February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
None of the world-famous players shone. Luis Figo ended up being the best of a bad bunch. Pavel Nedved was looking special until he came out injured against the Greeks in the semis.
All the superstars and super teams were beaten by reliable team defense. The Greeks may never be gods of football, but they sent their most talented opponents packing. While Euro 2000 was all about attack, 2004 was all about defense. And you can’t build an attacking team without having a solid defense.
France had the football world ranting and raving — and rightly so after 2000. In 2004, though, France struggled at the back. They were missing the Marcel Desailly of 1998 and 2000. It’s necessary to have great defenders behind great midfield and forward players. Which is precisely what Desailly was behind Zidane a few years ago.
That great defender has spent the last six years at Chelsea and his presence has brought stability to Stamford Bridge. His influence rather than his play contributed to Chelsea’s outstanding away record in the Champions League. But Desailly is slowing down and has been exposed in the last two seasons. No doubt his experience still contributes, but he gets caught for speed in one-versus-one situations. Also missing from his game are his timely interceptions and in particular his strong tackles. Now at 36 he does not get forward as much as he used to. These are the defensive qualities that France has been missing at their back line and why they looked shaky in Euro 2004. ikael Silvestre, too, was caught out of position too many times.
Now Desailly has announced his retirement from international football and that’s left the French with big boots to fill. (Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho has asked Desailly to join his staff.) As for the other French superstars in 2004, they were just terrible. They did not have the hunger to win the tournament. They went though the motions in the end. To be fair, they did look tired and punch drunk from too much football. But is that a good enough excuse? After all, it is their job, isn’t it? And they get well paid for what they do.
But maybe they’re not the great players we think they are? Henry was supposed to be the best player in the world. That usually comes with winning a tournament on your own shoulders. With the exception of Zidane, can we honestly put these players in the company of Pele? But the French aren’t the only ones whose reputation needs to be reexamined.
The Dutch were reduced to mindless and desperate long balls into Portugal’s box in their semifinal. While they resorted to such questionable strategy their main stars — Ruud van Nistelrooy, Edgar Davids and Clarence Seedorf — were also disappointing.
Davids was full of running but he seemed to have lost the plot too many times. High expectation for Seedorf fell by the wayside, while van Nistelrooy did just OK. The big forward did make the tournament first team, which begs the question: What do we know about soccer? But from a spectator’s point of view van Nistelrooy does need to stop diving and trying to con the ref. And then act as if he is innocent. In fact, it looks silly. Less clowning and more concentration is the order of the day for Van the Man.
Davids and Seedorf will have to win a Champions League title next season to convince that they are indeed world class. It would be fair enough to throw some criticism at Holland’s coach Dick Advocaat who did not help the players perform to their potential. Though they did make it to the final four, but didn’t compared to the great Holland teams of the past that brought us “total football.”
Meanwhile, it’s looking bad for Italy’s Alesandro Del Piero. He has never quite reached his potential. At least one other Italian star had a bad tournament: Francesco Totti was sent home on a red card. Germany’s Michael Ballack gets a lot of recognition as one of the best around. He gets forward and scores goals. Ballack, however, is not going to take the ball down and run the game. And Spain’s Raul continues to come up short. His involvement in the games seemed under par.
The team that came closest to fulfilling their potential were Portugal and Luis Figo came closest to justifying the superstar tag.
The real strength of the Portuguese performance was their back line. Euro 2004 fell short of producing a player who can stand up alongside the best in the world. The tournament lesson was all about defense — when the big names up front and in the middle go missing it’s up to the back line to hold out. And that’s how Greece won it.