World Cup of dented egos, but Robinho restores mojo

Published on Wednesday 30 June 2010 21:02

IT'S been a long way to the light. But now, finally, there is a crack in the World Cup schedule after 56 games, 123 goals and a few tarnished reputations.

Indeed, perhaps this notion of marquee players having been unable to perform at their peak has been the central theme of the World Cup so far. On a world stage, where the leading actors are meant to stand up and make exhibitions of themselves, many have failed to do so. At least not in the manner of a Pele or a Maradona or even a Roberto Baggio, by doing it where it matters - on the pitch.

What would have been the odds on Kaka, Fernando Torres and Lionel Messi still waiting to open their goals account for the tournament on the eve of the quarter-finals? But they are all at least still in the mix. Wayne Rooney and Ronaldo are at home, as is Franck Ribery. The R at the start of their surnames could also stand for retribution, following a possibly ill-advised appearance in a ridiculously over-blown advert in the countdown to the finals. Their collective troubles have been attributed to the curse of Nike, with the sports outfitter's cast-list of hired-hands having reaped a bitter harvest for setting themselves up for a fall, or being set up for a fall, by their pay-masters. It is interesting to note the Plan B advert has now been wheeled out, starring Robinho, one of the few players who has used this World Cup to repair rather than harm a reputation.

Both Rooney and Ronaldo have exited, stage left. Fabio Cannavaro, another star of the glossy Nike promotion, represents an Italian team who were shown to be a fading force. France and their parcel of rogues - Ribery was caught up in a vice-girl scandal having completed the wraps for the Nike advert - managed to engage the French public, but will probably now wish they hadn't. The masses have been united by fury.

Robinho, by contrast, has been a delight to watch as he puts firmly behind him a Manchester City episode when he was routinely criticised for not being able to do it on cold, wet midweek nights. Well, he has managed to do it on cold, wet midweek nights in South Africa, as have his team-mates, while Rooney has been doing his best to 'write a future' that imagines him struggling to trap a ball on a Sunday League park. Robinho is a symbol of not just South American mastery in this World Cup, but also of European hubris. The continent has not had a good tournament, although Germany have proved a glorious vindication of the thorny old saw that if you are good enough you are old enough. Spain and the Netherlands have also done their bit to rescue the notion that Europe is some kind of heartland for football.

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• Play our World Cup predictor But another perception, one which contends you can't be a great if you can't make it in the English Premier League, has been trashed by Robinho.

The Brazilian playmaker was dismissed as a circus act by many in England, and cast as a trouble-maker. He was the antithesis to Rooney, his similarly diminutive rival across the Manchester city divide. While Rooney had heart to go with the talent, Robinho, it was suggested, couldn't live with the English Premier League's demand for honest industry. Shipped back on loan to Brazil in mid-winter, many thought he would not trouble us again. Surprise met his inclusion in the Brazilian squad, at the expense of Ronaldinho, among others. But he has flourished under Dunga, a manager not noted for his willingness to include luxury items on his team-sheet.

Kaka, like Robinho, is a classy footballer, but has been happy to work for his team-mates, too. A dink into the path of Luis Fabiano in the 3-0 victory over Chile on Monday was an example of how less is sometimes more, and is something Rooney - whose admittedly admirable answer to his poor form was to roam into areas of the pitch where he was not needed - should take on board. The Manchester United player, diminished by injury, simply stopped playing on instinct, and began to try too hard. Ronaldo, meanwhile, impressed in flashes, but joined his old friend in taking a plane home far sooner than envisioned.

Understudies instead have flourished. No-one was rushing out to make Diego Forlan the subject of swish advert campaigns, though his marketing value is plain to see. Handsome and intelligent, and also almost guaranteed to put the ball in the back of the net. Yet he came into the World Cup at long odds to be the winner of the Golden Boot. Why? He had been prejudiced against because he is perceived to have been a failure in the world of Super Sundays and titanic clashes between "empires of debt", as Paul Heyward of the Guardian described the Premier League in a withering put-down of English football's skewed priorities earlier this week. Forlan wasn't deemed to be a success at Manchester United, although his confidence levels understandably fell as he tried hard - sometimes too hard - to notch that all-important first goal. Now he can't stop scoring, whether in the colours of either Uruguay or his current club Atletico Madrid.

He is another emblem of South America's dominance in South Africa. We could, come the start of next week, be left with a mini-version of the South American qualifying group, which Forlan has described as the most arduous route to the finals due to the extreme conditions faced and the inevitable presence of both Brazil and Argentina, the traditional power-houses of world football. Nothing that has occurred over the last few weeks has given anyone any cause to disagree.

The combined success of the South American teams at these finals is nicely-timed, since Fifa are contemplating cutting the South America quota to just four at the next World Cup.. Even if Uruguay win the competition this year, they are far from certain of being able to line up in Brazil in 2014. It's the same with Paraguay, although it seems hardly conceivable in this day and age that a nation of just six million inhabitants - and, in Uruguay's case, just over three million - can become world champions. Ally's Army, and 1978, is a long time ago.

Both Uruguay and Paraguay will enjoy the support of the neutrals, who will respond to their under-dog status, although Ghana's case on this count is the most persuasive. They now represent Africa and have been the antidote to a poor showing from the other five teams who qualified from the continent, with perhaps only the hosts having given a better-than- expected account of themselves. Yet when all is said and done in 10 days' time, it is likely that the new world champions will come from a familiar-looking group of two - Brazil and Argentina.

But the run-in promises to be quite a ride.