SHIZUOKA, 21 June — As the England squad travel through the tea plantations of Shizuoka to the Ecopa Stadium for this afternoon’s World Cup quarterfinal against Brazil the movie theaters of the mind will be in overdrive.
David Seaman will recall Gordon Banks’ save and Rio Ferdinand will replay Bobby Moore’s tackle. The fearful will be unable to get Rivaldo’s goal against Belgium out of their heads; the bold will think, instead, of the enticing holes Marc Wilmots exposed in Brazil’s defense. The young and ambitious will look about them, at David Beckham and Michael Owen, and remember St. Etienne and two hours of football which changed those players’ lives, ultimately for the better. All may dwell on Beckham’s words this week when he said: “In this game certain moments may not come again.” On average, for an English international footballer, they come around once in a career. Not many players retain the jersey for eight years and, since losing to Brazil in Guadalajara 32 years ago, England have reached this stage of the World Cup four times. For all the talk about this being a young and promising side there are no guarantees that they will be here in Germany 2006. Carpe diem should be today’s slogan.
It is a match which calls for strong characters. Even the Brazilians are excited and, according to inside accounts, nervous at the highest level. England’s most important World Cup tie for a dozen years, and their most glamorous in decades, may even bring large parts of Japan to a standstill so fondly are both teams regarded here.
England’s main concern, prematch, is the fitness of Owen. Neither he, Paul Scholes nor Darius Vassell trained yesterday although they did undertake gym work. “I think by Friday everybody will be fit,” said Sven Goran Eriksson yesterday. Should that be the case, England are likely to be unchanged for the third successive match, a feat last achieved at Euro 1996.
However, the condition of a foot injury, such as Scholes has, is relatively easy to assess. Owen’s groin and Vassell’s sore back are more problematic. Muscular injuries are likely to recur if not healed and while Owen’s importance to the team, and the value of his reputation, means Eriksson will be desperate to start him, neither man would want to risk that.
Should both Owen and Vassell be unfit Eriksson will have to choose between Fowler’s instinct and experience and Dyer’s pace and energy. This decision could depend on the climatic conditions.
England are scanning the skies seeking the return of the tsuyu, as the Japanese call their monsoon, which doused their match with Denmark and Japan’s with Turkey. “Let’s hope it will rain a little. We are used to rain in England,” said Eriksson. “I would be happy to do a rain dance!” Should that fail, the temperatures are likely to be around 30C in the shade.
“If I could change the kick-off time I would but that is impossible. We have to do all that we can to beat the heat,” said Eriksson. “If it’s hot it is very difficult to maintain the tempo.” England have yet to beat Brazil in the World Cup, losing two and drawing one of their three encounters. They have only beaten them three times in 16 friendly matches. Nor can they look to their manager for inspiration.
Sweden have met Brazil a record seven times in the World Cup, drawing two and losing five, including the 1958 final and the 1994 semifinal.
For Eriksson it is a contest between the best defense in the tournament and the best attack, a belief backed up by the statistics. No team matches Brazil’s 13 goals, only Germany, against weaker opposition, has also conceded England’s one. He added: “I’m very optimistic. I think if we can repeat the performance against Argentina then we can beat them.”
Whatever the result one hopes it is achieved without controversy. Given the beneficial refereeing decisions which have accompanied Brazil’s progress — so noticeable as to have merited an article in the International Herald Tribune — England will be watching Felipe Ramos Rizo closely. There have long been close links, in footballing politics, between Mexico and Brazil and their administrative regions. This could, though, go the other way as Snr Rizo may be especially careful to avoid accusations of bias.
In a World Cup like this one anything is possible and England can win.
Owen, and his understudies, have the beating of Brazil’s defense and Beckham’s delivery should be profitable at set-pieces. England’s defense will struggle, though, to extend its five-hour shut-out another 90, or 120, minutes.
A key factor will be England’s approach. If Beckham and Trevor Sinclair spend the game defending against Roberto Carlos and Cafu the initiative, and probably a semifinal place, will be Brazil’s. England need to be controlled but positive.
There are defining images in every World Cup: Kenneth Wolstenholme’s commentary as Geoff Hurst completes his hat trick; Gordon Banks’ save; Maradona’s controversial goal against England; Salvatore Schillaci scoring to a Pavarotti soundtrack; Michael Owen’s goal. The opportunity is there for someone to join that list. It will probably be Owen or Ronaldo, Beckham or Rivaldo. But it could be Trevor Sinclair or Danny Mills. England must seize the day. (The Independent)
Brazil could kill us if we let them, Eriksson warns England
England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson said yesterday he believes his young lions must mix iron defense with lightning-quick attack or risk facing a certain World Cup death against Brazil in today’s quarterfinal showdown here.
England go into the eagerly anticipated last-eight clash with the best defensive record in the tournament, having conceded just one goal in four matches and with clean sheets in their three previous matches.
But against Brazil’s fearsome array of attackers the English will have to be at the very top of their defensive game if they are to have any chance of advancing to the semifinals, Eriksson said yesterday.
Despite the resurgence of Ronaldo — joint tournament top scorer with five goals — and the brilliance of Rivaldo, Eriksson has ruled out any chance of trying to snuff out the threat by man-marking, a tactic England’s players are unfamiliar with.
“I don’t think it’s a very good idea to mark man for man,” Eriksson said. “We’re not used to it, we’ve never done it. There could be a bad result if we tried. “You have to mark them when they come into your zone.
We have to pay attention to the counter-attack — they’re extremely quick at that. “So we’ll have to be very compact, very tight and work as a unit — if we don’t do that, and we give them time and space, then they will kill us.
“Every time you see Brazil playing football you have the feeling that whenever they cross the halfway line it smells as if they can score. They are very, very dangerous always.”
Though Eriksson has drummed into his players the importance of sticking together in defense, he has not neglected his options up front, where Michael Owen will lead the English attack after recovering from a groin injury.
“You can’t win a football match by only defending — you have to attack as well,” he said. Eriksson said Owen had trained successfully yesterday and would take his normal position at the apex of England’s tried and trusted 4-4-2 line-up. “I think he’s okay. He had some small problems but he worked very hard — took a lot of massage, treatments.
He seemed to be very good today,” Eriksson said, ruling out any chance that Owen was being rushed back for the game. “No, no, no, not, Absolutely not — he’s fully fit,” he said. Many pundits are starting to believe the victors of today’s game will go on to lift the World Cup in Yokohama on June 30, with the field depleted by the shock exits of teams such as Argentina, Italy, France and Portugal.
But Eriksson played down the suggestion that England would be favourites if they managed to overcome Brazil. “Favorites? It’s no use to listen to me about favorites. All the favorites I had for this World Cup are back home,” he said. “I don’t know what to say. For England we should go on as we did so far — one game at a time.
Our target for the moment is to reach the semifinals.” Nevertheless Eriksson is nurturing belief amongst the English squad.
“I think we have a very good team and we’ve done very well so far — so why can’t we win against Brazil?,” he said. “If we play as we have played against many teams so far I think we’ve got a great chance. It’s not easy but it’s a very open game.”
Eriksson, a keen student of psychology, will also make sure that England’s players are mentally prepared for the challenge. England will play in a white strip on today, forcing Brazil to don unfamiliar blue shirts rather than their classic lemon jerseys. The move is being seen as an attempt to strip away some of Brazil’s aura and mystique.
The quietly spoken Eriksson is also determined to instill a sense of calm into his young side in the moments before kick-off. “It’s very important that they go out calm, not nervous, not too much tension,” he said.
“They have to go out and play football as they can play football, then we have a chance. If we’re too tight, too nervous then we will not win the game,” said Eriksson.
Meanwhile Eriksson’s reputation as a lucky manager will have been enhanced by a cool weather front that has swept over Shizuoka. Torrential rain lashed the stadium yesterday and conditions are expected to be similar for today. “Coming from England we’re very used to rain,” a smiling Eriksson said. “Of course it’s much better to play football in these conditions than 35 degrees heat — at least for us it’s much better.”
