The View from the Spaghetti Factory (proper redesign coming soon!)

Brazil 0 - 1 France

The resurrection of Les Bleus is fast becoming *the* story of the tournament. They looked good against Spain, but tonight’s performance against Brazil looked even tighter and more organised. Zidane, who looked forlorn and frustrated against Switzerland, is on cracking form, firing passes to every corner of the pitch and setting off on those impossible twisting runs of his own. Ribery still has a tendency to look clumsy at times, but he’s twice the player he was in the group games. The ageing defence is looking solid and organised and Thierry Henry is starting to prove that he can do it in the big games.

On the other hand, Brazil went out with a whimper. Ronaldinho has never looked comfortable in this tournament, despite a few moments of brilliance. He seemed to be playing further forward today, more like his Barcelona role, but still lacked the ability to command the game. Ronaldo looked dangerous on a couple of occasions; the rest of the time he was just in everyone else’s way. The defence looked like they were playing together for the first time and left Dida exposed several times.

What’s more, I hate to say I told you so, but I’m due some gloating after the England defeat. A few days ago, I suggested that maybe Brazil weren’t simply coasting on half-power, that maybe we’d seen all we were going to get.

The parallels with England are impossible to ignore. Both have managers who pick (or fail to substitute) far too many players on the basis of reputation… Lampard, Roberto Carlos and Cafu should never have started, Ronaldo, Beckham and Rooney should have gone off at half time. Both teams flattered to deceive in the earlier rounds, but were supposedly waiting to switch to a higher gear, to pull the proverbial rabbit out of the hat. Where were those rabbits? I can only guess that Ronaldo ate one of them, while Rooney stamped on the other.

England 0 - 0 Portugal
(Portugal win 3-1 on penalties)

Rubbish.

Yes, I know this is where we’re all supposed to talk of heroism in the face of defeat and didn’t the plucky lads try hard, but that’s just not what happened. Twenty minutes of frantic, full-blooded effort does not constitute a world-class performance. England were simply rubbish.

I’ll qualify that. Rio Ferdinand was superb. John Terry was superb. Owen Hargreaves was world class, breaking down Portugal attacks, running at players, spreading passes to every part of the pitch and even trying his hand at Beckham’s job towards the end. On the other hand, Rooney was ineffectual while he was on the pitch, bringing his contribution to an abrupt end with a display of selfish petulance that would make Cristiano Ronaldo proud. Lampard simply shouldn’t have been on the pitch, and any coach who allows a player on that sort of form to take the first penalty is clearly not up to the job.

Oh yes… the coach. I’ve stood up for Eriksson at various times during the last five years, but he’s now been found out. His substitutions were our undoing against Brazil and Portugal (in 2002 and 2004 respectively) but he clearly learned nothing from those matches. To bring on Carragher (a fifth defender) in place of Aaron Lennon, the one player who had revitalised England’s attacks, was naive to the point of incompetence. Why, when Rooney was sent off, was Joe Cole sacrificed in order to bring on Crouch? Why, indeed, was Crouch not playing from the start, in a 4-4-2 formation with Rooney that would have caused havoc for Portugal’s shaky central defence? If Brazil’s coach Parreira is guilty of being swayed by reputation, Sven is just as bad.

However, it takes two to tango and the Portugal cheating machine keeps rolling on. Did you see Cristiano’s knowing wink to another player after Rooney was dismissed? Why was Ronaldo himself not booked for trying to influence the referee amid the Rooney fracas? However far they progress in this tournament, Portugal have succeeded in one thing… using sly foul play to convince referees that they’re innocent victims. They’re the nastiest, most dishonest and negative side I’ve seen in world football for many years. That isn’t English sour grapes either; I know full well why England lost that match. However, it would have been nice to be beaten purely by football rather than by a mixture of our coach’s tactical naivety and another team’s cheating.

(Back to a more impartial tone in part 2, after I’ve had a pint!)