I am taking some holidays right now. I will be back posting as of end of August. If you are on holidays, enjoy, and if you are not, well…enjoy as well!

Brilliant move last Friday by new French coach Laurent Blanc. The “President” as Blanc is called since his days playing with France, outsmarted all those that wanted to have the entire French squad banned forever. Blanc kicked out the team that had ashamed the whole of France for the first friendly againt Norway on August 11. Hmmm the real punishment would have been to send them all play that game! Blanc knows his stuff and most of all that this 2 year contract with the French Football Federation will demand to the minimum that the tricolores qualify for the 2012 Euro. Since there is shortage of real talent right now, Blanc can’t afford to kick himself in the foot and not count on the likes of say Lloris, Toulalan, Diaby, and Malouda. With this smart move, Blanc can then start with a clean sheet and build the team best fit to qualify for the Euro. And that will certainly mean keeping some of the 23 “black sheep”!

Maracanazos are not all Saint-Justs!

Spain has done it! They have become the 8th country in the history of the World Cup to proudly boast a star on their roja shirts! I am very happy for Iniesta who scored the winning goal. First of all he proves wrong all those that think that you need to have a body builded corpulence to make it in football. Then I like this player’s style. He plays forward, knows when to pass the ball and when to keep it and is one of the rare confrontational dribblers out there. In my mind he was the best player of the final. Another decisive factor in Spain’s win was Fabregas’s entry. He brought fast forward movements to the Spanish side who I felt was sometimes playing too laterally with Xavi.

I was very disappointed by the Dutch. Where have they left their flamboyant football? It is now the second time that they leave a violent mark on the World Cup, the first time being the infamous eighth final against Portugal in 2006. The quatuor which I had thought could make the difference was unable to get sufficient ammunitions from the midfield and Van Persie was transparent.

Apart from the final, here is my take on this 19th World Cup:

• There were no new revolutionary or even marked evolutionary strategies.
• The first round was as non-Cup like as usual.
• I missed one single breathtaking game like Germany-Italy in 1970, Argentina-Peru in 1978, France-Germany in 1982, France-Brazil in 1986, England-Cameroon in 1990. The closest was probably Uruguay-Ghana for the incredible cliff-hanging suspense of that game.

• Talking about la Celeste, they can be very proud of their tournament. They often played great football like against Germany and Forlan deserves Fifa’s golden ball which rewards the best player of the tournament. They have some talented young players like Godin, Caceres and Suarez and who knows Forlan could still there be there to lead them in the 2014 World Cup if they qualify.
• The best team apart from Spain was in my mind Germany. The National Mannschaft often played with style, always looking to score and with some very promising players like Muller, Ozil, Khedira and a great Schweinsteiger. They will certainly be a favourite in 2014 with the second youngest German team of any World Cup so far.
• Amonst the big disapppointments were Italy, England and Argentina. Italy had too much of an ageing team and Liipi didn’t have enough time to blend the younger players with the older 2006 generation. England had a dismal defense and the midfiel cohabitation problems between Lampard and Gerrard. Rooney was absent. Finally Argentina lacked coaching skills, Maradona being unable to change tactics against Germany.
• The African teams should go back and play their style of game not the one imposed by foreign coaches. I felt they tried too often to emulate European football thereby forgetting about the natural strengths of creativity and coolness which are so characteristic of African football.
• Not even a disappointment but a shame was France. How can a team loose so much credit in these past years? There are many explanations to start with the coach and the French Football Federation who chose him from the job.
• Despite the Fifa claiming that the referees made 96% correct decisions, something needs to be done to help  the men in black make the good judgements in the crucial money-time moments of the second round.
• When South Africa was awarded the World Cup organization, the naysayers around us promised havoc and violence. On the contrary, the organization was almost flawless and the atmosphere in and outside the stadiums was brilliant!

Now the World Cp is over and as they used to say in Royal France, “le roi est mort, vive le roi”! I will right now set the time counter at the top of this blog to start counting the days until the 20th World Cup in Brazil in 2014. Remember, I promised my sons that we would be in the Maracana for the final, perhaps another Maracanazo !?

Maracanazos are already learning to dance the samba!

The World Cup will end on Sunday with a first-time winner since neither the Netherlands nor Spain have ever won the trophy. Either country will become the 8th nation to ever win a World Cup. If you compare that to the number of countries who participate in the World Cup (including the qualifying rounds), it is probably one of the lowest ratios of any sport.  It will also be the first time that a European team will win the World Cup outside of the European continent. Here is my analysis of the final in 7 points:

1. Both teams are turned towards an offensive style. They both privilige attacking before defending.
2. Spain is a master in keeping the ball with a high percentage of completed passes. It is very difficult to steal the ball from them. It is almost a clone of how the Barça plays since 7 players are from the Blaugrana team.
3. The Netherlands have a key advantage in my mind since they have 4 mid-field/forwards that can all score: Kuyt, Van Persie, Robben, and Schneider. This is no longer the case with Spain who can only count on Villa since Torres is out of shape (until now at least).
4. The Spanish team – like Barça – has become somewhat too systematic in its way of playing. The Netherlands on the other hand have more of an erratic behaviour on the pitch which could play to their advantage.
5. Casillas is back on top form and can win a match to himself. That is not the case of Holland’s Stekelenburg.
6. Spains’s defense is stronger than the Netherland’s which has shown weaknesses since the beginning of the World Cup.
7. England’s Howard Web will referee the final. That is good news for both teams and for football in general since he was one the rare referees to perform during this tournament.

I am very uncertain about the outcome of the final in view of the points listed above. What do you think are the chances of each team? Don’t count on Paul the Octopus this time since I just heard that he will probably not be asked to guess the World Cup final winner!

Maracanazos enjoy + / – analysis.

Dear M. Blatter,

You are a lucky man, millions, no billions of people cherish the sport you are at the head of. I am part of those, ever since I first went to the Parc des Princes stadium when I was 5 or so. I have cried, laughed, supported, gone wild, criticized, shown compassion, replayed legendary matches in my mind, you name it, all the emotions that football fans undoubtedly go through. You have a dream job M. Blatter.

Recently though I have started to sense that the sport we so enjoy is in danger of becoming forever changed, distorted, destroyed by events that you need to take action against. If you don’t, then I fear that football will become a living nightmare, a sporting equivalent of Blade Runner, an unworthy MMOG.

The most imminent and prominent danger is what I call the demand for instant gratification. We live in an era of the instantaneous. Instant access to information, instant pleasure, instant emotions, instant relief, instant everything…Now you will ask me what does this have to do with football? The fiery debate about the use of video to “help” referees has all to do with the search for instantaneity. The Video God freezes a football action to bring an instant picture of “truth” to the millions, billions of people watching the most popular sport in the world. We want to know the truth and we increasingly rely on machines to hand it to us; right away. Is this the way to go M. Blatter?

Football is a played by humans. With their qualities and shortcomings. That is why this blog has the tagline “Football is the universal sport because it is the closest to human nature.” Some cheat and then geniously make up for it, others have the highest sense of ethics, and the majority just do the best they can. The good and the bad have been part of this sport since its start somewhere in Middle Age Britain unless it was in some Tuscan village. Forwards have scored goals “outside of this world” while others have missed the unthinkable. Defenders have shown incredible bravery while others displayed remarkable actor talents…

The character who orchestrates that this commedia dell’arte is played according to the rules is another human; namely the referee. He is almost alone to do this helped in his task by 2 side line referees. These 3 people have to keep a hawks eye on 22 players, knowing that thousands in the stadium and billions behing their tv sets are ready at any moment to hunt them down as soon as the first blunder materializes. Enters the video. The hunters want to rely on the image freeze magic to instantaneously condemn the man in black. The machine made truth replaces the human factor. Is this the way to go M. Blatter?

M. Blatter, you are probably asking then what is the God sent solution here? Don’t blame the men in black as you did after the Mexican and English events at the World Cup. Reinforce the human factor as Michel Platini advocates by adding more referees – one behind each goal post – so that the men in black become a team in themselves. Football is a collective sport which ironically has less referees than the individual sport tennis is. Help referees by betting that the collective judgement of 5 well trained professionals will make for better human backed decisions; not machine ones please M. Blatter!

Maracanazos will always defend the human factor.

Uruguay plays against South Korea ina few hours in the first eighth final. This could be a historic moment for the Celeste. The last time Uruguay made it through to the quarter finals was in 1970. As often at this stage of the competition, much will depend on the the mental strength of each individual player and the collective willpower of the team. This is the moment to display the famous Uruguayan garra charrúa. Astolfo Cagnacci defines in football terms garra charrúa as a “survival instinct running on the field, cementing a team in its collective definition.”

The Charrúas were a small Indian population of about 1000 living on the Uruguayan coast when the first conquistador Juan Diaz de Solis arrived in 1516. Solis was killed and this was the beginning of the legend of the Charrúas who were then gradually eliminated from the Uruguayan soil after Revolutionary leader Artigas left the country.

Garra is a combination of interior force and a ferocious willingness never to abandon. The combination of garra and charrua forever defines Uruguayan football. This small country of 3 million inhabitants, stuck between its 2 neighbouring giants Argentina and Brazil, has embraced football as the symbol of its own identity, a sport which can bring the best in the sacrifice of each player for the benefit of the team.

One of the most memorable definitions of garra was that of Jules Rimet, the President of the FIFA after the 1950 World Cup final in Brazil: “The fight was even. The Brazilian technique was drowned by the “garra” of the Uruguayans, who played well technically but who also showed the rage that makes their victory so well deserved. In football, playing well is not sufficient, you also need to feel it profoundly as does Uruguay.” And he went on to add: “It was one of the best games I ever saw during my long life as a sportsman, both in its technical virtousity and extraordinary fair-play.” Jules Rimet’s statement is important as too often non connaisseurs think of garra as just some form of violent behaviour which it is not!

I really like the following video showing a moment of garra charrúa just before Uruguay enters the pitch to play in the decisive qualifier against Costa Rica before this World Cup. Look at how captain Lugano shows (1’18) his team that football is “won in the head”.

Maracanazos have pride in the garra charrúa.

Let’t have a look since 1970.

1970 : Brazil. Felix was not considered a star goalkeeper.

1974 : Germany. Maier was one of the best goalies the National Mannschaft ever had.

1978 : Argentina. Fillol was un fenomeno.

1982 : Italy. Zoff. No comments needed.

1986 : Argentina. Pumpido? Didn’t leave many memories…

1990 : Germany. Illgner. Good but not outstanding.

1994 : Brazil. Taffarel. Good at stopping penalties but I wouldn’t qualify him in the A-list

1998 : France. Barthez was France’s best ever goalie.

2002 : Brazil. Was it Marcos or Dida? Asling the question already gives the answer…

2006 : Italy. Buffon. Same as for Zoff. Unbeatable.

Out of the last 10 World Cups, I would say that 50% of the winning teams had outstanding goalkeepers. Let’s look at the current lineup of teams already qualified for the eighth finals :

Uruguay : Muslera. Young but promising!

Mexico : Perez. I have my doubts…

Unites States : Howard. Not bad!

Ghana : Kingson. Don’t know enough about him.

Germany : Neuer. Could be.

England : James. Calamity is his surname…

Argentina : Romero. Not decisive.

Japan : Kawashima. Don’t know enough about him.

Slovakia : Mucha. Don’t know enough about him.

Brazil : Julio César. Excellent.

Netherlands : Stekelenburg. Don’t know enough about him.

Paraguay : Villar. Average.

The other 4 teams are not known yet so I won’t make any comments except if Spain qualify. Casillas is great even though he had a complicated season with Real Madrid.

So do you think this year’s World Cup winner will have a great goalkeeper? Do you think a team can win without one?

Maracanazos think that goalkeepers have one of the toughest positions in a team.

Enjoy one of the most memorable goalkeeper saves ever : Banks vs Pele!

The demise of the « Bleus » during this World Cup – whether they qualify or not – is a case study for all sports federations worldwide. I will not go over the recent events that you have probably read about or seen dozens of times so absurd is the farce that hit the French squad.

How did French football reach such a high time low ? There are several factors that explain the disastrous situation but let me start with what is at the heart of the game, namely the players. You can play football without its other building blocks ; coaches, federations, media, and fans, but without 11 players on the pitch, you simply can’t start.

The players

Most players sign their first pro contract at age 18 or so. Here lies the first problem. How can you have a mature point of view in life when you start earning more than 95% of the working population and are often badly counselled to start with. These players are educated with a mercenary approach to their sport spurred by their agents and clubs in a system somewhat analogous to the velocity of money. It has become very rare to stay loyal to only one club in a career and I wonder if this doesn’t also impact how loyal you are to your national colours. The economic pressure has become so high that many players see the World Cup as a unique event to showcase their skills and thus think individually before prioritizing any collective plan. The World Cup is a gem, one that only a handful of players can participate in. Do these players realise that ? Do they think of the millions of viewers, fans, children who identify with them ?

When I saw France loose to Mexico, it seemed as if you had a bunch of kids playing in the school yard and running wild and loose in all directions with absolutely no tactical direction. You can compare this in military terms. French soldiers, when in defeat, rarely have shown the orderly retreats of Russian, German or English armies. In contrast, when the French furia is on the winning side, they are often unbeatable. I have witnessed this with the French rugby team as well.

The French team also misses the all-important leader, the one who can compensate for the weaknesses and bring about a sense of « dépassement de soi » and unity.

Lesson #1 : change the system, cap salaries, impose minimum periods in a club and regulate agents.

The coach

Much has been said about Raymond Domenech. When you have players who don’t have the « right stuff », you need a world-class coach to make a real team out of them. Domenech has been incompetent in his job since his first day at the helm back in 2004. He started off the 2006 qualifying round by dismissing some of the star players of the 1998 World Cup and 2000 Euro only to call them back when things started going sour. The 2006 World Cup was a rare example of self-management by the French squad led at the time by Zidane, Sagnol, Viera and Thuram who imposed their tactical views following the disatrous first round. The French Football Federation (FFF) should have kicked Domenech out after the 2008 Euro but for some obscure reasons he kept the job until now. Domenech has never had a clear vision on what game the French team should play. As an example, the 4-2-3-1 was changed into a 4-3-3 just weeks before the World Cup. Malouda, the best player this season, was unexplainably left out for the first game against Uruguay. Why was Henry, France’s record goal scorer, left as a substitute when his experience could have become useful in the money-time moments of World Cup games ? These are just 2 examples of irrational decisions. I think I never heard Domenech talk tactics in any interview since he first become the French squad coach ! How could he earn the trust and confidence of his team under these conditions ?

Lesson #2 : Have a plan, stick to it without being dogmatic, act with clarity and fairness be coherent, and your players will look up to you.

The Federation

The FFF is presided by Jean-Pierre Escalettes who was heading the amateur section of French football and used to be an English teacher. How can you have this type of profile when dealing with such a professional sport? As with Domenech, there has been a total lack of direction, vision, strategy, whatever you want to call it since day 1 of his presidency. As said earlier, Escalettes should have at least inserted a performance clause in Domenech’s contract during the 2008 Euro. That is what the Italians did with Donadoni who’s performance target was set at semi-finalist or out during the same competition. Despite France being eliminated after the first round with 0 goals scored, Domenech stayed on.

The whole voting process of who gets to sit at the FFF needs to be changed from an old boys club to a modern system which priviliges competencies and relevant experiences.

Lesson #3 : Elect Federation members on modern criteria, based on measurable targets, and renewed in a timely fashion.

The media

Both the FFF and Domenech now pay dearly for a complete mismanagement of how they communicated with the media. Instead of going for a clear, trustful and no “BS” communication plan, they opted for concealment, opaque statements and Soviet like propaganda. The time bomb exploded after Anelka’s words in the training room, when the French sports newspaper, l’Equipe (who is in a rare situation of quasi monopoly), blasted out word by word Anelka’s lashing at Domenech on their front page. Domenech imposed on his captain Evra and on the players allowed to talk with the press, the message that the team was in complete harmony and that there were no signs of clans, or other tensions among the players. Domenech also bunkerised the French team in all the competitions they participated in further annoying the French media who could not get a grip on the team.

Lesson #4 : Be open and at the same time firm with the media, don’t hide from the truth.

The fans

France has never been as passionate about football as some other European countries like Italy, England, Germany and Spain. French clubs don’t have the same history and passion and fans are more volatile. Loyalty and support to a club from father to son is unheard of in France. You don’t have the system of socios like in Spain. On the other hand, French fans demand panache of their national team, a Cyrano de Bergerac attitude, made of bravoure and beau jeu. When this doesn’t happen, the popular base of the team rapidly disintegrates leading to sarcasm and criticism.

Lesson #5 : be generous with the fans, stay true to your values, give attention.

Maracanazos don’t like to give lessons, but sometimes they have to.

How many pairs of shoes do you own? 5? 10? 20? I have a friend named Donte who works at a shoe store and owns over 70 pairs of shoes. Yes, Donte has too many shoes, and this truth becomes even more apparent when you stop and think that there are people on this planet who don’t have any shoes at all.

This summer, during the World Cup, SoccerPro.com is funneling the excitement over the global soccer event into a charitable movement called “Shoes 4 Life”. They are raising awareness of the fact that millions of people every day, many of them children, do not have shoes. Without shoes, walking long distances to schools or jobs is nearly impossible, and bare feet are prone to injury. By donating money to Shoes 4 Life, you can help make a step in the direction of ending this easily fixable problem.

One dollar sends one pair of shoes to a barefoot child or adult, and can deliver much more: hope.

SoccerPro is thanking everybody who helps in the movement by giving away some of their inventory. Some lucky winners will receive $800 worth of soccer shoes.

Take a look at Shoes 4 Life – it’s a positive way to celebrate how the World Cup is bringing the world together.

Maracanazos try to help when they can.

The World Cup has started off oddly with the noisy vuvuzelas, the floating balls and some not so full stadiums. Despite that, the South African hospitality and organization have been flawless and the fans seem to be enjoying it both in and outside the stadiums.

However, the first 11 games have overall been caracterized by extremely cautious tactics and the objective of not loosing before thinking of eventually winning. This trend – which is not new – lies with the 2 tier organization of the World Cup with a first round which is in fact a small championship to filter out the top 2 teams from the 8 groups which then play the real cup phase with direct elimination in the eighth, quarter and semi-finals.

One important reason for having a mini championship to start with is to increase the number of games played – 48 – so as to cumulate maximum television audiences and the revenues that these generate. However, the first phase of the World Cup has too many drawbacks in my opinion:

• The favourite teams can afford to manage their first and even second game and still qualify in the third one (Italy even qualified with 3 ties in the first round of the 1982 World Cup!).
• This leads to dry and boring games where the smaller football nations are proud even tying against higher rated opponents.
• It becomes very difficult for the so-called smaller teams to qualify for the eighth finals because they need to play 3 top quality games to have a chance of going through.
• In some cases, when a team wins its first 2 matches, the third one can become an opportunity to have a majority of substitutes play.

I would change these 2 tier rounds so that the World Cup deserves its cup quality as of game 1 by adopting the same elimination system as in pro tennis tournaments. A ranking system would classify the 32 qualifying teams depending on past and current results (more on this in a future post). The nation ranked 1st would play the 32nd, the 2nd would play the 31st and so on. Direct elimination would therefore happen from game 1. There are several advantages with this method:

• Every single game is eliminatory thereby providing for maximum intensity and drama.
• By halving the total number of games from 64 to 32 the FIFA would be preserving the physical integrity of the players and increasing the quality of the matches.
• Less is more!
• Smaller nations would stand unique chances of causing memorable upsets keeping alive the true nature of cup games.
• Better and more intensive games will bring higher tv audiences and the revenue flows that come along with these.

FIFA, bring the passion, drama and intensity that the World Cup deserves from day 1! Fans will thank you for that.

Maracanazos don’t want to mix championships with cups.