Sleepless And Fearless Forecasts

The World Cup comes to a head tonight in the Olympic stadium in Berlin, with the hosts heavily favored to win it all, that is, if they made it through the Italians in their semifinal bracket. For the first time in years neither of the South American powerhouses Brazil and Argentina will be playing for at least third place this weekend in the quadrennial event that offers football’s biggest prize.

Filipinos may still be reeling from delight at the latest victory by homegrown boxer Manny Pacquiao on local shores, but in hotel bars and sports grills across the country many aficionados have also been tuned in to the World Cup games telecast late at night and into the wee hours of the morning. Germany time is six hours behind Philippine time.

Featured games are at 9 pm in Germany or 3 am the next day here in Manila.

As of this writing four European teams are still in the running–Germany, Italy, Portugal and France, two of whom will be playing in the final tonight. This writer will thus explore the possible final or third place pairings, varied sidelights from a night’s viewing of the Germany-Argentina quarterfinal at E’s bar in Edsa Shangri-La, and from subsequent telecasts of other games over Sports Plus and Channel 9 on local cable and free TV.

Argentina, who largely had the backing of beer-guzzling Pinoys at E’s bar, squandered a 1-0 lead over Germany when its coach Jose Pekerman substituted playmaker Juan Riquelme and striker Hernan Crespo with still 20 minutes to go in regulation, opting for a more defensive posture rather than an attacking offense. The result was a Miroslav Klose header 10 minutes from time that deadlocked the match, 1-1, which held even after 30 minutes of extra time. There was no denying the Germans, who were cheered on by their Prime Minister Angela Merckel in the VIP box.

Brazil was surprisingly bundled out by the resurgent French team, who drew inspiration from midfielder Zinadine Zidane, now on his last international appearance. Two Arsenal players played key roles in a pair of quarterfinals last weekend: German keeper Jens Lehmann who blocked a pair of penalties during the shootout against Argentina, and French striker Thierry Henry who booted in the lone goal against Brazil in the 57th minute on a cross by Zidane.

Possible final or playoff for third pairings:

Germany-France: This is the most viable, most logical match for the final. The hosts in past stagings of the Cup have more often than not made the final, if not won it all. Klose is on track to winning the Golden Shoe award with most goals scored in the tournament, and the Germans’ much maligned defense has tightened up as the tournament progressed courtesy of a pair of young defenders backstopped by Lehmann. But there is no underestimating the French either who may be peaking at the right time after a couple of sluggish draws to open up the group phase. Where Zidane goes, so go the French, and the 34-year-old maestro has been playing his finest football in years.

Germany-Portugal: Not a bad match-up either, with the favored hosts going up against the sleeping ingénue, the only one of the four who have never won the World Cup. After some brilliant play in the elimination phase and round of 16, the Portuguese couldn’t shake off a pesky English side in the quarters after 120 minutes despite being a man up, and needed the heroics of keeper Ricardo in a nerve wracking shootout to advance. Portugal may be back in full force with Barca midfielder Deco having served suspension for booking a red card against Netherlands in a whistle-happy match.

Italy-France: The prime motivation for the Azzuri is the redemption of Italian football after a match-fixing scandal in Serie A, and no better opportunity is there than winning the Cup for Italy. The three-time winners are certainly the dark horse, and if they get past the hosts then there might be no stopping Totti, Gatusso, Buffon, Luca and company. French veteran Patrick Vieira would also be playing against some of his Juventus teammates, another good storyline.

Italy-Portugal: The least likely match-up, as far as oddsmakers are concerned, unless maybe for third place. Portugal will rely on the ageless Luis Figo, the Jaworski of Portuguese soccer, to direct play as he goes up against familiar faces in his club Inter Milan and other buddies from Serie A. Italy would have the upperhand against the relative newcomers, but don’t be surprised if this winds up in another shootout.

Kick off time for the final is 3 am Monday Manila time, so expect places like E’s bar and National Sports Grill to be filled with sleepless fans guzzling their beers and such.

Why football has not picked up in these islands has often been said to be a mystery, considering that the all-time leading scorer of Barcelona FC is a Filipino-Spaniard by the name of Paulino Alcantara, born at the turn of the last century. That little tidbit brought to you by Wikipedia, which adds that Alcantara was born of Spanish parents in Iloilo City and played for Bohemians Manila and the national team that trounced Japan, 15-2, in a regional meet in that country. Alcantara studied medicine in the Philippines before heading back to Spain where he led Barcelona to five Copa del Rey titles. He retired in 1927 at the age of 31 to become a practicing doctor, after having scored 356 goals in 357 matches for Barca, generations before the time of the repeat Primera Liga and current Champions League holders and football player of the year Ronaldinho, and teammates Puyol, Gio, Eto’o.

Football was a game popular in these islands when the American influence was not yet so prevalent, and we remember a photo of the former senator Lorenzo Tanada with his La Salle football teammates under his glass desk when we interviewed him long ago.

But it was never a game for old men, although the way Zidane has been playing may make us think twice about that. It’s once been said that 2 plus 2 is very rarely four in soccer, more often it is three or five. The ball is round and it doesn’t get any rounder than in football. Perhaps this is most evident in the fact that in an all-Euro final four, absent is the current European Cup titleholders Greece, who didn’t even qualify for the finals.

Expect the unexpected then tonight or in the wee hours in the final, and maybe the ghost of Paulino Alcantara applauding in a corner of a smoke-filled bar, long after his underachieving Spain had been bundled out yet again and his fellow Manileños are more bohemian than brazen when it comes to the beautiful, beautiful game.

Editor’s note: We challenged this fellow World Cup watcher to place his bets, even as we await the semifinal games as this issue goes to press.