Comments from famous footballing names on the 1998 World Cup
When they gathered together for a friendly match, a number of great footballing names gave us their impressions of the World Cup. Comments from the Stade Départemental Robert Bobin in Bondoufle (south of PARIS), on Thursday 2 July, during the match when a team of former players from PARIS Saint Germain (French premier league club) played a team of former BRAZIL players.
Jorghino (World Champion with the BRAZIL team in 1970)
“BRAZIL is a team which showed its quality against MOROCCO (3-0 win) and CHILE (4-1 win), and I hope that they’ll play well against DENMARK (match no. 58 on Friday 3 July at 21h00 at the Stade de la Beaujoire in NANTES). But football is also a matter of luck. What isn’t so good, however, is their way of organising themselves on the field, which hasn’t changed with the times, unlike all the European teams. Look at ITALY, for example, or ENGLAND, which play 5-3-2. There’s also FRANCE, which plays 4-3-3. These teams have really got the measure of modern football.
“I’ve been extremely impressed by the English player Michael OWEN (20). He’s the great discovery of this World Cup. As regards FRANCE-ITALY, I hope this’ll be a great match. ITALY play a very tactical game. In spite of their good system of play, I hope that FRANCE will be playing more effectively, because there’s still a spearhead problem. It’s going to be a very tight game.
“My best memory of the World is 1970 in MEXICO, when I was in the BRAZIL team that won that year. My least favourite memory goes back to 1966 in ENGLAND, when we didn’t get past the quarter-finals.”
Safet Susic, former YUGOSLAVIA player:
“For the moment, all the favourites have qualified except SPAIN. Even a team like CROATIA hasn’t surprised me. A large number of their players play with the big European clubs. What”ll be fascinating, though, is if they get through to the semi-finals by beating GERMANY (match no. 60, Saturday 4 July at the Stade Gerland in LYON).
“”As for BRAZIL, I’m not worried. Together with FRANCE, they’re the team that have scored the most goals. It’s true that surprises can always happen, but I don’t think so, even if DENMARK gave the lie to all the predictions by winning the European Championship in 1992. FRANCE’s situation is rather similar. Its great advantage is to be playing at home. But ITALY is playing better and better, and they’ve also got a good goalscorer, so they could go far. As for a possible confrontation between the two South American giants, ARGENTINA and BRAZIL, I’ll just say that I see the NETHERLANDS in the semi-finals, then in the Final!
“As a general rule, we’ve seen some marvellous football with a lot of goals. You can’t ask for more. On the refereeing side, I don’t see many changes, though from time to time we’ve seen red cards being given for no apparent reason, that’s all. But everyone must be given time to adapt in order to really favour the attacking players. The ENGLAND-ARGENTINA match will stay engraved on everyone’s memory, but the sending-off of David BECKHAM spoilt the game. As for the golden goal, it’s painful to watch, but losing in a penalty shoot-out is tough as well.”
Franck Tanasi (French Champion with PSG in 1986, French Cup winner’s medal in 1982 and 1983):
“The only problem I’m afraid of for the French players when they face ITALY is fatigue. They spent a lot of energy in their last match against PARAGUAY. Otherwise, both teams have a good defensive line, and are really as good as each other. So the difference may lie in the public’s reaction.
It’s always difficult to talk about the refereeing, but I think everybody has to have time to adapt, the players as well as the referees. The World Cup is being used rather like an experimental lab, and that’s a pity – it should have been tried out before. Overall, we’re seeing a really good World Cup with plenty of goals, a very open style of play with lots of space, and therefore very satisfying to watch.”
As for Socrates and Junior, their views are the same. This year, their money is on FRANCE bearing off the coveted trophy, depending on BRAZIL, whom they consider brittle. The 1998 World Cup is offering splendid entertainment, attacking football with a lot of goals, and all the matches promise to be close-fought.