Graham Poll’s Thoughts on this Weekend’s International World Cup Qualifiers
I never looked forward to International week as a referee - preferring the cut and thrust of club competition as indeed the players tend to nowadays.There are too many fixtures which appear routine and whilst it is often said that there is no such thing as an easy International football match it is hard to get excited about England versus Kazakstan or Wales versus Liechtensteinand certainly not Georgia versus Cyprus.
Each of the 9 UEFA groups throws up an average of 6 interesting ties from 30 fixtures. Not a great return and the only thing that keeps us watching is that there are usually one or two surprises with the big teams. Unfortunately those have involved England recently but I believe that Fabio Capello will utilise all of his experience in making this the most comfortable qualification campaign for quite a few years. No need for the last kick heroics of David Beckham against Greece or winning a play-off to qualify.
So far the surprises have been Portugal losing a home match to Denmark, Germany only drawing in Finland and France losing 3-1 in Vienna to an Austrian team who looked very poor in last summer’s European Championships. I still expect all three to qualify although both France and Portugal face tough away matches this weekend.
Poland, always tough to beat on home soil with their passionate, hostile fans could well beat their group favourites Czech Republic. Czech Republic started with a draw in Belfast and didn’t look very impressive that day.
Serbia hosts the surprise group leaders Lithuania in Belgrade, another hostile city from a fans perspective. The Lithuanians are top after an impressive 3-0 away win over Romania but I expect the Serbs to be too strong in what could be a very physical encounter.
The hostility of the fans in both Poland and Serbia could affect the referees involved unless they are seasoned campaigners who are not easily influenced by impassioned supporters.
In England’s group Croatia could well struggle as Ukraine are playing away from Kiev where the weight of expectation sometimes gets the better of them. It is interesting that such pressure of playing in certain stadia affects some teams and no doubt Capello will be trying to make the new Wembley a place that opponents fear rather than our players. He highlighted that he felt English players almost dreaded home games as the crowd applies pressure due to the weight of expectation - undoubtedly whipped up by the media.
Of all the fixtures my eye is drawn to the South American qualification and a game between Columbia and group leaders Paraguay. Back in 2001 I travelled to Asuncion for the final qualifying match for the World Cup in Korea/Japan 2002. Paraguay had already qualified and were hosting their opponents this weekend, Columbia, who needed a 5-0 win to take the play-off place away from Uruguay. A dead match? Well, with 15 minutes remaining a Faustino Asprilla inspired Columbia led 4-0 and the place was jumping. Fire crackers, flares, police baton charging the crowd - the game had everything. In an atmosphere the like of which I had never experienced the home side held on to deny Columbia the fifth goal.
If the passions are not stirred by our 9 group qualification system in Europe then the same cannot be said of South America. You wouldn’t think that with only 10 teams vying for 4 guaranteed places and a play off place there would be that much passion aroused but try watching one of the games this weekend and you’ll see. Harder still try predicting a winner, with Roque Santa Cruz likely to miss the game for Paraguay with injury anything could happen.
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