The US got blown out by the Czech Republic 3-0. A result that prompted much soul searching. And Bruce Arena did not spare his players. He called out DaMarcus Beasley, Landon Donovan, and Brian McBride for a poor performance. And he stuck with that theme when he was asked about his harsh evaluation that these players stunk.
“It was accurate, ” Arena was quoted as saying by Reuters. “The reason that we lost the game was that their players played better than our players. Individually, they were better and won most of the matchups on the field.”
Arena is trying to do exactly the same thing that Pat Riley of the Miam Heat is doing, trying to rally the Heat from the 0-3 hole that they find themselves in against the Dallas Mavericks in the NBA finals. He is channeling their ego and asking them to rise to the occasion against their next opponents, Italy.
France really sucked against Switzerland playing the most disjointed soccer in their opener. The cognoscenti had stated unequivocally that Thierry Henry and David Trezeguet would eat up their opponents. The rest of the team was a question mark as Raymond Domenech coaxed three players out of retirement, Zinedine Zidane, Claude Makelele, and Lilian Thuram. But nothing went right and the French were caught bickering more often than playing soccer.
So Raymond Domenech would have words for his players. Accept that he has been tinkering too much with the attack. Right? But no, Domenech decided that the field was at fault. He and and Thierry Henry issued a statement that criticized the field for being dry. Said Domenech, “The pitch didn’t roll or slide. To sprinkle the pitch six hours before the match is not very helpful.”
Ah! it is not Domenech’s fault and neither are his players for their shoddy showing against the Swiss, they were tripped up by a dry pitch. If only it had been waterlogged, they would have scored at least a half dozen goals. This because Thierry Henry plays in these conditions, “The pitch was more than slow. In England at halftime and before the game, they put water on the pitch. I saw that they were watering the pitch after the game. I don’t know why.
This really explains why after winning the 1998 World Cup, they exited the first round in 2002 without scoring a single goal!
I think the French have gone into a self congratulatory mode after their 1998 and they have never recovered.
This really goes to Domenech when he invents an excuse such as this to explain their poor showing. It means that criticizing his players for their performance would inflame the likes of prima donnas, Henry, Zidane, and Trezeguet, showing that at this point he commands very little respect from his players. I think Domenech is in deep trouble.
It also brings up an interesting point, that France inundates the world and the premier leagues like the EPL and the Serie with its top talent but lacks cohesion when these players assemble to play for the national team.
But given the French predilection for minimalism, Domenech may have been tongue in cheek when he blamed a dry pitch for the drought in goals.