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| June 2, 2002 | Sunday | Rabi-ul-Awwal 20,1423 |
Little teams puffing with chests out
YOKOHAMA, June 1: Billed as little more than target practice for the big guns at the 2002 World Cup, the “little teams” were puffing their chests out after Senegal’s stunning victory over world champions France.
Players and coaches alike watched in amazement as mighty France shrunk to mere mortals after Friday’s 1-0 upset in Seoul and 24 hours later the shock waves were still being felt.
One thing they were all agreed upon — the Senegalese victory had ripped up the tournament’s script. As United States midfielder Claudio Reyna put it: “It was good for the World Cup — maybe not for France — but for the World Cup.”
His national coach Bruce Arena agreed. “The world is shrinking in soccer. All the teams are capable and that was not the first upset we will see,” he said.
South Korea, the co-hosts, had softened up France with a testing friendly in Suwon which the world champions won 3-2 only with a last minute Frank Leboeuf goal.
Their coach, the former Netherlands boss Guus Hiddink, is convinced his long-shots can also upset the form apple-cart.
“I hope we can do the same, to make surprises the outside world is not expecting,” he said.
Fan Zhiyi, China’s veteran defender, added: “Strong teams cannot know for sure now they will beat the weak teams.”
He and team mate Yang Chen learned a trick or two from Senegal’s disciplined approach against the French. “Like Senegal’s players and coaches, I think we should set a good strategy for each game according to each opponent,” said Yang.
It is not just the unfancied countries who are on the look-out for more shocks, the upset put some of the tournament favourites on alert and warned them to take nothing for granted.
Luiz Felipe Scolari, coach of four times winners Brazil, said: “All the favourites are going to have the same sort of difficulties as France. This has to be an alert for Brazil.
“If you don’t pay attention and don’t play seriously, you won’t achieve anything.”
Portugal defender Beto Severo added: “There are no longer any teams that are winners before they come on the pitch.”
As for the team who stirred up such a hornet’s nest, it was business as usual for Senegal on Saturday morning with a brief training session watched by a handful of Koreans.
Coach Bruno Metsu wore the look of a man who wanted to know what was the big deal — he’d suspected his side were capable of something of this kind all along.
“We came here to do something great. Otherwise we would have gone on holidays. We had this belief that there were no little teams any more.
“But beating France is just one step,” he said. “We would have been just as happy if it was any other side we had beaten.”
One of his players, El Hadji Diouf, the African player of the year, has already reaped lucrative reward for his heroic performance on Friday, concluding a five-year deal with English premier league Liverpool on Saturday.—Reuters
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