Good teams, and Bad teams

I mentioned 'emerging African nations' in my last Blog as I am old enough to have watched and remember Zaire's 9-0 defeat at the hands of Yugoslavia in the 1974 FIFA World Cup held in West Germany and won by the hosts. Zaire were the first black African team to reach the World Cup Finals. The country is now known as the Democratic Republic of Congo and has a recent FIFA ranking of 121st in the World. The 9-0 victory by Yugoslavia over Zaire remains a record score for a World Cup Final. Given the limited number of goals scored so far in the 2010 World Cup, that record is likely to remain intact for at least another four years. But we have to put defeats like this into context; however great the margin in a single game in the Finals, each participating team is one of the best in their region and has slogged it out against other opponents for a worthy place in the World Cup Finals as one of thirty two teams. It's not really a case of 'Good' or 'Bad' teams, but teams who are there on equal merit but which may not be able to perform as well as others, for a variety of reasons. These reasons can range from climate, injury to key players, team morale, political circumstance, internal strive, and sheer bad luck on the day. Unless of course you are Brazil, then these circumstances don't seem to occur all too often. In the current World Cup Finals Group Stage; Ghana are up against Serbia, Australia, and Germany. The Germans always seem to be able to field a strong and determined team. Given their current performance against Australia (where they are 2-0 up in the 55th minute), this tournament seems to be the same as the others. With a red card just issued to the Australian number 4 Tim Cahill, it is likely that the Germans will romp home in this game and probably the Group. This is the 4th red card for this tournament already and as a qualified Class B referee I can honestly say that the tackle didn't look like a 'straight red' to me. He clipped his opponent, but little more. Whereas the Germans are good at diving. And to be fair to this referee he gave one of the German players a yellow card in the first half for a deliberate dive. There's too much cheating in Club and World football, and even though Zaire lost 9-0 no one could accuse them of cheating during that tournament. Maybe, African ethics and values are higher than those of European and South American footballers. Is it the serious Church going, poor nations underpinned by strong religion? maybe African players don't see the value in being a cheat. Better to play and loose than to be a dirty cheat who cheats time and time again. Be it holding an opponent in the box, feigning a tackle and taking a dive, or encouraging the referee to give a card by gesture or word. No the African game may not yet be the 'beautiful game', but it certainly is the clean game and a credit to FIFA.