there who could try to explain why these coaches did what they did, and that's fine. I just looked over some of the decisions made, and on more than one occasion, asked "What the hell is he thinking?" Apparently, a lot of others felt the same way. Your thoughts? Comments? Share 'em with me.

Again, thanks for reading and for your input and insight. It's been a lot of fun, and I'm looking forward to keeping this thing going for quite awhile.