Elsewhere, everyone's fighting with everyone. players fighting with players, managers fighting with fans, players calling managers blind and managers picking players for all the wrong reasons. for france, germany and two argentines, this world cup run-in seems like a big saga of runs-in.
The trend is for talented French players to miss the world cup because of fighting with the coach. 15 years ago, this was eric cantona's story. then it was david ginola. then it was nicolas anelka. a couple of years ago, it was robert pires, and now, it's ludovic giuly. giuly has come out to publicly attack raymond domenech for ignoring him in spite of the fact that he is holding his own alongside ronaldinho in the mighty barcelona's attacking midfield lineup. and in all fairness, domenech's wisdom does seem ill-placed: at a time when the french are faltering, he continues to pick uncapped youngsters in giuly's position instead of the experienced winger.
Blind man with loud enemies
still, giuly isn't alone. fellow midfielder johan micoud has also come out to slate his manager, calling domenech "the blind man" for failing to see the work of werder bremen's no 10. it's ridiculous, but of course, they're the french! they are supposed to fight with their managers, and call them stupid names for not picking them. it's like a tradition, some french festival celebrated once every two years just before a major football tournament.
Is the dortmund crowd picking the german team?
but spats abound, and host nation germany aren't spared of it either. in fact, jurgen klinnsmann has had to fight off any number of bickerings, from members of parliament wanting tactical explanations from klinnsmann to the kahn v lehmann wars, and now to a certain issue of borussia dortmund. it seems that in germany, the definitive fan stadium is not the olympic stadium in munich, it's the westfalen stadion in dortmund. the dortmund fans are fanatical. not just that, but the westfalen stadion is the only stadium in which germany has not lost a qualifier or friendly. and what does this have to do with klinnsmann's selection? cue christian woerns.
germany's veteran defender is a fan favourite in dortmund, where he plies his trade, and an uproar happened when klinnsmann announced that woerns would have no part to play in the world cup. to be fair, klinnsmann has his reasons - in a bid to rejuvinate his squad with attacking minded players (even centrebacks), mr jurgen favours the likes of philip lahm and per mertesacker, players whom he believes can start attacks and play a bit of football. and you can't really fault him for trying. but his relationship with the dortmund fans has been frayed, and in a recent friendly, klinnsmann is said to have selected another dortmund defender sebastian kehl simply to avoid getting booed off the westfalen stadion. will kehl make it to the world cup? if he does, on what grounds? we certainly know what ground - the westfalen stadion!
Sorin cries blood for Argentina
and then over in argentina, yet another kind of war is raging. captain juan pablo sorin and midfield failure juan sebastian veron have been going at it of late. the facts are that veron hasn't played for argentina since jose pekerman became manager and made sorin captain. the only person who seems to think it is sorin's fault is veron himself (the rest of the world knows that veron just can't play anymore). and so ensues the war of words that culminates in the recent champions league quarterfinal clash between inter milan (veron) and villarreal (sorin), during which veron threw in a crude challenge on sorin that left sorin with a cut eye, and the pair had to be separated before entering the dugout later.
it doesn't take a genius to know which one of sorin and veron is going to germany, so veron's reaction just appears to just be frustration, lack of professionalism and - to some - just plain bad argentinian streak.
but it makes you wonder - is this whole world cup selection thing driving everyone crazy? will the next month see more ridiculous actions from players, managers and even fans alike? some wait, some watch, and then some go mental.
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