By Myles Palmer
Goalkeepers are important. Very important.
Kahn got Germany to their seventh World Cup Final today and the giant Rustu might get Turkey to their first by stopping the two R-men.
RUSTU is an excellent keeper, one of the few who catches the ball. Size matters between the sticks and Rustu is far better than Marcos as well as bigger.
England never tested Marcos, but Turkey will.
Turkey are much better than England because they can pass the ball and make runs off each other.
TUGAY is another Dunga, a great passer.He is Deschamps with longer passes.
Has Tugay made more than two bad passes in the tournament?
England defended too deep against Brazil, and tried to block the flanks-and the equaliser came from a break through the middle.
Turkey are tactically cuter than that.
They would not have been so thin in midfield when Ronaldinho made his dribble and one of the centrebacks would have got out to him much sooner and forced him to pass much earlier.These Turks know how defend.
Three weeks ago I was looking at all the teams to see who had flair and who had organisation.
Germany, England, Italy and Korea had organisation. Portugal and Spain had flair.
I believed that Cameroon,Senegal and Argentina had organisation AND flair, but those three let me down.
TURKEY, perhaps more than any other team, have organisation AND flair.
They did not get to this semi-final by a fluke.
THE KEY QUESTION is not : Are Turkey good enough to beat Brazil.Of course they are.
The key question is : Will the pressure of the event be too much for them?
Senegal’s failure against Turkey showed it was a match too far, and South Korea’s tame showing against Germany also looked like a game too far for them.
Senegal had gone further than they dared hope.
And South Korea had gone further than they dared hope.
They were tired and scared of the Germans, so they could not get their adventurous high-energy game going. They lost 1-0 to a Ballack goal in 75 minutes.
WILL TURKEY UNDER-PERFORM for the same reason?
Can Turkey show Sven how England should have played against Brazil?
Not really because England would have needed Gazza, Beardsley, Waddle,Anderton and Steven Gerrard to play the way Turkey play : CREATIVELY, with variety.
If coach Senol Gunes starts the wretchedly off-form SUKUR, rather than new hero ILHAN, then he doesn’t deserve a final.
Is Sukur REALLY married to the Prime Minister’s daughter?If he is, and he starts, then Turkey really IS a very backward country.
ILHAN has speed, skill, confidence-everything Sukur had five years ago.
TUGAY is more of a craftsman than Klebersen or Gilberto. He keeps Turkey ticking over, as the young Paulo Sosa used to do for Portugal and Juventus.
So it would not surprise me to see Turkey outpass Brazil and create more chances.Emre, the fouryth midfielder is another clever, strong, resourceful player.
The finishing by RIVALDO has been fantastic.
RONALDO will be dangerous for an hour, but maybe not after that.
Most semis are tight, low-scoring games.
In 1990 both went to extra time and penalties with Germany and Argentina beating England and Italy
Germany took 75 minutes to score today. Turkey might take only 20 minutes.
BUT I LOVE BRAZIL and would like to see Rivaldo win the World Cup,as Mick McCarthy said on BBC1 the other night “He’s been the best player in the world for the last few years.”
I’ve always said Rivaldo was better than Zidane because he scores far more goals, so he deserves a World Cup. And Ronaldo deserves one because he is such a smashing lad.
Two weeeks ago I met a Brazilian at the gym.
Thirtysomething, shaved head, ear-ring,tight blue shorts.
He said, “Ronaldo’s got so much money he doesn’t care any more.”
I don’t agree with that.
RONALDO is a happy-go-lucky footballer who enjoys the game and enjoys his life.
He is a smashing lad who can handle the madness going on round him every day.He may not be as hungry as he was, but he is a man with a mission.
He cares. He really cares about winning this World Cup, even if he doesn’t care about anything else.
A month ago Ronaldo said, “I want France in the final.”
An outrageous comment!
I thought : hang on, Ron, you’ve gotta be fit and in the team, Brazil have got to get to the final,and France have got to get to the final as well, before you can sort out your unfinished business from 1998.
That’s three big ifs! But a man who says,”I want France in the final” is a man for whom those three ifs just don’t exist.
For Ronaldo,who is 25, the last four years are a blur and 2002 has just come into focus.I can see clearly now, sang Johnny Nash, wrote Bob Marley.
RONALDO wants to put right something that went badly wrong four years ago. He has the talent to do it and he is in a team that can give him the ball where he wants it.
But Ronaldo knows, and I know, and you know, that he is not the awesomely explosive footballer he was in 1998.
So there is an unknown area there. Several unknown areas. We are waiting to see those areas revealed.
With Ronaldinho suspended, Juninho should start.
Big Phil’s twin ball-winners Kleberson and Gilberto will need to be sharp to take the ball off the Turks.
It’s gonna be very interesting, very tasty.
If Big Phil had realised how good Turkey are, he would not have started Juninho in central midfield against them in the group game, where Brazil were lucky to win.
He has seen them now, he has watched the tape and he thinks : These guys are a real team who can collectively invent the game from moment to moment, with the ball and without the ball.So it’s belt and braces time, chaps.Don’t concede the first goal, like we did last time.I just don’t want to risk that in a World Cup semi-final.
I’m really,really,really looking forward to tomorrow’s game. I can’t wait to see whether Turkey can stop Ronaldo’s mission.
WATCHED TODAY’S GERMANY-SOUTH KOREA SEMI in the boardroom of a law firm in town and it was a bit like watching a previous World Cup in a record company boardroom.
It’s nice to have a laugh with a bunch of cynical lawyers, making slanderous, politically incorrect and unrepeatable comments.
But tomorrow I’m at home and Lalo is coming round, my Argentinian journalist-broadcaster pal.
Lalo knows a lot about Latin American,Italian and Spanish football. Three weeks ago I said, “You MUST come round and watch a game with us.”
At that time I lazily assumed we could watch a quarter or a semi featuring Italy or Argentina, but 2002 has not panned out that way.
I just hope this game is not controversial. When the pressure is on, the Turkish temperament might not hold up. There is no way of knowing.
It must be weird playing in a mega-sports event with billions of people watching you. If you think about that you might freeze – or freak out.
I talk here about facts – and give opinions.
The facts say that Cafu, Roberto Carlos, Rivaldo and Ronaldo have been down this road before.
That counts for a lot. They played in a semi with half the world watching and won it four years ago.
The opinions say : I like the look of Turkey, I think they would beat any of the other 30 teams in this World Cup, if they played to their potential on a given day.
Hasan Sas, Basturk, Tugay, Rustu – these are four of the best players in this tournament.
On Thurday it might be time to finish picking my World Team, which was missing three players.
Can’t remember the eight I picked way back then, except that there were no Brazilians in it. That might chnage. We shall see…
25th June 2002.
PS THE BBC’s GOAL OF THE TOURNAMENT shortlist does not include Robbie Keane’s dramatic late equaliser against Germany.
It was a great, great, great goal- and the only goal scored aginast the Germans in six games.
Wake up, BBC !
DID YOU SEE SEAMAN talking to Bob Wilson on ITV last night?
He is still in denial!!!!!!!
He said, “There’s no way that was a shot.” He explained that he was expecting a cross – and he obviously was.
It simply didn’t occur to him that Ronaldinho might shoot from 40 yards away at such an angle. So Seaman prepared himself, mentally and postionally, for a cross.
Seaman said he had NOT seen it on TV, but he was not avoiding it. He said he wants to see it and needs to see it.
One day he will own up. He will admit he was beaten by an brilliant free-kick from a very skilful, audacious young Brazilian.
He can’t deny it for the next 40 years can he?
The sooner Dave Seaman owns up that it was a shot, the better for everybody. Including himself.