Another break day and so an opportunity to answer some questions.


Danielgregg – Something I've noticed about this tournament, don't recall if it's something unique or not: there've been so many records broken. Croatia broke some kind of record when they beat Germany, Turkey broke their record against the Czechs, the Dutch beat their 30-year record against Italy, and Italy beat their 30-year record against France, and now Spain banished their longstanding record against not only Italy, but their June 22 jinx.

You probably don't put too much store in these records. I just think it's been interesting to see so many games one after another with pundits pointing out these records before almost every game, and then they go and promptly break them--so consistently.

Bobby – There have been a good number of these instances. I think it would need a statistician to provide more intelligent comment.  But you also have to consider that international match ups don’t happen every year or sometimes even every second year and so extended records of 20 or 30 years may only be less than a dozen games.  Something that happens in domestic league leagues


LHJS - I hope one day the America's can combine to form a great tournament like EURO's. 8 groups, 5 or 6 teams per group, winner and second place team gets an invite. Every country between Chile and Canada would have a chance. I think it would be great fun for all soccer fans. A nightmare for police but still as we see on TV it could be great.

Bobby – This is something that comes up on a pretty regular basis. I can’t see either Federation amalgamating for the purposes of World Cup qualifying but maybe there is just a small chance that they could get together for a regional championship.

Here is a précis of an article I wrote for “WSC – When Saturday Comes” back in April 2002 just after the Gold Cup of that year.

“……The more astute readers will have noticed that South Korea and Ecuador are not Central American, North American or Caribbean counties. Since it’s inception in 1991 the Gold Cup has invited guest teams to compete, not something that lends credibility to the competition. It’s simple: when you invite outside teams to enter a regional championship it’s no longer a regional championship.

Can anyone imagine the European Championship inviting Brazil, Argentina and Cameroon to fly in for a game or two? In the past we’ve seen Peru, Colombia and Brazil turn up along with South Korea and Ecuador. To date no guest has won the Cup but two have reached the Final.

This time around only Mexico drew well in the early stages and after they lost in the quarter final to South Korea, average attendance dropped dramatically. Despite the USA reaching the final where they beat Costa Rica 2-0, the last four games in the competition attracted less than 22,000 fans. Cup organizers were quick to point out that the Cup was up against the National Hockey League all-star game and the Superbowl weekend. It begs the question - why would you schedule the Gold Cup against these events in the first place?

The problems facing the Gold Cup are strikingly similar to those facing CONMEBOL and the Copa America. Copa America with the ten member countries of CONMEBOL has to invite two guest countries in order to get to a workable number. Honduras, Mexico, Japan, the USA and Costa Rica have all taken part in the Copa in recent years. There is, however, a solution – the Pan American Cup.

Never heard of it you say? That’s because it’s time to drop both the Copa America and the Gold Cup and start a new sixteen team tournament to be held once every four years with no guest teams.

To ease fixture congestion the tournament could be scheduled just before or just after the European Championship. A Pan American Cup makes sense for everyone, including the long suffering fans.

From a CONCACAF prospective it gives their member countries the badly needed challenge of better opponents. The participation of Brazil and Argentina would increase television revenue in the US and generate greater media exposure throughout North America.

With the imminent demise of the ill fated and vastly unpopular Confederations Cup the need to identify regional champions no longer exists. If the Pan American Cup could live up to half of its potential, the qualifying competitions would generate interest.

By holding the tournament two years after the World Cup, qualification standings in each confederation could form the basis of awarding automatic spots in the Pan American Cup, perhaps the top five finishers in each. As tradition dictates, the previous winner would get a bye along with the host country.

With four spots remaining, three could come from a Central and South American qualifying competition while the remaining spot would be from a North America and Caribbean tournament.

Is there hope that CONMEBOL and CONCACAF would give up some of their power and merge the two troubled competitions? From a CONCACAF prospective they run a competition of no value, so they have little to lose by making a move. CONMEBOL’s view is likely to be different given the Copa America is the oldest international tournament in the world.

However, FIFA has already told the South Americans that an eighteen game World Cup qualifying competition can’t continue if the Copa America is held every two years. The South American qualifying group generates tremendous interest and a great deal of money.

It’s not something the CONMEBOL countries want to lose so the status quo may not be an option. The alternatives are changing the Copa America to a four year format or make a bold move and go for a Pan American Cup.”  


Shmish - What's your take on the criticisms that are being leveled on coaches such as MVB and Donadoni? It's predictable that Aragones or Loew will also be condemned by media and bloggers. I think all of these men seem to have done a good job, but I'm not a soccer analyst.

Whether a team is outplayed or outcoached, do we always have to point fingers at the coaches? Surely as Bobby suggests, we should pay attention and offer praise to the winners, when praise is due. One man's or team's success doesn't necessarily equate to another's failure.


Bobby – When a team loses the coach more times than not becomes a lightning rod for criticism. At club level there is almost always a game coming within a week or so and the coach and team have an escape route. That’s rarely the case at international level with friendlies and competition spread out.

Coaches know the “rules” when they sign on as unfair as they may be.  But each defeat produces knee-jerk reactions from the fans and the media and the pressure builds on the national associations for a change to be made. Without having lived through it I doubt many of us can truly understand the constant pressure that coaches all operate under.

So much of it comes down to managing expectations going in, unfortunately as fans most of us have expectations that are unrealistic. I’m waiting for the day when a fan admits he would have picked a different team than the one the coach did and because the team won its obvious the coach knows what he’s doing and has not lost the plot!


Terry 63 - Hey Bobby, we're missing the Tartan Army at these major tourneys. Start checking the census rolls to see if there are any Scots with Brazilian grandmothers.  Of course...I meant to say Brazilians with *Scottish* grandmas! But either way couldn't hurt.

Bobby – At least Scotland has shown some improvement over the last couple years.  Under Berti Vogts a team made up of Brazilian grandmothers might have been a better option. That’s what you meant wasn’t it?


ZUCO2 - I was watching the FSR yesterday and I heard Derek say that there was 9 minutes of added time in a qualifying game in Asia. Shouldn't FIFA have a rule that allows referees to give a certain amount of stoppage time? A sort of limit that shouldn't be broken?

Bobby – So what you do in the situation where there was a serious injury and possibly even a couple of serious injuries? Or the game is delayed because of a streaker? It is up to the referee to judge how much stoppage time should be played I don’t see any benefit by capping it – and in fact I think the opposite is true, it would lead to more abuse.


Exponents - Bobby, off topic, but let's say the USMNT needed a new coach (I think you'll agree that they do)...who should they try to get? Of course this begs the question of who would actually want to coach the USMNT.

Bobby – No, I actually don’t agree. To date Bradley has won the only competition the United States has entered since he became coach (Gold Cup) so why would you be looking to replace him?


Rowdies33 - I haven't seen much heat on Van Basten for his tactics during the game. RVP played on the right flank where he has played before in this tourney, but he was always looking for the cutback and Heitinga wasn't getting forward so there was no width on the right and then by not bringing Robben in on the left there was no presence going forward on the left to stretch the field.

Given the difficulties of set pieces for the Russian defense, wouldn't crosses from wide positions have likely given them problems? Of course, the Russians dominated the play and perhaps nothing changes, but it seemed like the Dutch offense was basically using 1/2-3/4 of the width of the field making the Russians defensive pressure much easier to employ. Thoughts?

Bobby – It might be a bit pointless turning up the heat up on van Baston given that we all knew he was finished with the Netherlands after this tournament.  You do make valid points however. 

But the problems that the Russians were experiencing from set pieces were coming from in swinging free kicks on the left. Robbin would be delivering more conventional out swinging crosses with his left foot so I’m not sure the two would necessarily be connected.  I was surprised that the Dutch did not try and force the Russian full backs to defend more and instead allowed them to attack almost at will.

I think the brilliance of Hiddink’s strategy was to counter the counterattack by pinning the Dutch so deep and not giving them time on the ball that they are unable to use the counterattack tactic that had been so lethal in the group stage.


LHJS - I almost forgot, Bobby did I catch Carlos?

Bobby –Carlos picked up nine points in the quarterfinal round and has 37 points. However, he only has one team left and that is Spain. He has Spain down as beaten finalists.


RINGO - Do those who predicted the third place game lose points?

Bobby – No, they just have to suffer the public embarrassment of adding games that don’t exist.


Comment of the Day

“I bumped into Howard Webb, the English referee, at Zurich Airport last Friday. He was on his way back to Manchester, having not been retained for the knockout stages of Euro 2008, after his controversial decision in the final minutes of the match between Austria and Poland. Webb was no different to a lot of other Englishmen at leading tournaments, really, in that he was eliminated by penalties.” - Martin Samuel in The Times.


Stat of the Day
1: Number of the past 52 goals in the tournament to have come from a defender — Christian Panucci  - From Bill Edgar of The Times.