Extended Reign
LogicaCMG World Cup, St.Andrews, 01-02 July 2006

Bigger does not always mean better (just ask Ronaldo), but in the case of the 12th LogicaCMG World Cup, the maxim proved true enough. A record-breaking 24 teams had battled through the tough administrative qualifiers to get their ball into the LIFA tombola, and the prospect of organising some 400 international footballers from nine different countries (Scotland, England, Wales, France, Portugal, Holland, Italy, Czech Republic and India) appeared a daunting one. But the fact that St. Andrews 2006 went off without a hitch, and that many knowledgeable observers considered it to be the best World Cup ever, is a testament to the experience, skill and sheer hard work of the two main organisers - Lennart 'Bill' Ramsay and Sepp Groomo.

Wise pundits tipped the more football-friendly climate to help the northern European teams to make a better fist of it this year. The host nation had three representatives (Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Shell), whilst no fewer than thirteen English teams travelled north of the border, prompting statisticians at least to give England a great chance of winning the LogicaCMG World Cup for the first time in the nation’s history.

Bloody Luxury

Arriving at the huge World Cup village on the Friday, most players were certainly gratified to note that, firstly, the luxury accommodation was so well-positioned that they could practically roll out of bed and into the stadium. Secondly, a welcoming spell of sustained torrential rain had rendered the six international-class grass pitches unusually susceptible to a stud. The happy mood was further improved when the extremely accommodating and friendly St. Andrews University staff agreed to open up the Students Union Bar early doors, so that we could all enjoy (that other) World Cup quarter-final between Germany and Argentina.

The best laid plans of mice and mandarins are rarely without their challenges, however, and a last-minute epidemic of metatarsal injuries forced the small northern Republic of Altrincham to withdraw at the eleventh hour. Fortunately, Calor Gas had so enjoyed their debut in Speyer last year, that they had enough in the tank for two squads, and were thus able to fill the Altrincham void. There was nothing that could be done, however, about the non-arrival of the much fancied Dutch squads (A and B), who were rumoured to have missed the boat in more ways than one. Still, when Saturday morning dawned sunny and bright (somewhat disconcertingly at 4:30am), but with a refreshing breeze, all was set for the big tournament.

Italian Job Done

With both Altrincham and Holland B failing to reach St. Andrews, one suspected that some kind of curse had been placed on Group A. But reigning champions Italy proved more than a match for any such sorcery, as they wasted minimal energy in doing just enough to cast off debutantes LondonGPS and last minute replacements Calor Gas B, each via a single goal. Each team was awarded a 2-0 win against the non-appearing fourth team in the group, and the Italians will surely have been relieved at the lack of scandal surrounding this official match-fixing. But neither LondonGPS nor Calor were able to take full advantage of these three free points, as a hard-fought 0-0 draw meant that neither side qualified for the quarter-finals as one of the best runners-up.

Indians Take Away Experience

Group B promised to be one of the most intriguing, with the scandalously unseeded England Lags and highly touted Czech Republic pitted against the unknown quantities from Shell and India. The Lags and Shell shared four fine goals in an excellent game of football, before the well-oiled Scottish outfit earned themselves another point against the Czechs. Nobody knew what to expect from India, the first team from outside Europe to qualify for the Finals, but their startlingly innovative 5-0-5 formation experienced a few teething problems.

But, having lost heavily to the Czechs (who finished third in Speyer), their tactical masterplan began to kick in and nearly bamboozled the old men of England, whose passing game completely floundered in the face of opponents eschewing the luxury of any midfield whatsoever. Three late goals saved the Lags' blushes in that game, the first of those speared home by the left boot of Mark Abbott, extending the veteran England striker's phenomenonal record of having scored in all 12 World Cup Finals. Despite this, the Lags then fell to a solitary second half goal from the lethal Michal Koval (who would go on to win the Golden Boot with an impressive tally of 7) in their final match against the Czechs and duly crashed out. Shell matched the Czechs emphatic margin of victory against the Indians, but two draws ultimately meant that they too would not qualify for the quarter-finals despite remaining unbeaten.

Reading Above the Line

Group C was a closer affair than the final table suggests, at least according to our reliable sources - a large number of Yorkshiremen, suspiciously all claiming to be called McWilliam, interviewed in the elegant Victoria Karaoke establishment just before midnight on Saturday evening. The highly tipped and seeded Reading side together with the talented but unpredictable Welsh Wizards achieved an unassailable position early doors with emphatic victories over the Hull Canaries (a breakaway merger between want-away Lags and Nippers) and Edinburgh. A goalless draw between the top two then all but guaranteed that both would qualify for the quarter-finals - Reading automatically with the superior goal difference, and the Wizards as best runners-up on seven points. Meanwhile, Edinburgh seemed to be taking their 'generous hosts' role a little too seriously by lending some credence to the singing Canaries’ claims of competence with a 2-0 defeat.

Pups Handed Quarters Spot

The perennially under-achieving England Pups were expected to have an easy ride in Group D, but in the end they only progressed courtesy of a lucky goal against France. Managers at the highest level often demand consistency from their players, but the three successive 4-0 defeats suffered by Manchester B is perhaps not the usual interpretation of such aspirations. The French, making a welcome return to the international fold in the new form of UniLog, began with an impressive 2-0 win against a vastly improved Essex side. But a wholly unnecessary hand-ball conceded a penalty late on against the Pups when a goalless draw seemed odds on. Unable to get the better of Essex, the Pups would have been out had it not been for Nigel Hoyzone's cool spot-kick against Les Rouges. There was soon to be better news for the French, however, who claimed the final quarter-final slot as the second best runner-up.

Seventh Seals Dons' Passage

Group E turned out to be the 'Group of Death', at least if the resultant war of attrition was anything to go by. The top three teams of Aberdeen, Manchester A and London all seemed to be suffering from nerves as they scrapped out a trio of 0-0 stalemates. There were a few raised eye-brows that Portugal were unable to build on last year's explosive World Cup debut, although narrow 2-1 defeats against the two English sides were close-fought affairs. But the decisive game of the group saw the otherwise goalless Aberdonians banging seven past the Edinfor team to claim a quarter-final place on goal difference.

A Before B

Like the first, the last Group F was also a team down with the Dutch missing the boat. There was little room for error then with just three matches deciding the outcome. With both Calor Gas A and Reading B managing to beat Leatherhead, the group was decided in narrow fashion when Calor won by the odd goal in three against the Berkshire B string.

Tiers Before Bedtime

At the end of the day, all the results were plugged into the magical Official World Cup Wallchart, which quickly calculated that the Welsh Wizards and France were the best two group runners-up, and would join Italy, the Czech Republic, Reading A, the England Pups, Aberdeen and Calor Gas A in the Quarter-Finals of the main competition. The next eight best ranked teams would move into the Tier Two Plate Competition, whilst the remaining teams would battle it out for the Tier Three Plate.

Perfect Hosts

The draw for the Tier Three competition was somewhat hampered by the two missing teams. A hasty executive decision saw three quarter-finals drawn, but even then the annual Sunday morning failure of the Hull Canaries' alarm clock meant that India were awarded the match against their slumbering opponents. Manchester B edged past Edinburgh whilst Leatherhead claimed their first win of the weekend against the Portuguese, to set up perhaps the most thrilling match of the whole tournament, a semi-final against India.

I'll hand over to our Indian Football Correspondent, Dennis Deepak, to describe the unfolding drama. "One of the high points came on Day 2 when ALL the 24 teams were watching India play Leatherhead, and the crowd constantly chanted the powerful mantra "INDIA, INDIA, INDIA!" In terms of sheer fighting spirit and exciting moments, this match was qualified by many as one of the most exciting matches of the tournament. The match score was 0-0 even after extra time, which led to a tense penalty shootout! Even after the penalties, the scores were 3-3, hence the "sudden death", the dread of every professional footballer was applied, which went on for the next 5 goals! India finally won 7-6! Anirban Chakravarty, our agile goalkeeper, literally flew through the air (in the footsteps of his idol, Jens Lehmann of Germany) to make several stupendous saves and showed exemplary courage."

After this, the Tier Three Final was always going to be an anti-climax, but it turned out to be an even damper squib when it emerged that the other finalist, Manchester B, no longer had enough players to field a team. Whilst a Manchester Select XI beat India 3-0 in a friendly, the Indians were awarded the official match, and a final position of 17th represented a good reward for the enthusiastic debutantes. Elsewhere, Portugal (who had lost 3-0 to the late-rising Hull Canaries in the interim), managed to win a match at their last attempt, beating Edinburgh 3-2 in a highly entertaining contest courtesy of a hat-trick from João Candeias. The Scottish team had proved to be perfectly generous hosts, but the Wooden Spoon prize is unlikely to have been much consolation.

Lagging Ahead

The Tier Two Plate proved extremely competitive, and produced some fine games of football. The pick of the quarter-final draw was the London derby. With much pride at stake, it was London themselves who emerged victorious with a 4-1 win over fierce rivals LondonGPS, the impressive Greg Fowler grabbing one of his five tournament goals. Calor Gas B scored the only goal of the B-Battle against the Reading second string, whilst Shell and Essex could only be separated by a solitary penalty kick in a shoot-out. Two teams who could just about remember contesting World Cup Finals in a bygone era never the less produced some exquisite passing football, as the England Lags (who lost the first three Finals) came from a goal behind to squeeze past Manchester A (finalists in 1999 and 2003).

The semi-finals were contrasting affairs, with Calor Gas B and London producing a 0-0 stalemate before the former went through on penalties. Meanwhile Essex and the Lags were attacking each other with gay abandon, a sublime, pin-point volley by England's James McCabe from the left touchline finally proving decisive in a five-goal thriller. Tiring limbs and increasingly heavy rain made for a more circumspect Final, and despite some elegant build-up play, clear-cut chances were few and far between. Abbott came closest to breaking the deadlock in normal time, with a turn in the box that Dalglish would have been proud of, before seeing his curled shot graze the outside of the far post. But the England Lags held their nerve in the penalty shoot-out, emerging as 4-2 winners to claim their Tier Two Prize.

Rain Triggers Goal Drought

Much like that other sideshow World Cup being put on simultaneously by FIFA in Germany, the goals and gung-ho attacking entertainment of the Group stages were quickly replaced by safety-first pragmatism in the sudden-death knockout matches on the Sunday as the rain began to fall. The quarter-finals produced just a solitary goal between them, captain Dave Lewis' strike proving sufficient for the Welsh Wizards to beat Aberdeen. The other three matches all went to penalties after 0-0 stalemates, with Calor Gas A the first to win the shoot-out lottery, seeing off a spirited France side by 4 spot-kicks to 2. The England Pups had held the much-fancied Reading A side, although were a little fortunate when the latter hit the post in the final minute of extra time. But just as they had in the semi-final two years ago, the Pups once again succumbed in the psychological 12-yard battle, only managing to find the net once, and Reading were through.

Having won the last three World Cups, Italy came within a whisker of conceding their crown, when they missed one of their five penalties. The Czechs ruthlessly buried their first four spot-kicks (despite the Italian keeper advancing well off his line before each was taken), and thus had the chance to knock out the reigning champions by scoring their fifth and final kick. Perhaps it was nerves, but the fifth Czech taker fired weakly straight at the well advanced Italian keeper, and the referee refused to bow to demands from a large crowd that the kick should be retaken. The Italians don't need a second chance, and kept one hand on their trophy as the Czech keeper missed the first sudden-death penalty.

Super Calor, Fragile Italy

Some semblance of adventure was restored in the shape of two entertaining semi-finals boasting plenty of good football. The Welsh Wizards were within 40 minutes of a World Cup Final, which represented an impressive improvement on previous years. Richard Hughes scored his fourth goal of the tournament to give the Wizards some hope, but a Calor Gas side, who had been progressing quietly but effectively through the tournament, managed to score twice to claim a place in the Final.

The other semi-final between Italy and Reading was a great advert for the LogicaCMG World Cup, with both sides playing some composed football that regularly carved out good chances. It was the finishing that proved the real difference between the two sides, with Italian striker Facco burying both chances that came his way to give Italy a 2-0 lead. At the other end, the Italian keeper pulled off two full-length saves to stop goal-bound Reading headers, and by the time Barry Nicol managed to halve the deficit with an excellent finish from 10 yards, only a few minutes remained. Reading could not find an equaliser in the little time remaining, and the Italians were through to a quite remarkable ninth consecutive World Cup Final.

Extended Reign

Unfortunately, the rain that had threatened for much of the day materialised in torrents just before the World Cup Final between Italy and Calor Gas was due to kick-off. As a result, the game was played in front of a very small crowd, mostly huddled soggily under umbrellas that were fighting a losing battle against the elements. The Italians had survived their main scare against the Czechs in the quarter-final, and the semi-final hero Facco was again on hand to convert a brace and secure a 2-0 victory to land a remarkable seventh LogicaCMG World Cup. Exactly one week later Marcello Lippi would lead his own Azzurri to a less convincing, if somewhat more explosive, penalty shoot-out victory in Berlin. It strikes us that two World Cups in one year is just a tad greedy, and the rest of the LogicaCMG footballing fraternity will surely be hoping that the Italians will have lost their appetite when next year's tournament gets under way in Lisbon.

See also: [Official LogicaCMG World Cup 2006 Video] [The Grandfather Trilogy]
Team Photos: [England Lags] [England Pups] [Hull Canaries] [India] [Portugal] [Shell] [Wizards]