USA’94: Nigerian naivety lets Baggio lead Italy’s revival
WORLD CUP: Sammy Adelman
‘C ‘EST l’Afrique”; the African way: a case of history repeating itself. Nigeria came within two minutes of defeating Itay after a disciplined and tactically aware performance, but succumbed like Cameroon four years ago, conceding an unnecessary penalty.
They have matured quickly in America, and lost because of the naivety that marks African football.
As the 90 minutes came to an end, they began taking the mickey out of Italy, with Austin Okocha, their most effective player, also the chief villain. A lapse in concentration, a mistake by Sunday Oliseh, and Italy were level. We had waited nearly four matches for Roberto Baggio to live up to his billing as the world’s best footballer, and he became a key figure in Italy’s revival.
Clemens Westerhof acknowledged that Nigeria were ”missing a little experience in tournaments like this. If you have two minutes to go, the spectators must have the ball. They’ve paid good money for their tickets, and they must have the ball.”
After five years in charge, Westerhof makes his exit amid recriminations over bonuses, favouritism and sex; he disciplined several players for spending a night with their partners without permission. The bitterness bubbled to the surface immediately after their elimination, with striker Rachidi Yekini saying: ”This is a lesson for Africa. Before you choose a coach you must think twice. The coach has his favourites, and that is why I have been played out of position.”
If Nigeria reflected African failings, Italy produced their second performance of great character. Twice in four matches they have had to win with a man sent off and another virtually reduced to a passenger.
Benarrivo and Massaro, forced into the back four to replace the limping Mussi, were simply magnificent in extra time.
Like everyone else, however, Italy remain unconvincing. Now at the quarter-final stage, Arrigo Sacchi still does not know what his best team is and continues to be criticised for the omission of Sampdoria’s Attilio Lombado.
It is astonishing that the best league in the world has produced so few world-class attackers.
It is from the two remaining World Cup winners that the 1994 champions are likely to come. Brazil produced another unconvincing performance against the United States, albeit with 10 men after Leonardo had stupidly elbowed Ramos. He is likely to miss the rest of the competition and Brazil will miss him.
What they lack most, however, is creativity in midfield, a problem rarely associated with with the proponents of the beautiful game. Rai’s poor form with Paris St Germain has continued, forcing coach Carlos Alberto Parreira to leave him out. Defensively adequate and able to rely on Romario and Bebeto up front, they would be smiling if they had a Socrates or Falcao from the not too-distant past.
Which brings us to the Germans, who look increasingly likely to retain the trophy. Berti Vogts has beeen criticised for relying so heavily on the team that won in 1990, but they have proved that there is no substitute for experience and reliability. They have suffered more than most from the heat, but when the temperature drops and they can get a full game out of Rudi Voller, as was the case against Belgium, their pragmatic professionalism is very difficult to overcome.
As we head towards the quarter-finals without Maradona, the main talking-point has become the ridiculous number of yellow and red cards which referees are handing out. Fifa’s aim is noble, but its attempt to combat the cynicism of Italia ’90 has been taken to extreme lengths.
Swiss manager Roy Hodgson thinks that about half the bookings have been unnecessary and there is now a danger that the attempt to clean up the game is actually harming it.
It is all very well for Fifa to send Kurt Roethlisberg home after his terrible decision not to give Belgium a penalty against Germany, and to impose the same fate on the Italian Pierluigi Painetto for awarding a yellow rather than red card for a tackle from behind, but the immediate consequences of this were disastrous.
Abrizio Carter of Mexico, who sent off Bolivia’s Etcheverry in the opening match for what was at best a bookable offence, did the same to Italy’s Zola against Nigeria. Syria’s Al Sharif followed this in the Mexico-Bulgaria match with two of the worst decisions I can remember.
So perverse has the situation become that the commonsense decision to clean the slate of single yellow cards after the group phase in order to prevent the tournament from losing too many stars is being rendered obsolete by officials who appear to be operating on a quota system.