The Tribune...Sports

	S P O R T	Sunday, July 5, 1998
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Brazil win, Denmark impress
NANTES, July 4 — Scared by a Danish goal after only two minutes, defending champion Brazil downed the upstart 3-2 to reach the semifinal of the World Cup last night...

Triumph and disaster
PARIS, July 4 — The World Cup has always been over-dramatised by triumph and disaster, but surely those two sporting imposters have once more been dancing to the tune of referees’ whistles...

Bergkamp goal sinks Argentina
MARSEILLE, July 4 — Dennis Bergkamp scored a superb goal in the 90th minute of a World Cup quarter-final against Argentina today to seal a 2-1 victory...
Maldini resorted to negative tactics
THOSE masters of the goalless draw, Italy, squeezed the life out of France in one of the dullest games of the World Cup so far.
The Azzurri are renowned for being masters at the art of defending ...

Brazil win, Denmark impress
NANTES, July 4 (AP) — Scared by a Danish goal after only two minutes, defending champion Brazil downed the upstart 3-2 to reach the semifinal of the World Cup last night.
Ronaldo set up goals for Bebeto and Rivaldo after Martin Jorgensen surprised the four-time titlist with an early goal for the outsiders.
A blunder by Roberto Carlos gave Brian Laudrup an equaliser early in the second half but Rivaldo fired home a 25-metre drive in the 61st for his second of the game to clinch victory.
The D anes could even have snatched a 3-3 tie but Laudrup shot wide from close range and Marc Rieper headed against the bar two minutes from the end.
"I am very proud of my players’ performance," said Denmark’s Swedish coach, Bo Johansson. "It was almost as good as the best team in the world. All credit to them. I didn’t realise they were quite that good."

"I really think we played a world class game. But we could not ensure we did not lose, and that’s the way it goes."
Brazilian coach Mario Zagallo, sometimes the team’s sternest critic, applauded the performance of his players, particularly Ronaldo.
"This was the victory of courage," he said. "This was a true World Cup game, beautiful, frank and open. All games should be like this."
"Ronaldo showed that is he is not only goals," Zagallo said. "His two plays were spectacular."
Brazilian defender Cafu will miss the semifinal after collecting his second yellow card of the championship,
"It was the spirit of our game which saw us through," the Roma defender said. "We are always running for the ball."
"I think we really deserved it. We managed to master the game completely in the end so I think it would have been unfair for us not to qualify."
The Danes, who netted two early goals in a 4-1 victory over Olympic champion Nigeria in the previous round, were at it again against the world titlists.
After Dunga had fouled Peter Moller just outside the area, they took the free kick quickly and Brian Laudrup slipped free down the left. With the Brazilian defence slow to see the danger, he pulled the ball back to the unmarked Jorgensen who fired first time past Taffarel from 12 metres with his left foot.
The Brazilians were level in the 11th minute when Ronaldo, on the halfway line, turned to send a ball through for Bebeto to run for goal. A veteran of Brazil’s 1994 triumph, Bebeto outpaced Danish marker Thomas Helveg and ran 30 metres before sliding the ball past ‘keeper Peter Schmeichel for his third goal of the championship.

Back on level terms, the Brazilians managed to slow down the fast pace of the game before striking again in the 26th minute.
The Danes were punished for losing possession 30 metres from their own goal and Ronaldo wasted no time in feeding the ball to Rivaldo. The Barcelona midfielder had Bebeto alongside as they ran clear of the defence but needed no help as he drove the ball under Schmeichel’s body with an angled left-foot shot.
The Brazilians handed Denmark an equaliser six minutes into the second half.
Roberto Carlos, facing his own goal, opted for a spectacular overhead clearance but barely made contact. Instead of flying upfield, the ball bobbled straight to the grateful Brian Laudrup who fired it past Taffarel from 12 metres.
Stunned by that goal, the Brazilians hit back and regained the lead in the 61st minute although it was a strike that came with the Danish defence in no real danger.
Rivaldo collected the ball 35 metres from the goal and in plenty of space. With the defence retreating to cover Ronaldo and Bebeto, the Barcelona forward decided to shoot from 25 and fired a low left-footer past Schmeichel and inside the right hand post.
It should have been 3-3 with 12 minutes remaining when Helveg got behind the Brazilian defence and pulled the ball back to Brian Laudrup who side-footed wide from right in front of goal.
Two minutes from the end, the Brazilians were almost caught out again when a right wing cross found Rieper unmarked and his header struck the top of the crossbar.

Bergkamp goal sinks Argentina
MARSEILLE, July 4 (Reuters) — Dennis Bergkamp scored a superb goal in the 90th minute of a World Cup quarter-final against Argentina today to seal a 2-1 victory.
The goal came moments after Argentine playmaker Ariel Ortega was sent off for headbutting Dutch goalkeeper Edwin Van Der Sar in the penalty area after Ortega claimed he had been tripped by Jaap Stam.
The Dutch now play champions Brazil on Tuesday in Marseille.
The Dutch were already down to 10 men after Arthur Numan was sent off in the 76th minute for tripping Diego Simeone.
Bergkamp latched on to a long ball from the left, controlled it and turned inside fullback Roberto Ayala before driving the ball past goalkeeper Carlos Roa.
Both sides hit the post in the first half - Wim Jonk for the Dutch after just five minutes and Ortega for Argentina just before the break.
But in between, both scored excellent goals.
In the 12th minute Ronald de Boer began a sweet Dutch move from deep in his own half, slipping past three defenders as he drove towards goal. He picked out Dennis Bergkamp on the left of the area and the striker cushioned a header into the path of Kluivert who coolly slotted the ball past Carlos Roa.
Argentina equalised six minutes later when Lopez timed his run to perfection to spring the offside trap and latch on to Juan Veron’s pass. He delayed his shot before poking the ball through the legs of Edwin Van Der Sar.
The Dutch continued to fashion nice openings, build on their increasing domination of midfield, while Lopez and Ortega were a constant threat buzzing around the area.
After a first half that produced two goals, two shots against the woodwork and numerous chances, the second was a more cautious affair as the taxing heat took its toll.

The Netherlands spent the opening 20 minutes in the Argentine half but despite endless possession could not find the final pass to get through.
On Argentina’s first foray forward, 20 minutes after the break, the hugely impressive Veron released Batistuta who cut inside and smashed a shot against the inside of the post with Van Der Sar rooted to the spot.
The Dutch brought on winger Marc Overmars in the 64th minute and he immediately provided a great cross from the right, only for the athletic Roa to tip over Kluivert’s header at full stretch.
But they suffered a blow in the 76th minute when Numan was sent off for his second bookable offence — a late tackle on Simeone.
Argentina, who were unable to score against England when they had a man advantage for more than an hour in the second round, immediately took the initiative. But then Ortega saw the red card after theatrically throwing himself down in the area and then lashing out at the Dutch goalkeeper.
Scorers:
Argentina - Claudio Lopez 18th.
Netherlands - Patrick Kluivert 12th, Dennis Bergkamp 90th.
Halftime: 1-1; Estimated attendance: 55,000
Red cards:
Arthur Numan (Netherlands) 76th.
Ariel Ortega (Argentina) 88th.
Teams:
Argentina - 1-Carlos Roa; 22-Javier Zanetti, 2-Roberto Ayala, 6-Nestor Sensini, 3-Jose Chamot (18-Abel Balgo 90); 8-Diego Simeone (captain), 5-Matias Almeyda (4-Hector Pineda 67), 11-Juan Veron, 10-Ariel Ortega; 9-Gabriel Batistuta, 7-Claudio Lopez.
Netherlands - 1-Edwin Van Der Sar; 2-Michael Reiziger, 3-Jaap Stam, 4-Frank De Boer (captain), 5-Arthur Numan; 7-Ronald De Boer (14-Marc Overmars 64), 6-Wim Jonk, 16-Edgar Davids, 11-Phillip Cocu; 8-Dennis Bergkamp, 9-Patrick Kluivert.
Referee: Arturo Brizio Carter (Mexico).

Triumph and disaster
PARIS, July 4 (AFP) — The World Cup has always been over-dramatised by triumph and disaster, but surely those two sporting imposters have once more been dancing to the tune of referees’ whistles.
Denmark’s Kim Nielsen was at the centre of France 98’s most sensational match when he sent off England’s David Beckham, awarded two penalties for dives, disallowed an England score and missed an England penalty.
Even Italy goalkeeper Gianluca Pagliuca was astonished with the referee.
"Nielsen made a string of blunders," the goalkeeper said. "The penalties given, the one not given to England and a few offside decisions: he made a lot of mistakes, not to mention the sending-off of Beckham."
Cameroon alleged there was an anti-African conspiracy when they had two players sent off and two goals by veteran striker Francois Omam Biyick disallowed by Hungarian referee Laszlo Vagner.
Patrick Mboma headed the equaliser in a 1-1 draw with Chile which denied the Africans a place in the last 16.
Referees are in an impossible situation with no choice but to cause triumph and disaster by their performances.
Argentina’s Javier Castrilli had no hesitation in deciding Gabriel Popescu fouled Aljosa Asanovic for a penalty, which Davor Suker converted for Croatia in their 1-0 win over Romania and a place in the quarter-final against Germany.

Castrilli’s split-second ruling cast a pall over Bucharest and set the bells ringing in Zagreb.
South African defender Pierre Issa, whose side were eliminated following a 2-2 draw against Saudi Arabia, denied he had given away two penalties.
The defender said: "For the first penalty, I didn’t touch the Saudi and on the second our arms and legs entwined and we fell over together."
However, Chile referee Mario Sanchez Yanten immediately pointed to the spot on both occasions.
But such highs and lows have always followed in the wake of World Cup rulings.
Remember the 3-2 victory by Germany when Swiss referee Kurt Rothlisberger, who was later sent home, failed to award a penalty to Belgium in the second round of USA ’94.
Remember the "hand of god goal" by Maradona in the 1986 quarter-final against England, who are still licking their wounds from that.
Were Germany robbed of the 1966 title by what many believe was the goal that never was, England’s third on the way to a 4-2 win, by hat-trick hero Geoff Hurst.
Every World Cup is littered with such problems and the heartache and joy encapsulates the very essence of the emotional power a World Cup generates in all corners of the globe.
And expect the men with the toughest job in the world, the referees, to break more hearts.

Maldini resorted to negative tactics
By Sir Geoff Hurst
THOSE masters of the goalless draw, Italy, squeezed the life out of France in one of the dullest games of the World Cup so far.
The Azzurri are renowned for being masters at the art of defending but in this case it involved little more than getting eight or nine players behind the ball.
It doesn't matter how talented the opposition are if you have that number of players to get through it is always going to be difficult.
To make matters worse for the French the Italians boast some of the best defenders in the world so when they were hunting in pairs and even threes, it was going to take something very special to beat them.
This negative ploy almost worked but in the end the adventurous French got what they deserved by squeezing past Italy on penalties.
What should have been month-watering clash between Europe's elite descended into a boring stalemate with neither side willing to commit players to attack.
The bulk of the blame must lie with the Italian coach Cesare Maldini. He resorted to the most negative tactics playing defender Gianluca Pessotto in midfield in an attempt to shackle French playmaker Zinedine Zidana. Admittedly the ploy worked because even a player of Zidane's quality is going to struggle when there are eight or nine men behind the ball.

On a number of occasions he used his trickery to get past the first man only to be faced with a wall of blue shirts.
We saw during the England versus Argentina game that if you have a side well organised defensively they are incredibly difficult to break down.
England could be excused for putting so many men behind the ball because they were down to 10 men but to start a match in that way is very disappointing.
At this stage in the World Cup you need to be bold, set out to win the game and not to be frightened of conceding the odd goal.
Defenders at this level should be capable of dealing with players in a one-to-one situation as this frees up their teammates to come forward when they win possession.
What we saw France and particularly Italy was the product of the fear of defeat rather than the belief needed to go forward in search of victory. Both teams were incredibly reluctant to commit men to attack and even when they seemed to have a break on, it was a case of two attackers versus four defenders.
I would prefer to see some more positive and exciting football in the closing stage of the World Cup.
We don't want the tournament decided by the lottery of penalty shoot-outs but that is the price teams pay for being so negative.
Despite all their possession France only managed a handful of clear cut openings while Italy mustered even fewer attempts during their rare forays forward.

The hosts continue to look lightweight up front and I am convinced they will be found out sooner or later.
It doesn't seem to matter which combination they try out of Therry Henry, David Trezeguet and Stephance Guivarc'h they just don't look convincing coming forward.
As the game progressed there was a growing lack of conviction in their shooting as they continued to batter away at the tough Italian defence.
The Italians will be disappointed to be leaving the tournament at this stage but really they have only themselves to blame.
When you have players of the quality of Roberto Baggio, Alessandro Del Piero and Christian Vieri at your disposal you must try to attack.
It would have been an injustice for France to lose as without their early invention the game would have been even more of a non-event.
Once again we saw players wilt under the intense pressure of a penalty shootout.
I am still convinced non-specialist penalty takers should step up and blast the ball rather than trying to side foot it into the corner as we have seen many doing.
When you hit a ball that weakly there is no room for error as a good goalkeeper has a chance of getting there if he guesses correctly.
We saw this with Paul Ince and David Batty for England who both missed from the spot with weak side-footed attempts against Argentina.
Really the players are giving themselves a far better chance of scoring if they just run up and blast it.
Justice was done when Luigi Di Biaggio's fifth penalty cannoned off the crossbar to send France through the semi-finals.— PMG