Global, Monday Miscellany
The Monday Miscellany
Mike Martin bemoans the actions of Setanta and Danny Guthrie's shocking tackle on Craig Fagan, reflects on England's victory over an aging Croatia side, looks back at Luxembourg's fantastic success over Switzerland, and asks whether Micah Richards really can play as a central defender.
You’ve heard of stealth bombers and stealth taxes, this week has introduced us to a new concept in sports broadcasting devised by those loveable young scamps at Setanta - stealth highlights.
All week, there was the public outcry at the complete lack of terrestrial coverage of England’s qualifying matches in Andorra and Croatia, a consequence of the FA’s short-sighted switch of England and FA Cup rights from the BBC and Sky Sports to ITV and Setanta.
The Irish-based channel had claimed that the BBC’s offer of £200,000, and ITV’s of £250,000, for the rights to show highlights of the Croatia match on Wednesday evening did not ‘accurately reflect the market value’ of the product, which they wanted to flog for a cool million. (It might not unreasonably be argued, by the by, that if ITV were offering £250,000 to ward off the BBC, then £250,000 was the market value.) Therefore, although Setanta claimed negotiations were still going on even on the Wednesday of the match itself, there would be no coverage at all on terrestrial TV, although ITV are thought to have made a late bid of half a million.
The cynical interpretation of all this would be that Setanta wanted to keep all coverage for themselves in order to force as many England fans as possible to subscribe to their channel. Cheeringly, were that their intention, they failed. Only a million and a half people watched the programme at home, with the majority of England fans watching down the pub, which, if you’re a suit at Setanta, is not what you want at all.
Aware of the public relations nightmare that a terrestrial blackout would constitute, Setanta decided, at the last minute, to show highlights of England and Scotland’s matches (which both would go on to win), on Setanta Sports 1, unencrypted, so that any Tom, Dick or Harry with a Freeview box could watch. Unfortunately, so few people knew about their plans and could be bothered to stay up until half past midnight in midweek that their audience peaked at a feeble 281,000.
All of which was manna from heaven for ITV executives, who waded in with what is described as a ‘low six-figure’ offer to show highlights the following evening. Setanta, cornered, accepted, seemingly realizing that they had vastly overestimated the strength of their bargaining position. ‘We hate Setanta’ was the chant of choice in Barcelona and Zagreb. Being the channel that kept coverage of one of England’s greatest performances of the modern era from the average fan would have been a PR disaster a channel desperate for subscribers. If ITV saved Setanta, it was only from themselves.
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England were outstanding in Zagreb but Croatia deserved a thrashing for their pathetically ill-disciplined performance. It is beginning to look like Croatia peaked in their 3-2 win at Wembley last November, with many of their veteran players - the Kovac brothers, particularly - looking like shadows of the players that did so well in the Euro 2008 group stage, beating all before them including a German side that would go on to reach the final.
Theo Walcott’s pace and Emile Heskey’s strength gave Croatia’s ageing central defensive partnership of Josip Simunic (30) and Robert Kovac (34) nightmares, while Niko Kovac (36) now looks incapable of marshalling the centre of the pitch against strong opposition. The Kovac brothers chose not to retire from international football after Euro 2008; an honourable choice, but given that they will be 38 and 36 by the time the 2010 World Cup kicks off you have to wonder whether Slaven Bilic wouldn’t be doing his team a favour by looking for younger alternatives.
Robert was deservedly sent off for re-arranging Joe Cole’s facial features with a recklessly, if not maliciously, misplaced elbow. Niko might have joined him but got away with any number of bookable offences, including one truly miserable dive, and how Josip Simunic finished the match only the referee will know. The defender’s cowardly body check on Walcott in the first half deserved a straight red but got only a yellow; in the second half he cynically brought down Rooney in an attacking position and was fortunate it only resulted in a free-kick, from which Frank Lampard tested the reflexes of Stipe Pletikosa.
Simunic was the only Croat who played badly in the 3-2 win at Wembley, needlessly fouling Jermain Defoe and giving away the penalty which began England’s ultimately fruitless comeback. He played at left-back that night and looked out of position but looked no more comfortable in the middle on Wednesday night.
Bilic’s problem was that Dario Knezevic, the Juventus centre-back who came on after Kovac’s red card, looked no better and only Zenit St Petersburg’s Ivica Krizanac, a latecomer to international football at 29, and Monaco’s Dario Simic, who is nearly 33, can realistically be called up to cover for the suspended Kovac in Croatia’s next match against the Ukraine in Kharkiv next month. If Croatia lose there as well the group could, unexpectedly, become a straight fight between England and Ukraine, who many thought would merely be battling for second place behind the Euro 2008 quarter finalists.
Besides, if the racist abuse suffered by Emile Heskey in Zagreb is anything to go by, Croatia do not deserve to be at the World Cup. And if you’re wondering why Heskey received the monkey calls but Ashley Cole, Rio Ferdinand and Theo Walcott didn’t, it’s because they are ‘merely’ mixed race which, in the minds of the idiots dotted around the Maksimir, is less offensive to the senses.
***
There really are no easy games in international football. Even Andorra away looked like hard work for England, but it doesn’t help if the opponents, with no chance of winning the match, simply put ten men behind the ball and try to kill the match from the word go. Absolutely no intelligence can be gained from absurd fixtures like these, so it is best simply to accept the hard-earned three points and get on with the rest of our lives. Which is exactly what Fabio Capello did.
And exactly what Switzerland’s new head coach, the German maestro Ottmar Hitzfeld, will be wishing he could do, after Switzerland’s dire 2-1 home defeat to Luxembourg. Qualification already looks like an uphill battle for the Swiss, despite being in an extraordinarily undaunting group with Greece, Israel, Latvia, Moldova and the minnows from Luxembourg. Greece’s shock triumph at Euro 2004 has for four years kept them in a virtuous circle of unnaturally high seeding and easy fixtures. They are group favourites already and qualifying for the World Cup for only the second time in their history would put them in a strong position when the draw for Euro 2012 qualification comes around next year.
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Words fail me when it comes to Newcastle. Until Mike Ashley sells up, the club will remain in purgatory, with the fans feeling the same sense of frustration so unwisely personified by midfielder Danny Guthrie, over whom the red mist descended late on in their 2-1 home defeat to Hull City. Although Guthrie’s frustration is understandable, his lunge on Craig Fagan could have broken his opponent’s leg (Ed: And did so) and the book should be thrown at him accordingly.
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Old-new-money beat new-money on Saturday evening, with Chelsea producing arguably a better performance than their opening-weekend thrashing of Portsmouth in winning 3-1 at Eastlands, despite going behind to Robinho’s badly-defended free-kick. Manchester City defended poorly; Zabaleta is not yet up to the pace of the Premier League and as long as I live, I will never be persuaded that Micah Richards is a central defender.
England’s best two performances (by a mile) under Steve McClaren - the 3-0 home wins over Israel and Russia - came with Richards at right wing-back and Shaun Wright-Phillips on the right wing. Richards is a superb athlete and a clever footballer but not a great defender, and City would benefit were Mark Hughes to replicate Steve McClaren’s England right-side now that Shaun Wright-Phillips has been repatriated. The two linked brilliantly in those England matches, both scoring against Israel. And, whatever happened in Zagreb, Richards would be miles better at right back than Wes Brown, who still looks like a centre-back filling in for Gary Neville at Old Trafford.
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In this new age of Respect, it would be fitting if Mark Halsey, who had a decent game until his ludicrous decision to send off John Terry, would come clean and admit his mistake. Terry’s pull on Jô did not remotely constitute ‘serious foul play’ or the denial of an obvious goalscoring opportunity. It is that kind of refereeing error that has created such a sense of permanent injustice and mistrust of officials at Chelsea, and football does not need that to be re-invigorated.
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Despite promises of a super-but-not-quite-as-super-as-super-Saturday-Saturday, with Liverpool v Manchester Utd and Manchester City v Chelsea on TV, I attended an FA Cup 1st Qualifying Round match on Saturday afternoon between Pickering Town and Whitley Bay, both of Tier 9 of the football pyramid in their various regions. Pickering play at a little ground called Mill Lane with a slope so pronounced it would be better suited to the start of the Olympic BMX race, although they serve a decent pint, which is more than can be said for the Reebok Stadium.
Tags: Andorra, Chelsea, Croatia, England, FA Cup, Greece, ITV, John Terry, Luxembourg, Manchester City, Micah Richards, Mike Ashley, Newcastle, Setanta, Switzerland, World Cup 2010
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Im a city fan and you say micah richards does not look like a centre back and at the moment i half agree theres no doubt his ability to defend is second to none but as a centre back your reading of the game needs to be better than when at right back and micah reads the game very poorly sometimes so what do you do put him back at right back where he is class and let him learn or let him learn whilst playing centre half i would keep him at centre half because although he does read the game poor he doesnt read any worse than other 20 year olds which he barely is i think he will learn and be one of the best defenders in the world inside the next 3-5 years.Also people forget how young citys team is which leads to writing about something without really thinking because when you think about he is only just 20 it puts it into perspective.
I am astonished by the author’s comment of, ‘It is that kind of refereeing error that has created such a sense of permanent injustice and mistrust of officials at Chelsea’ There were a number of examples during the Man City vs Chelsea game of just how much injustice there is for any other team in the Premiership other than Man Utd and Chelsea when it comes to refereeing decisions. If John Terry played for a team outside the ‘top 4′ that would not be the first time he would have had a straight red card. On that point, I agree that the foul he committed does not constitute serious foul play, but in my opinion it was a red card offense. It was not a shirt pull, it was a rugby tackle. He had no idea that Carvalho was potentially covering, a point that could be debated due to Jo’s pace. It was one of the biggest acts of cheating I have seen in the game for a long time and disgusted me. If he gets off, you can expect kids to rugby tackle opponents going through on goal - wow, what a future the beautiful game of ‘foot’ball has to look forward to.
Don’t worry, Terry’s red card will be rescinded. He plays for Chelsea.
It seems the Terry red card was a point of principle; a moral decision by Mark Halsey - and, increasingly, I’m inclined to back his decision. Terry made no attempt to play the ball, but instead cyically and deliberately brought an opponent down, rugby-style. It’s one of those tackles that make you extremely angry as a supporter, especially when ‘only’ a yellow card is the usual outcome. Perhaps a red will teach others not to try the same thing.
It will also be a three-match suspension for Terry - and for all his abuse towards referees in the past, it’s what he deserves.
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