Reuters Soccer Blog

Villar success highlights wider malaise

Paraguay goalkeeper Justo Villar could win the vote as player of the Copa America – emulating Oliver Kahn, the Germany keeper named top player at the 2002 World Cup.

If, or when, this happens, regardless of their merits as players, the vote could highlight a deficiency in the football played at the tournament.

Villar captains a team who reached Sunday’s final against Uruguay without winning any of their five matches, even if they scored five goals in three group games.

Paraguay coach Gerardo Martino said in an interview with Reuters in Asuncion in April he felt his team were shaking off the shackles of a tradition of defensive football with strength in the air to achieve a new balance.

Martino hoped to see Paraguay take another step forward from their good World Cup last year and they were 3-1 up against Venezuela going into the 90th minute in their final group match only to end up drawing 3-3 and scraping through as the second of two best third-placed teams.

Having won penalty shootouts against Brazil and Venezuela to reach the final, they could lift the trophy by the same means if Villar and his defence continue with their heroics during 120 minutes and the players follow up with more perfect kicking from the spot.

Not because of this directly, the South American Football Confederation is considering an expansion of the tournament to include six guest teams instead of just two from the Concacaf region of North and Central America and the Caribbean.

Forlan’s fond memories of Leeds

It was a surreal experience to sit at Atletico Madrid´s training ground talking to a Uruguayan former Manchester United player about the Leeds United team circa 2002.

That´s what happened to me on Monday after interviewing Diego Forlan, whose face lit up when I told him I was from Leeds.

“I used to love playing there. I remember they had a really strong team,” he said thinking back to his spell with Manchester United between 2002 and 2004.

The Atletico frontman had been a bit stilted while the television camera had been on him, talking about his team, La Liga, Uruguay and his future, but he relaxed as we shaped to go.

“Mark Viduka, Rio Ferdinand, Jonathan Woodgate, they had strong players,” he said, “and who was the left back?”

“Ian Harte,” I replied.

“Yes, he had a great shot on him. I remember him scoring a fantastic freekick against us once when we won 4-3 there. He ended up playing for a year with (Spanish La Liga side) Levante, didn´t he?”.

Uruguay’s performance not to be sneered at

Uruguay’s achievement in reaching the World Cup semi-finals for the first time in 40 years was greeted by a fair amount of sneering in some sections of the media.

The Luis Suarez handball incident — the Uruguay striker stopped a goal-bound shot on the line in the last minute of extra-time in their quarter-final against Ghana who missed the resulting penalty — which helped them into the last four led to suggestions that they should feel embarrassed or ashamed to be there.

After they lost 3-2 to Netherlands in Tuesday’s semi-final, Britain’s Daily Mail was still harking on about it, describing the Uruguayans as, among other things, “devious.”

It is as if no other player and or no other team would have done the same as Suarez, whose split section reaction was nothing more than instinctive.

As coach Oscar Tabarez pointed out, Suarez was sent off and Ghana were awarded a penalty, as stipulated by the rules. “We couldn’t predict that Ghana were going to miss the penalty,” he said.

Unfortunately, the handball incident fits neatly with that old stereotype of cheating South Americans.

For the record, Uruguay were far from being among the dirtiest teams at the World Cup. They received no yellow cards at all in their wins over South Africa and Mexico and only one yellow against South Korea. (England failed to get through a game without a yellow card). In no game, did they receive more than three yellows.

Uruguayan passion for soccer helps make friends in distant places

Uruguay’s run to the last four of the World Cup is something of a fairytale, despite the Luis Suarez handball incident – the tiny nation with a glorious soccer history, their squad led by a scholarly coach and a dashing striker, battling on to write a new chapter as its bigger, more illustrious neighbours fall by the wayside.

I followed Uruguay for a while in this World Cup campaign but my link with them goes back a few years. I thought it worth sharing because if soccer is a sport that unites the world, the Uruguayans have played their part beyond the spotlight.

In 1986, Uruguay had an ugly reputation. In the World Cup match against Scotland in Mexico, which I watched in a north London pub, Jose Batista hacked down Gordon Strachan in the first minute to earn a place in the record books as the tournament’s fastest sending off. A violent game followed ending in a 0-0 draw which saw Scotland out and Uruguay through.

Several years later, I was based in Bangkok for Reuters and spent much of my time in Cambodia, a country in a desperate state, reeling from decades of war.

Among those taking part in a huge international peacekeeping force were the armed forces of Uruguay and Chile and one day in 1992, I found myself cruising up the Mekong River with a Uruguayan Marine patrol, heading to their base in Khmer Rouge-controlled territory. The soldiers cradled their rifles and sucked on matte tea pipes. When we got there, the flags of Uruguay, Chile and the United Nations flew over the jungle encampment.

In the middle, the soldiers had set up a soccer pitch and cries of “gola” rang out as people kicked and chased the ball around. The troops played each other and invited local kids to join in. In a remote , desolate part of the world, the sessions were a highlight of the day.

The Latinos and the Cambodians had bonded in the most joyous way. Words like “gola” and “penal” entered the Khmer language in those parts. It was a sweet thing.

Reuters World Cup 2010 podcast — quarter-finals (II)

Listen!

Join us for a look back at the extraordinary first two quarter-finals at the World Cup and a look forward to Germany v Argentina and Spain v Paraguay. Paul Radford, Felix Bate, Jon Bramley and Kevin Fylan argue over the merits of penalty goals in soccer and consider Ghana’s desperate misfortune.

Did the punishment fit the Suarez crime?

When Uruguay’s Luis Suarez handled the ball in the final seconds of extra-time in the World Cup quarter-final against Ghana, the ball was heading across the line for a dramatic winning goal.

The officials did well to spot the offence in a crowded area at the end of what must have been a tiring encounter to be in charge of. But did the punishment of a penalty and a red card for Suarez really fit the crime?

Of course, if, instead of ballooning the spot kick high, Asamoah Gyan had tucked away the penalty and Ghana had gone through, we probably wouldn’t be debating this.

But it is hard not to be left with the feeling that Suarez and Uruguay have benefited from foul play.

Suarez cannot be blamed for what was an instinctive action — within the current rules. Had the ball crossed the line his team were out and by handling the ball, he gave his goalkeeper a chance to save the situation. Ghana gained no advantage at all. Instead of a certain goal — they got a shot at the keeper from 11 metres.

Reuters World Cup podcast — quarter-finals (I)

Join us for an in-depth look at the first two World Cup quarter-finals, Netherlands v Brazil and Uruguay v Ghana, with our soccer experts Paul Radford, Owen Wyatt, Felix Bate, Mark Gleeson, Helen Popper and Kevin Fylan.

World Cup 2010 quarter-finals podcast

Welcome to our latest Reuters 2010 World Cup podcast, as we follow the lead of the world’s most famous psychic octopus and try to predict what will happen in the quarter-finals. Kevin Fylan is joined by Paul Radford, Jon Bramley, Ken Ferris and Mr Mark Gleeson.

More points for opening matches, less yawning

The World Cup is under way and with it the traditionally lifeless opening group matches with teams happy to settle for a draw, fearful all could be lost in only the first encounter.

But that could change for ever with one magic swipe. Teams that win their first match in the group phase should be awarded four points for victory compared to the current three, and all but make sure of a spot in the second round. That would give teams a great incentive to play entertaining, attacking football instead of the drab game we saw between Uruguay and France in Group A on Friday. After all this is the World Cup.

World Cup opening matches should not feel like a bad date. You have waited so long for this moment but when it comes it is all you did not want to see. Teams playing safe, scared coaches piling bodies into midfield to avoid a fast break from their opponents and happy to settle for a point. But that is not what the World Cup should be about. You get that week in week out in domestic league matches. Let’s up the ante and see how teams will react to the bigger prize on offer.

PHOTO: Uruguay’s Diego Godin (L) battles for the ball with France’s Thierry Henry during the 2010 World Cup Group A soccer match at the Green Point stadium in Capetown June 11, 2010. REUTERS/Oleg Popov

France break Irish hearts to seal World Cup slot

France ensured the likes of Franck Ribery, Karim Benzema and Thierry Henry will be at the World Cup in South Africa next year after winning through with a goal that has left Irish fans seething.

There was nothing wrong with the finish from William Gallas, but Thierry Henry admitted using his hand to keep the ball in play and commentators and Irish supporters are already talking of “The Hand of God II” and “The Hand of Henry” in reference to Diego Maradona in 1986.

“Yes, there is handball but I am not the referee,” Henry told reporters. “I’m in the box, there are two defenders in front of me. The ball bounced off my hand, the referee did not see it and I played on.”

Ireland coach Giovanni Trapattoni called the goal a “great mistake” by Swedish referee Martin Hansson but he chose not to accuse Henry of cheating.

“I told the referee that it is possible to make great mistakes,” Trapattoni told a new conference after the game at Stade de France. “It is a bitter evening.”

Trapattoni said he felt the referee should have talked to his assistants and to Henry before awarding the goal.