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Russia blinded by the light
Fabio Capello’s side hardly lit up the tournament with two draws and a
defeat before tumbling out. And the former England manager was feeling
particularly prickly after the 1-1 draw with Algeria that led to their
elimination. But rather than focus on the lack of illuminating football played
by his team as the reason for their exit, it was a dazzling light in the stands
directed at his goalkeeper that bothered him. “There are pictures. You can see
that in the footage. This not an excuse, it is a fact. There was a laser. I have
never come up with excuses to get by in my entire life,” growled Capello. Asked
if his complaints deflected attention from the performance of Algeria, Capello
responded: “Never, never. I would never do that. You have to listen to when I
speak so that I don’t have to repeat the same things.”
Boateng lashes out at lack of Princely treatment
Kevin-Prince Boateng, not a man who is shy of speaking his mind, channelled
his inner Roy Keane in Brazil, getting himself booted out of the squad for
criticising the Ghanaian Federation for treating the players like normal people.
“It was a nightmare from the first day of preparation until the end. I never
thought that you could organise a World Cup preparation and a World Cup that
badly: hotels, flights – everything in an amateurish way. Our flight from Miami
to Brazil took 12 hours. We were in economy class, packed. The legs hurt. For a
pro, that’s an insult. Meanwhile, our president sat in business class with his
wife and his two kids. In Brazil the people responsible managed to lose my
luggage. I did not have my football boots for days, no tapes, nothing. It was a
disaster.” And it got worse for the poor lad. “Prior to the match against the US
we slept in a sleazy hotel. This one can never have been recommended by Fifa.
The rooms were wet. I had to change my room because it was like a swimming pool.
There was water dripping from the ceiling.”
Herrera blows his top
Mexico’s coach, Miguel Herrera, doesn’t need much to get him excited – his
emotional explosions at the World Cup making him an internet star. So when his
team was knocked out by two goals in the closing minutes of the last-16 tie with
Holland – one a dubious penalty after an Arjen Robben tumble – he wasn’t going
to go quietly. “We ended up losing because he whistled a penalty that did not
exist. Out of the four matches here in all of them the refereeing was
disastrous. Robben did three dives and he should have been cautioned. You should
caution a guy who is trying to cheat, and then if Robben did it again he would
be sent off. And why did Fifa choose a referee from the same confederation as
Holland instead of one from South America, Asia or Africa? The doubtful
decisions were always against us. We have to say it in capital letters, in three
matches we had horrible refereeing. The man with the whistle knocked us. I want
the referee committee to take a look and that the referee goes home just like
us.”
Bosnia blame the ‘enemies’ back home
The Bosnia defender Emir Spahic turned the mixed zone into a very awkward
place when he started finger-pointing at journalists from back home who had
taken aim at his side after their elimination. “Criticism is part of our job.
You have it all the time; all your life. And we must accept criticism because we
didn’t play so well,” he said. “But some other things became a little bit too
personal; the criticism was too heavy. And I didn’t expect that from my own
people but obviously I have a lot of enemies. For those people, history means
nothing. I’m hurt by this. But I’m proud because I’m Bosnian. I’m proud because
of my people. We showed the world what Bosnian football is all about and I’m
proud of that fact. They [the Bosnian media] cannot change that. They cannot
take that away.”
Keshi bashes the ‘bias’
Having watched his Nigeria side left bruised by some rough stuff from
France and then have a goal disallowed during the 2-0 defeat in the last-16
match, Stephen Keshi wasn’t going to slip out of the door quietly. “I am not
happy with the officiating because [Ogenyi] Onazi, on two occasions, he had a
very bad tackle and nothing was done by the referee,” he growled. “I think the
referee was just … for me, I think he was biased. This is the first time I will
speak about the referee in my life as a coach but it wasn’t good. If you look at
the goal we scored, I don’t think there was any infringement. The referee is a
human being, bound to make some mistakes, but a lot of mistakes is questionable.
I am not happy about it but he’s the man who decides whatever goes on the
pitch.”
Croatia lost in translation
Vedran Corluka was pre-emptive with his parting shot, all but giving up the
ghost after the 3-1 defeat to Brazil in the opening match in which the Japanese
referee, Yuichi Nishimura, made some highly contentious decisions. “I have never
seen a referee in a World Cup that doesn’t speak English. He was trying to speak
to the players in Japanese. It is ridiculous,” he fumed. “If this continues then
no one should play against Brazil. We should just give them the World Cup and
everyone can go home.” Croatia did go home, pretty quickly, after a win and two
losses did for their hopes – but not before they were photographed naked at the
hotel pool, prompting them to blank the media. “How would you feel if someone
took naked pictures of you?” the Croatia coach Niko Kovac asked. “They are
adamant that they won’t speak to you lot any more.”
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发表于 2016-7-10 18:06:45