Missing out on the African adventure

There are a lot of players who are ideal for the Soccer World Cup but won’t be participating this year. Instead they will be joining the ranks of the magnitude of other footballers who didn’t make it to South Africa and they will even be harbouring grievances as they watch their fellow countrymen and club teammates display their skill on the soccer pitch. The World Cup is normally a stage for the football elite, best of the best, but sometimes absence can be due to nationality, fitness issues, age or non-selection by the coach. One consequence is that managers, particularly those blessed with choice, are burdened with tougher decisions.

They will be a few high profile absentees and one of the most high profile absentees will be Benni McCarthy for the host nation. McCarthy has been at loggerheads with the South African Football Association in the past, choosing which matches he can play and which he cannot. This is a man who just 6 years ago was playing some of the best football of his career as he led FC Porto to their only Uefa Champions League trophy. He was deprived of a place at the World Cup because of fitness issues after a poor season with Blackburn Rovers and West Ham United.

His absence reduces the potential top scorers by one. The other missing striker is Luca Toni, the man who was the focal point of Italy’s attack four years ago as they became world champions, misses out after spending the first half of the season in the stands at Bayern Munich. He moved to Roma on loan in January, but the move came a little too late as Marcello Lippi was not convinced.
Another Italian star overlooked by Marcello Lippi is Fabio Grosso. He was pivotal for Italy in 2006, scoring the decisive first goal against Germany in the semifinal and then the winning spot-kick in the penalty shootout against France in the final, but will instead be watching the game from home.

Argentina coach Diego Maradona has dispensed with the services of two experienced veterans, the ageless Javier Zanetti — who has been starring for Inter — and Esteban Cambiasso who man-marked Lionel Messi out of both legs of the champions league semifinal.

Ruud van Nistelrooy tried his best to join the Dutch side on their African adventure, but Dutch coach Bert van Marwijk decided to leave the former Manchester United star off his team sheet. Meanwhile Raymond Domenech has raised eyebrows by denying the world of the talents of Karim Benzema and Samir Nasri who are two of the world’s best young players.

Dunga has prioritised form and team cohesion over pedigree in his criteria for selection. So Ronaldo, the World Cup’s all time leading scorer with 15 goals misses out despite making another successful comeback from another career-threatening injury. Two surprise omissions are Adriano — who has been scoring lots of goals for Flamengo — and Ronaldinho who has been a revelation for AC Milan this past season.

Euro 2008’s recent success story was Russia, surprise semifinalists then. A timid showing against Slovakia in the playoffs denies us of the presence of the industrious and skilful Andrei Arshavin, Roman Pavlyuchenko, Yuri Zhirkov, Diniyar Bilyaletdinov and their most talented goalkeeper since Lev Yashin, Igor Akinfeev.

Africa’s surprise qualifiers in 2006 — Angola and Togo — didn’t make the trip this time as they failed to negotiate their qualifying group . This will deny fans the opportunity to see Emmanuel Adebayor and Pedro Mantorras in action.

Six-time African champions Egypt miss out after a bad tempered playoff against Algeria in neighbouring Sudan, meaning we won’t be seeing players like Emad Moteab, Ahmed Hassan, Amr Zaki, Mohamed Aboutrika and Hossam El Hadary.

And while all the above players ponder what could have been if this or that had happened they should spare a thought for men who were selected but got injured before the main event. The list of the injured or doubtful includes the who’s who of world soccer, they can form their own team and it take on the best — Nani (Portugal), Lassana Diarra (France), Didier Drogba (Côte d’Ivoire), Michael Essien (Ghana), Arjen Robben (Netherlands), Rio Ferdinand (England), John Obi Mikel (Nigeria), David Beckham (England), Rene Adler (Germany), Andre Pirlo (Italy), Andres Iniesta (Spain) and Michael Ballack (Germany).