Preview: It's actually being a while since my original aim of having the weekend unofficial football focus series is just simply giving more of my reactions to the football news making the headlines in the week. This time, I will be doing just that. How my football sources has been reacting to the two matches which I highlighted on Thursday and more of my reactions and thoughts. Because for once, England got some respect. Because for once, Germany cannot say they are able to beat anyone who comes in their way...even if the opponent is Finland.
Schadenfruede. The devil's advocate in me was laughing at Germany almost losing to Finland. And not since for a long, long time had I been so happy to be an England supporter. For once, I am proud to say I support England. Suddenly I almost forgot that I also support Germany too. I know being an England fan, the case of false dawns has passed by the fans and the media before. It has certainly not escaped The Guardian on whether it's time to brag about a new England under Fabio Capello (he has only been in charge of seven matches so far, including the away match in Croatia).
Munich 2001 is the best example. Beating old rivals Germany 5-1 in Munich during the 2002 World Cup qualifier, at the same time, marking a dream debut for new manager Sven-Goran Eriksson. It was only a David Beckham-equaliser against Greece before England confirmed their places in the 2002 tournament. Germany went through the play-offs and eventually, it's them having the last laugh and went all the way to the final...only losing to Brazil. I hadn't supported Germany then, but I am aware of the situation. But ever since England's 4-1 win over Croatia away in Zagreb on Wednesday during the 2010 World Cup qualifiers, I had been doing my own personal jig whenever I think about the match. The feeling of beating the side which denied England's Euro 2008 chances...it's so sweet! Coupled in the fact that Croatia famously beat Germany 2-1 during the Euro 2008 group stages, it made me wanted to dance and sing even more.
Even if I am sound a little absurd, England has all along and will always be, my first love in international football. I am throwing down the gauntlet here. As much as I also watch the Bundesliga apart from the Premier League, I first grew up with English football. Even if England play like crap sometimes (they didn't in Zagreb though), they are my first national side. It's like you never forget who is your first crush (unless he/she is someone you rather forget). I had always believed that the two best things my country's former colonial masters had left behind are the English language and football. If not, I will be typing this in another language now. The British brought the language they write and speak over here. Their national game as well. While I am happy with the government we have here (someone once asked me if I like a return to the former colonial days where we will be under the British monarchy), I am always grateful the British left behind those two things I mentioned. English is one of this country's four official languages (and it's my first language, with Mandarin being the second) and football is also our national sport as well. The sport generated the most coverage in the sports section of the newspapers here.
I am not trying to gain brownie points here. I am stating facts. Also, I want to come a day when I can say that I was not wrong in supporting England from the start. Even all the more the English FA got Fabio Capello, a coach who has been proven a winner before. The case of heading into a match wanting to win and doing so has not been there for a long, long time for England. The press has not seen it in a long time with even led to The Sun (yeah, it's a tabloid...I know) posing this question - Who's left to hurl abuse at? For long, we had been so used to the negativity with the England squad and only knowing non-English footballers play better football. Coach Fabio Capello had even raised his doubts on whether England's demolition of Croatia in Zagreb in a World Cup qualifier will be sufficient to win back the belief of the supporters. He had actually said ahead of the match that he prefers to play away from Wembley at present because of the response of some fans when his side are not firing on all cylinders.
But, if the match in Zagreb had surprised the Germans which I hope they do (which even led to Deutsche Welle's football blog joking that Germany coach Joachim Loew was actually referring to the match in Zagreb given Loew's assessment of his side against the Finns in Helsinki - "It was a great game of football...") because they were once on the receiving end seven years ago at their own backyard, I will be grinning like a Cheshire cat. There is a reason why on Thursday, I said this in the opening paragraph - In the end, I felt vindicated...once again. I had been suffering way too long when I support England and all that personal anger from me when knowing there are people out there who want to see England tumble even further, it made me wanted to scream with excitement and sticking my tongue out at them that they are so, so wrong. In fact, I'm not the only person who used 'vindicated' in my Thursday's entry given The Independent used it in its headline (Capello vindicated as Croatia are humbled on home ground). There has to come a day when England shook the world in a positive manner when it comes to its national side. And, The Daily Express (a tabloid actually) certainly thinks so with this - Fabio Capello's England sent shockwaves resonating around the continent, as they became the first ever team to win a qualifying game on Croatian soil with a victory that both stunned and delighted in equal measure.
For once, I am not complaining how the tabloids are reacting to the result. Because in The Sun's match report - SAY it loud, say it proud - England are back. Watch out world (and this includes...yes you, Germany), England are back in business with Fabio Capello. In the end, Capello stuck with the tried-and-tested 4-4-2. Yes, it's a win and the kind of win the English press has not seen in a while with Capello keeping his feet on the ground (given this is only just the beginning of more World Cup qualifiers), he is aware of how the Croats are like when he watched them in action during Euro 2008's quarter-finals when they were playing Turkey. The Italian had insisted he will vary tactics according to opposition strengths and weaknesses. Until more qualifying matches and the like, the Croatian media had all lined up to praise England with one newspaper hailing 'Fabio the Great'. What I like in the article is this - a Croatian radio presenter was forced to sing 'God Save the Queen' live on Virgin Radio and Radio Zagreb. The story is that Radio Zagreb Breakfast Show presenter Goran was made to sing the British national anthem after losing his bet with DJ Christian O'Connell that England would not win the match.
Trust me, I was almost roaring with laughter reading that. But I know that I was not happy when Joe Cole got injured (he had tried to walk on the pitch but fainted later) after defender Robert Kovac was sent off in the 54th minute for an aerial challenge that saw Joe Cole taken off on a stretcher with blood pouring from a head wound. I was like (this was aiming at Kovac who also plays for Borussia Dortmund) - How dare he?! Even if Cole didn't play for my favourite Premier League club Manchester United (he plays for Chelsea and so you can say he is my most favourite Chelsea player), I had always like to see him in action for England. But anyhow, he had stitches and did featured in Chelsea's away Premier League match at Manchester City.
Back then in the same entry on Thursday, I almost wanted to put this - 'Germany got out of jail free'. I was saying this instead - In the end at the Helsinki Olympic Stadium with a boisterious home crowd, Germany escaped by the skin of their teeth. From the German viewpoint, questions are being raised all over again in terms of the overall performance. In all respect to Liechtenstein (whom the Germans met last week), Finland is a side which has professional footballers. But from the Finnish viewpoint, what was expected of the national team to fail in dramatic fashion (primarily in ice hockey but also in football), didn't really happened. But for Finnish captain and Liverpool defender Sami Hyypia, the match against the Germans reminded him of 'the final game of Finland's campaign to qualify for the 1998 World Cup, when shambolic Finnish defending gave Hungary a last-minute equaliser, dumped Finland into third place in the group and sent the Hungarians to the play-offs'. The situation was eerily similar, then and now. When Finland looked like they had secured a historic victory over the Germans seven minutes before full-time, the Germans 'did what they've done so many times before with so many other opponents' (as quoted by the FIFA website when it interviewed Finland's English coach Stuart Baxter).
Because, Baxter's side almost ended Germany's 'extraordinary record of never having lost an away game in FIFA World Cup preliminaries'. It will be really historic if it really happened (and really making the Germans wake up again, like after the 2-1 loss to Croatia at Euro 2008 in the group stages). He summed it best on the general sentiments in his adopted country - People have been saying they can't remember when last Finland scored three goals in a game. And against Germany! Yeah, I'm quite proud of the players. In fact, I remembered what Finland goalkeeper Juusi Jaaskalainen (who is at goal for Bolton at club level) was saying (I was listening to BBC World Service on Thursday afternoon and happened to listen to the reactions) that their qualifying group is more than just Germany and Russia. Group Four was supposed to be only between Germany and Russia and who will be heading to South Africa first in two years' time. Suddenly Finland has 'messed' the entire plot.
Russia was unconvincing in their 2-1 win over Wales in Moscow, and they will be travelling to Dortmund (where until Italy came visiting in the 2006 World Cup semi-final, it has always been the German national team's most favourite stadium and Italy's Fabio Grosso noted in an interview from the FIFA website that 'the Germans, who had been so sure of themselves in their pre-match statements') next month for the qualifiers against the Germans. Things are certainly to get a little bit more interesting. But coming back to the match at the Helsinki Olympic Stadium, there were '38 cameras used for the live broadcast, seven more than were deemed necessary for the European Championship final in July'. Also from ESPN Soccernet - 'The sell-out crowd and hundreds of media workers present were other manifestations of football fever hitting a country that is usually oblivious to the sport, as was the march of hundreds of Finnish fans through central Helsinki before the game, letting off flares and generally making a racket.'. When I was watching the repeat of the match on Friday night, I saw it for myself once more. One will have thought football is very big in the country itself.
As I was watching the repeat telecast, I noted something new (I specifically took special attention after the 57th minute given that was around then the England match started on early Thursday morning here and my father wanted to watch that as it was on another channel). Or rather, same as my past observations. Mario Gomez (who came on as a substitute) was having his Vienna moment. When back then in the Euro 2008 final group match against Austria (it was in the Austrian capital then) when so near the Austrian goal he kicked the ball high up in the air, this time round, the ball was almost slowly rolling into the Finnish goal before allowing Petri Pasanen to clear the ball off the goalline). Had not for Miroslav Klose's eventual equaliser seven minutes from full-time which came as a result from a mad scramble, I wondered if I would be really pointing my fingers at the VfB Stuttgart striker had Germany really lost. I want to forgive him for the horrible time he had at Euro 2008 (even all the more he plays for the club I support in the Bundesliga) but then maybe I still need to reserve my forgiveness for now. If it's not a repeat telecast, I could had almost really exploded on Friday night!
Because I was actually slamming hard on the sofa. Slamming my anger on the sofa that my most favourite Stuttgart player had messed up, again. If this is an international friendly, I would had cut him some slack. Or else in the end, I will be left singing this aloud from Standfast's Carcrashes - Tell me what to believe. Because for once, it looked to me that England and Germany had swopped roles during the World Cup qualifiers on Wednesday.
For once. But anyways, I hope England will still maintain the way they are under Fabio Capello. After all, the Italian has been proven a winner before and had risen to the occasion when the situation calls for it. The 1994 Champions League final was the best example. Just about everything was going against Capello's AC Milan heading into the final and Barcelona was the favourites. But it's Capello's Milan who went out 4-0 winners, beating Johan Cyruff's Barcelona (aka 'Dream Team'). In this case, Croatia were very confident that they will beat England again and even at their own backyard where they have never been beaten on a competitive scale since independence in 1994. Look what happened. Whatever the Germans cannot do at Euro 2008 against Croatia, the English go one better!
And the Mannschaft have got some work to do before the Russians are coming to Dortmund. Or else the Russians are going to do an Italy over there and I will not be complaining if it really happens. If the Germans want to find more excuses by then, I am not going to forgive them. Given The Times noted England coach Fabio Capello didn't complain about the lack of time with his players, which is always a commonplace with national team coaches. It wrote - All international managers bemoan the lack of time with their players, but what unfolds when they get it tells the real story. Because I remembered ahead of the away qualifier against Lichetenstein, Germany coach Joachim Loew complained the schedule which resulted on his key players being out for the World Cup qualifiers.
Until something is done to the international footballing schedules (which critics had been saying it's too cramped), there is nothing national team coaches can do about it.
