December 10, 2001 Heaven knows why they call it a consolation goal, because it's usually anything but. When Andriy Shevchenko, Ukraine's star striker, scored in the dying moments of the second leg of his country's World Cup play-off against Germany on Nov. 14, he knew the goal would serve no purpose: the Germans were already leading by four. As the final whistle sounded in Dortmund's Westfalenstadion, the Ukrainians slumped to the turf. Shevchenko was shattered.
"The door of the World Cup is closed to me," he said later. Football fans around the world mourned with Shevchenko, for they will be deprived of the chance of seeing football's most prolific striker?73 goals in 104 games for Italian giants AC Milan in the world's meanest league?performing on its greatest stage.
Same as it ever was. Every time football's quadrennial dance comes around, some of the game's best exponents find themselves sitting it out. Some individual geniuses have the misfortune of being born in countries lacking in footballing talent: Manchester United's George Best, the supreme artist of the 1960s, never went to the big show because Northern Ireland couldn't muster 10 other world-class players to play alongside him. Sometimes, favored teams inexplicably miss the cut?remember England in '94? The expansion of the Cup's final stages was supposed to improve the odds in favor of good players and squads: 32 teams participated in France '98, as against 24 in U.S.A. '94 and 16 in Argentina '78. And yet, more top teams have failed to make the grade this time than ever before. Five of the 20 best soccer nations, based on rankings issued last month by football's ruling body FIFA, won't be at Korea/Japan 2002: Colombia, the Netherlands, Yugoslavia, the Czech Republic and Romania.
The Dutch are the most surprising absentees. Despite fielding a galaxy of stars, a top-notch coach in Louis van Gaal and a relatively easy qualifying group, the Orangemen were beaten to the draw by Portugal and Ireland. Yes, Ireland. What went wrong? "At some stage, the players lost their heads," said the famously acerbic coach after his team went down to the Irish in the crunch game. At week's end, the beleaguered Van Gaal finally quit over his failure. But in a way we'll all be punished, deprived of the languid grace of Patrick Kluivert, the quick thinking of Ruud van Nistelrooy, the locomotive energy of Marc Overmars and the ice-cool defending of Frank de Boer. Other missing names from the Korea/Japan roll call were more predictable?but not any less disappointing.
Classy Ghanaian defender Sammy Kuffour, scorer of the only goal in last week's Inter-Continental Cup tie, can only watch from afar as most of his Bayern Munich colleagues represent their respective countries in the World Cup. And old George Best will sympathize with another Man U winger who won't be there: Welshman Ryan Giggs. "I find it hard to put into words the disappointment I felt," he wrote to fans on his homepage.
But perhaps the tournament's most tragic absentee is veteran George Weah, a class act on and off the field. For more than a decade, the giant forward has been the only source of good news for his countrymen in Liberia, a nation gutted by civil war. Weah singlehandedly dragged the national team from footballing obscurity, often bankrolling the entire squad with his earnings from such marquee clubs as AC Milan, Chelsea and Olympique Marseille. But Liberia fell one agonizing point short of qualification, and the 1995 World Footballer of the Year knows that, at 35, he won't get another chance. "If I don't play in the World Cup, it wasn't meant to be," he said just before Liberia was eliminated. For this statesman of a footballer, there will be no consolation goal.
December 10, 2001 Heaven knows why they call it a consolation goal, because it's usually anything but. When Andriy Shevchenko, Ukraine's star striker, scored in the dying moments of the second leg of his country's World Cup play-off against Germany on Nov. 14, he knew the goal would serve no purpose: the Germans were already leading by four. As the final whistle sounded in Dortmund's Westfalenstadion, the Ukrainians slumped to the turf. Shevchenko was shattered.
"The door of the World Cup is closed to me," he said later. Football fans around the world mourned with Shevchenko, for they will be deprived of the chance of seeing football's most prolific striker?73 goals in 104 games for Italian giants AC Milan in the world's meanest league?performing on its greatest stage.
Same as it ever was. Every time football's quadrennial dance comes around, some of the game's best exponents find themselves sitting it out. Some individual geniuses have the misfortune of being born in countries lacking in footballing talent: Manchester United's George Best, the supreme artist of the 1960s, never went to the big show because Northern Ireland couldn't muster 10 other world-class players to play alongside him. Sometimes, favored teams inexplicably miss the cut?remember England in '94? The expansion of the Cup's final stages was supposed to improve the odds in favor of good players and squads: 32 teams participated in France '98, as against 24 in U.S.A. '94 and 16 in Argentina '78. And yet, more top teams have failed to make the grade this time than ever before. Five of the 20 best soccer nations, based on rankings issued last month by football's ruling body FIFA, won't be at Korea/Japan 2002: Colombia, the Netherlands, Yugoslavia, the Czech Republic and Romania.
The Dutch are the most surprising absentees. Despite fielding a galaxy of stars, a top-notch coach in Louis van Gaal and a relatively easy qualifying group, the Orangemen were beaten to the draw by Portugal and Ireland. Yes, Ireland. What went wrong? "At some stage, the players lost their heads," said the famously acerbic coach after his team went down to the Irish in the crunch game. At week's end, the beleaguered Van Gaal finally quit over his failure. But in a way we'll all be punished, deprived of the languid grace of Patrick Kluivert, the quick thinking of Ruud van Nistelrooy, the locomotive energy of Marc Overmars and the ice-cool defending of Frank de Boer. Other missing names from the Korea/Japan roll call were more predictable?but not any less disappointing.
Classy Ghanaian defender Sammy Kuffour, scorer of the only goal in last week's Inter-Continental Cup tie, can only watch from afar as most of his Bayern Munich colleagues represent their respective countries in the World Cup. And old George Best will sympathize with another Man U winger who won't be there: Welshman Ryan Giggs. "I find it hard to put into words the disappointment I felt," he wrote to fans on his homepage.
But perhaps the tournament's most tragic absentee is veteran George Weah, a class act on and off the field. For more than a decade, the giant forward has been the only source of good news for his countrymen in Liberia, a nation gutted by civil war. Weah singlehandedly dragged the national team from footballing obscurity, often bankrolling the entire squad with his earnings from such marquee clubs as AC Milan, Chelsea and Olympique Marseille. But Liberia fell one agonizing point short of qualification, and the 1995 World Footballer of the Year knows that, at 35, he won't get another chance. "If I don't play in the World Cup, it wasn't meant to be," he said just before Liberia was eliminated. For this statesman of a footballer, there will be no consolation goal.
