Cup Kick Off Turns Friends to Foes
June 3, 2002
The greatest sporting circus in the world is once again upon us. The four year cycle of qualifiers and play-offs, elation and heartache delivers the World Cup finals to the planet’s consciousness at last.
For most, the exotic collection of foreign characters gracing the greatest of football stages will sweep over them, leaving indelible moments and unforgettable flashes of individual brilliance.
Unpronounceable identities will become household names on the back of outrageous skill and championship winning action.
But to many of the players taking part in this year’s summer spectacle, their opponents will be far from alien.
The English leagues boast the greatest number of players appearing on the squad sheets of the 32 nations spread over the eight groups with 93 in total.
Players from the top league represent the majority of these. 79 Premiership stars will take part in the finals, which includes 22 of the England squad itself and the majority of the Republic of Ireland contingent of course.
The one exception in the England camp is Owen Hargreaves, the 21 year old Bayern Munich midfielder who was born in Canada but qualifies through his English heritage.
Germany-based Hargreaves will be one of many players who will be coming up against fellow Bundesliga colleagues and opponents in the coming weeks.
In the first phase alone, Hargreaves may find himself up against familiar faces such as Argentina’s Diego Placente, Nigeria’s Taribo West (both of Bayer Leverkusen) and Sweden’s Andreas Jakobsson (Hansa Rostock).
With club colours swapped for the coveted national kit, there promises to be no quarter given as domestic relationships are put to one side in the pursuit of the most valued prize in the game.
When France, the current world champions, play Denmark in Group A on June 6, Bayern stars Bixente Lizarazu and Willy Sagnol may well have to deal with the well known threat of Schalke 04’s Danish danger man Ebbe Sand.
In Group B, three out of the four teams facing each other will contain Germany-based players. Slovenia fields the most with Kaisterlautern’s Aleksander Knavs, Nuremburg’s Rajko Tavcar and Cologne’s Spasoje Bulajic.
Meanwhile, the lively Roque Santa Cruz of Bayern threatens to upset the group when he spearheads the Paraguay attack.
South African hopes may well rest on the ability of Bradley Camell (Stuttgart) and Delron Buckley (Bochum) to contain their Bundesliga colleagues in the first stage.
If Poland and Croatia make it through the group stages and first knockout round, they could meet in a quarter final and field a total of 13 Bundesliga stars between them.
Polish coach Jerzy Engel has selected six in his travelling squad of 23 while his Croatian counterpart Mirko Jozic goes one better with an impressive seven.
Turkey, Brazil, Cameroon and Tunisia all field one Germany-based player in their squad. The United States includes three players from the Bundesliga and the Belgians have four from their neighbouring country in their contingent.
Of course, the German team itself is made up of a dazzling array of native talent but as the statistics show, the attractions of foreign leagues and big money transfers are not always enough to keep German stars on home soil.
Liverpool’s Didi Hamann and Tottenham Hotspurs’ Christian Ziege will offer invaluable insights into the English game if and when the old foes clash again while AS Monaco’s Oliver Bierhoff may have some secret knowledge of French football not yet utilised against the cup holders.
Whoever holds the trophy aloft in Yokohama on June 30, international rivalries are sure to be forgotten in the light of celebration.
Sportsmanship will undoubtedly be the overall winner until the domestic season starts again and the players can then all resume kicking lumps out of each other.
As a famous pundit once rightly remarked: ‘It’s a funny old game.'