Tactical route to success

Picking right team for each opponent is the recipe for glory

Howard had little trouble making the save, but the uncontested shot from the left of the penalty box was the result of a defensive lapse in the United States’ carefully crafted game plan, one it will have to execute almost flawlessly to defeat England in its World Cup opener on Saturday in Rustenburg.

“We’re going to have to defend like bandits,” Howard said. “We seem to find a way to usually do that. If we get the opportunities in spurts and spells, we’re going to attack.” The World Cup will not be won or lost in the first game, or even the opening round, from which the top two teams in each group advance to the knockout rounds. But the urgency for some teams is greater than for others.

The World Cup really is two tournaments, each phase requiring different tactics. Teams like the United States and hosts South Africa will have to contest every game as if it were the last just to advance from the group stage to the knockout rounds. For tournament favourites like Spain and Brazil, the challenge is to keep their superstar players healthy, happy and motivated through the early games. “We’re here to first and foremost qualify for the next round,” American defender Steve Cherundolo said. “I look at every game the same. Of course you do the scouting reports and you have different players on the other side of the field and different things to look out for, but for me, it’s a chance to win three points.”

That is the value of a victory; a tie is worth one. A team will most likely need at least four points to advance, but balancing the deliberateness required in the first round with the urgency of the second can be daunting. Too much strategising can knock a player off his game. “You can’t be thinking about it nonstop,” said Clint Dempsey, the American midfielder. “You’ll stress yourself out.”

England, a team that expects to make a deep run in the tournament, will tinker with its line-up, depending on its opponent, perhaps resting players who may be more valuable in elimination games against presumably stronger rivals. Other teams, like Brazil and Portugal, who are in Group G with Ivory Coast and North Korea, will try to do only what they need to do to get out of the group phase, and hope their players hit their peak when the knockout rounds begin.

In 2006, Brazil cruised through the group stage, winning all three first-round games and scoring seven goals against weaker opponents, none of whom mustered more than one victory. But Brazil could not get out of second gear when the knockout rounds began. The players were flat in their quarterfinal match against France, a team that hit its stride at the right time and reached the final, where it lost to Italy.

Teams can change formations and rotate players depending on the opponent. A coach may deploy an offensive line-up against a weaker opponent in the first round to improve a team’s goal differential, the first tie-breaker in the standings. Or he may opt for a more conservative posture against a stronger opponent in a knockout game, with an eye on a draw and a penalty shoot-out, where luck can trump skill. Another strategic challenge will be managing the unpredictable but inevitable suspensions. A red card results in an automatic suspension for the next match. But two yellow cards in any two games will also earn a player a one-game suspension.

In two of the last three World Cups, England has had a player ejected from an elimination-round game, and the team went on to lose both in penalty-kick shoot-outs.
England’s star striker, Wayne Rooney, who was sent off during a quarterfinal in Germany four years ago, will have to be especially careful. He is an excitable player who often gets into arguments with referees. If he receives a yellow card in an early game, coach Fabio Capello may bench him to avoid a second yellow – and a suspension – that would make him unavailable in a knockout game. The Americans have also had players suspended in past tournaments, and they can ill afford to do so because coach Bob Bradley’s disciplined defence and counter-attacking style requires all 11 players to contribute.
“There’s a trust in the way we play, in keeping the lines tight and staying disciplined,” said midfielder Michael Bradley, the coach’s son. “We are a group of guys who fight for each other and are committed to the team and are willing to run and tackle and fight and give everything they have for each other.

''In addition to that, I think we’ve shown we have good ability to be dynamic and mobile going forward as well.”