Some ‘small’ nations show huge heart

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa

Desire. It is proving a decisive factor at the World Cup and will be even more so in the knockout matches that start today.

France and Italy lacked it in the group stages and were gobbled up by hungrier teams and sent home in humiliation.

The United States, Slovakia, Japan and others have it by the bucketload and deserve their spots in the round of 16, the point where the World Cup starts to get serious.

Of the 13 European teams that started this World Cup, only six made it to the last 16, fewer than at the past three World Cups dating to 1998, when the event expanded to 32 teams.

The reason why European soccer powers such as Germany, Spain, England, France and Italy struggled at times is not because their players are exhausted from long seasons with their clubs. If that were the cause, then Brazil and Argentina, both made up mainly of Europe-based players, would have looked jaded, too. They haven't.

Altitude isn't an explanation, either. Nor is heat, because it's been a cold South African June.

Italian soccer federation president Giancarlo Abete trotted out another old scapegoat -- foreign players -- in the postmortem of Italy's failure. That's an argument England has used to explain past disappointments, too. The premise: In hiring foreign players, European clubs are neglecting young homegrown talent, hurting their national sides.

"These problems don't involve just Italian football, it's a Europe-wide problem," Abete said. "We don't have enough players with international experience."

Where that argument falls down and is untrue, however, is that it assumes Italy has fewer decent players to choose from than, say, Japan, South Korea, Paraguay or Portugal, which all reached the last 16. Also, imports of top players make European leagues stronger, forcing European players to raise their game. The English Premier League is the toughest because of the more than 300 players from around the world who compete in it. That makes the likes of England's Steve Gerrard, John Terry or Frank Lampard better players, not worse.

Which leaves mental attitude. The impression given at times by some "big" soccer nations at this World Cup is that they cared less than some "small" ones -- teams such as New Zealand, Paraguay, Switzerland or Serbia that pulled off surprise results in group games.

Only in the last 20 minutes of its final Group F match against Slovakia, when it was two goals down, did Italy start to play with urgency. By then it was too late.

"We're not here for a holiday," Slovakia forward Erik Jendrisek said -- a comment that would have been laughable coming from someone such as France's Nicolas Anelka, who played with no passion at the World Cup.

Only in the last 35 minutes against South Africa, when it was two goals behind and one man down, did France make a belated stab at rescuing a shred of honor. Far too late.

Only in their last Group C match against Slovenia, with the disastrous prospect of an early flight out looming, did England's players look as if they cared. They did just enough to stay in South Africa ... for now.

One of the most arrogant World Cup pronouncements came when Gerrard tried to explain how lowly Algeria managed to restrict powerhouse England to a 0-0 tie. The English captain said the North Africans played as though they were competing in the World Cup final. In other words, the Algerians put their hearts into it. For England it was just another game.

Landon Donovan of the United States, on the other hand, has been one of the tournament's standout players because he is treating it with respect. His ambition, and that of his team, has been impressive. In coming back from deficits against England and Slovenia, and in Donovan's injury-time goal against Algeria that got it to the last 16, the U.S. team showed how badly it wants to succeed. That never-say-die teamwork could carry it past Ghana in its next game today.