This has been a terrible World Cup for European football.
Three of the major nations have imploded, with Italy, France and England all vying for the title of "Biggest Loser" (I think France just edged it, but it’s close). Only six of the thirteen teams who qualified for the Championship made it through the group stage – where all five South American teams qualified. And the level of performance, both by teams and individuals, has been, frankly dreadful.
Think about the World Cup you’ve watched so far: how many inspiring moments have you seen from European teams? Germany in general have been as inspiring as they were in 2006 – a team of Polish and Turkish immigrants children remaking the tough traditions of German football into something free and flowing. Wesley Sneijder’s pass to Robben against Slovakia. Denmark for twenty minutes against Cameroon.
But is that it? The Dutch have been slow. The Spanish, laboured. Portugal, afraid to play, and thus wasting Cristiano Ronaldo altogether. The rest, miserably limited. England have no ingenuity. France no dignity. Italy, too many bus passes. Denmark need new players. Slovakia, Slovenia, Serbia, Switzerland and the rest looked scared, mediocre and instantly forgettable. Both Russia and Croatia would have been better representatives.
Amid the mediocrity, two players have shone so bright it’s been blinding.
David Villa’s brilliance is no surprise. The guaranteed goal machine of big-game football has been wonderful, incisive. Played as a left winger by Del Bosque, it has not stopped his goal-scoring at all. He led the game against Portugal from that left wing position, driving inwards and creating space. His winning goal was a masterpiece of persistence.
Ozil is more of a surprise. And his will be the career that goes stratospheric as a result of this World Cup. The Werder Bremen playmaker has been astounding. This World Cup has proved more than anything the value of playmakers who drift wherever they need to to cause damage. England’s lack of one is part of our failure. Italy’s loss of Totti partly accounts for their fall, Zidane’s loss from France even more so. Ozil, just 21, looks every inch the inheritor of Totti and Zidane’s crown. He’s played in a way that looks unmarkable: first on the right, then on the left, then through the middle. Sometimes ahead of play, sometimes deep. Totally unpredictable. What he has that few pacemakers have is a burst of blinding pace. When he tore past Gareth Barry down the left wing to set-up Germany’s fourth goal on Sunday, Barry looked stunned. Creative players aren’t usually that fast. But with one kick and rush he was gone.
Speculation had linked him with Arsenal before, but his price now will be huge. It deserves to be. If José Mourinho doesn’t fancy Kaka, then there could be no better foil to Ronaldo than Ozil. He deserves that level of quality around him.
Against the misery of European football, South America and Asia have been beacons of hope for the future. Chile, swept aside by Brazil, were a buzzing swarm of quick passing and brutal pressing. Uruguay have, in Suarez and Forlan, possibly the best pairing up front. And Argentina have been an entertaining, passionate, free flowing blizzard of attacking football. Brazil have been brutally functional, and seem both the most solid team defensively and the most fragile as an attacking force – can a fading Kaka and Robinho really be depended on to perform when it comes down to it, and do they have any other options? In many ways the best performance i’ve seen was Japan’s against Denmark – a game that made me really believe the best football of the next twenty years at international level won’t come from the decadents of the big-nations but the inspired patriots of the smaller teams.
That might just be wish fulfillment on my part, and the big teams have been exerting their might as we’ve gone on. But either way, the commercial gravy train of the European leagues seems to have crushed the life out of our football teams, leaving just a few shining stars to come through.
Thank god for Villa and Ozil – without them, this whole tournament would have been unbearable.