With 18 internationals in losing sides the Blues prefer not to talk about a certain event in South Africa
Don’t mention the World Cup. The subject cropped up once or twice on Chelsea’s tour of Germany over this past week and nobody got away with it. South Africa feels like a taboo for the squad that reigned supreme in domestic competition last time out.
The club have 18 full internationals for the new season and each one of them can tell a tale of World Cup woe. There were the frustrating failures to qualify, injuries wrecking dreams and desperate underachievement when the jamboree kicked off. Chelsea ticked every box and this is before the Nicolas Anelka international incident is added into the mix.
It is often said top players dwell longer on the disappointments and Carlo Ancelotti’s side have had a long summer to do precisely that. The club’s priority is to retain the Premier League and win the FA Cup for what would be a modern era record third time in succession while the Champions League continues to tantalise. The Treble is no mere pipedream and some of Ancelotti’s players have spoken openly about it. The World Cup miseries provide them with even greater motivation.
“For me, it was tough to watch the finals,” said the goalkeeper Petr Cech, whose Czech Republic team were edged out by Slovakia and Slovenia in qualification. “You want to be there and the biggest pain that I had was to see the teams that qualified instead of us were not better than us. Slovakia and Slovenia did quite well but they were not better than us. That was the most painful.”
Slovenia advanced at the expense of Russia in the play-offs, which meant despair for Chelsea’s left-sided player Yuri Zhirkov, who was sent off for Russia in the second leg, while Yossi Benayoun, the club’s midfield signing from Liverpool, did not make it to the finals with Israel. “Every player wants to play in the World Cup but we just weren’t good enough,” Benayoun said.
Worse than not making it, perhaps, was being denied by injury and the pain was compounded for Ghana’s Michael Essien and Nigeria’s Mikel John Obi as the World Cup was the first on African soil. It is unlikely to return there during their careers.
Essien is one of the pin-up boys of African football and his image featured prominently in advertising campaigns in South Africa but he and his many fans were left to lament his failure to overcome a long-term knee problem. Mikel, who underwent minor knee surgery in May, travelled to South Africa with the Nigeria squad but he was forced to withdraw on the eve of the tournament. José Bosingwa, Chelsea’s Portugal full-back, was also ruled out by knee trouble.
The injury curse almost claimed Didier Drogba, Ivory Coast’s talisman, which would have been another bitter blow to Africa. The striker fractured his arm in a warm-up game on 4 June against Japan and although he recovered to play as a substitute in his country’s opening tie against Portugal and then start against Brazil and North Korea, his preparation was undermined and he struggled to fire on all cylinders. Ivory Coast, for whom Salomon Kalou also played, were knocked out at the group stage. No Chelsea player made it beyond the last 16 of the tournament.
“It was a hard summer for every Chelsea player,” Kalou said. “We try to get over it and we are now working hard to do well for Chelsea. There are opportunities in the Champions League and defending our Double, and we have to be ready to start that against Manchester United in the Community Shield. We’ve all had a longer rest than we expected this summer but it gave us more time to relax and forget about the World Cup. We are back and ready for the challenge.”
Drogba and Kalou were not the only Chelsea players to bomb at the group phase. Branislav Ivanovic’s Serbia flattered to deceive and they exited early when they lost to Australia. Then there were the French. Anyone who thought Anelka had lost the ability to stir up controversy in his later years was given a shuddering reality check as the striker’s rant at the France coach Raymond Domenech was followed by his expulsion from the squad before all hell broke loose.
Florent Malouda, though, hardly had a quiet World Cup, either. Chelsea’s France midfielder clashed with Domenech before the opening game against Uruguay and was dropped only to regain his place for the Mexico tie. Then, after the players’ strike in protest over Anelka’s punishment, he was again used as a substitute against South Africa.
Chelsea’s Portugal players who made it to South Africa were part of a frustrating collective effort. They scored in only one of their four ties – the 7-0 drubbing of North Korea – and were criticised for their defensive approach in the last-16 defeat to Spain. Ricardo Carvalho played well on an individual level but Paulo Ferreira was dropped after the first game against Ivory Coast and Deco, having played 62 minutes of that tie, injured his hip in training and did not feature again.
With Alex not selected by Brazil, the picture for Chelsea was completed by John Terry, Frank Lampard and Ashley Cole, and the less said about England’s fortunes, the better. Roll on the return to club competition.
ChelseaWorld Cup 2010David Hytnerguardian.co.uk
