True-blue US take on Panamanian pioneers
24 July 2005

When the eighth CONCACAF Gold Cup got underway in early July, everyone expected the United States to reach the final while no one gave much of a chance to much-improved, but still highly unfashionable, Panama.
But now, just 90 minutes away from becoming the next side from North, Central America and the Caribbean to represent the region at a FIFA Confederations Cup, plucky Panama are no longer merely a punchline.

Pioneers, Panamania
?We are a humble team,? remarked straight-faced coach Jose ?Che Che? Hernandez after seeing his charges beat his native Colombia for the second time at the 2005 Gold Cup in the USA. ?Let?s face it, Panama is not known for her prowess in football. But we are getting better and I keep telling these players that they are pioneers for football in Panama and they must continue to give their all to raise the game in their country.?

2003 saw a Panamanian team reach a first-ever FIFA finals ? the World Youth Championship in UAE. Shortly thereafter, the senior team qualified for their first final round of CONCACAF qualifying for the FIFA World Cup. A return trip for the U-20s to the World Youth showpiece in Holland this summer, speaks to real progress in the poverty-stricken nation of just over 3 million.

And playing in only their second Gold Cup (they went winless in 1993), a place in the final match on 24 July in New York is not exactly an insignificant achievement. With a combination of experience and youth from Julio and Jorge Dely Valdes all the way down to Colombia-based young hit-man Luis Tejada, Panama are a fast-moving, no-frills fist of a football team not to be taken likely. Colombia twice learned this lesson over the course of the 2005 Gold Cup and and impressive, if unknown, South Africa too fell to the Canaleros.

?This team is the future of football in Panama,? Hernandez went on, flanked by diminutive man of the match Ricardo Phillips, whose two goals against Colombia were an absolute delight. ?They are good players, good men and they will not shrink against the States in the final?you can count on this.?

Scraping and scrapping, USA still fancied
Late goals have become an American hallmark at the 2005 Gold Cup. For the second time in the competition, they left the result in doubt until precariously late against Honduras in their semi-final. Down a goal with only four minutes to go, two late strikes from John O?Brien and newcomer Oguchi Onyewu swung the States into the final. A similar act of timely heroism was also required against Cuba in the group stages.
?It?s not like this is our game plan, to score two goals in the last two minutes to win the game,? DaMarcus Beasley told FIFAworldcup.com after the semi-final. ?We want to kill off the game as quickly as we can with three or four goals. But it shows something about a team if they don?t give up and keep on fighting. I?ll take a late win over a loss any day.?

Dogged holding midfielder Chris Armas echoed his team-mates? assessment. ?You don?t always want to be coming from behind,? he remarked. ? But it?s good to know you can.?

A few blips aside, the hosts must still be considered wild favourites heading into Sunday?s final with the tournament?s Cinderella Central Americans.

The two teams ? both still alive at opposite ends of the table in the final round of CONCACAF Germany 2006 qualifying ? have met three times since September 2004. Stone-faced US coach Bruce Arena has the edge with two wins to Panama?s one draw. But the boss, who will have to watch the final from the stands after being ejected from the touchline in the semi-final, is giving nothing away.

?Sure Panama is a familiar opponent for us,? he told reporters after making it known he would be appealing his sending off by Jamaican referee Peter Prendergast. ?We haven?t watched them much here (at the Gold Cup), but we?ll be sure to get our preparations right.?

The US will be going for their third Gold Cup crown after winning in 1991 and 2002, as Panama look to claim what would be their first piece of major silverware.

The most "Fussball" & "Soccer" searches: Fussball, Fussball Weltmeisterschaft in Deutschland, DFB, Fussballdaten, Ergebnisse der 1 & 2 Bundesliga,
Kicker online, Fussballspieler, Bilder, Wallpaper, Fussball Ergebnisse tabellen und Fotos, Fifa, WM Resultate, Nationalmanschaft, DFB Pokal, Fussball News, Fussball Statistiken, Fussball National
Bundesliga Ergebnisse , Soccer International, Champions-League, UEFA-Cup, Bilder vom Fußball, EM, WM ,VfL Wolfsburg, VfL Bochum, VfB Stuttgart, TSV 1860 München, SV Werder Bremen, Hertha BSC Berlin, Hamburger SV, FC Schalke 04, Eintracht Frankfurt, Borussia Dortmund, Bayer 04 Leverkusen, 1. FC Köln, FC Bayern München. Check the latest soccer news, scores, and exclusive EUROSPORT soccer interviews. United States Soccer Federation. News and coverage of all US National teams. All the soccer links to clubs, news and any sites related to football in England. Searching the web for soccer sites, soccer news, soccer video and soccer audio. Comprehensive Soccer, Football, Futbol, Futebol, Calcio, Fussball, Fußbal, Voetbol pages covering, World Acclaimed Pelé Pages, Pelé, FIFA, World Cup.

Dream-maker Hiddink becomes wizard of Oz
25 July 2005

"Hiddink! Make our dream come true!" The South Korean supporters who displayed that bold banner at the 2002 FIFA World Cup? were not disappointed, and now Australians are hoping the Dutchman can work his magic on the Socceroos.
Guus Hiddink's appointment as Frank Farina's successor as Australia coach offers him quite a challenge: his mission to take Australia to their first FIFA World Cup finals since 1974. They have gone close several times since ? last time around they lost out in a play-off against Uruguay ? but with Hiddink at the helm, Football Federation Australia hopes they can take the final step and join the world's elite in Germany next summer.

Australia must beat the Solomon Islands in a September play-off before taking on the fifth-placed South American team over two legs in November and as FFA chairman Frank Lowy put it: "We could not have hoped for a more qualified, internationally recognised coach to lead us on the road to Germany."

Certainly Hiddink's credentials command immediate respect and for a country with only a limited footballing pedigree, his achievements with the Korea Republic can only augur well for the Australians. Before the 2002 finals, the South Koreans had not won a single match in four previous finals appearances yet under Hiddink they not only secured that elusive first victory against Poland, but they then beat Portugal, Italy and Spain to become the first Asian side to reach the semi-finals.

Hiddink - who will retain his position as PSV Eindhoven coach while overseeing the Socceroos - achieved that success by making high demands of all around him. His employers at the Korean Football Association, for instance, rescheduled the K-League to allow him four months to work with his players before the finals. His players, some of them technically strong but physically weak, were subjected to arduous weights programmes. The feats that followed made him a hero in the country, earning him honorary citizenship and a university doctorate.
This is far from Hiddink's only achievement of note, however. After a modest playing career in the Netherlands and United States, he started out on the coaching ladder with his former club De Graafschap in 1982 but it was with PSV Eindhoven in the second half of the 1980s that he made his mark. Appointed coach in 1986, Hiddink led PSV to four Dutch titles in a row as well as three Dutch Cups, with the undoubted highlight the treble-winning year of 1988 when they won the European Cup by beating Benfica on penalties in the final.

After spells at Turkey's Fenerbahce and Valencia in Spain, Hiddink then took the reins of the Dutch national team, steering them to the quarter-finals of EURO 96 and semi-finals of France 98, losing both times in penalty shoot-outs. He lifted the Toyota Cup during his brief tenure at Real Madrid in 1998/99 and was also in charge of Real Betis before taking the Korea Republic job. Since 2002, the 58-year-old has been earning plaudits for his work back at PSV, whom he guided to the Dutch double last season.

Hiddink, according to his former PSV midfielder Mark van Bommel, knows how to build a team. Last summer, PSV lost their entire forward line of Arjen Robben, Dennis Rommedahl and Mateja Kezman and Hiddink replaced them with little-known players like the American DaMarcus Beasley and Peruvian Jefferson Farfan. In Van Bommel's words, however, the new recruits were "real team players, who think in the terms of the team and not only their own individual interests".
Team efforts
Just as it was a collective endeavour that took Korea Republic to the FIFA World Cup semi-finals, so it was also a team effort that got PSV to last season's UEFA Champions League semi-finals, where they were unlucky to lose to AC Milan after running the Italians ragged in the second leg with an adventurous three-man attack.

Not surprisingly, Hiddink places much importance on his players' mindset. "On the pitch you can see a lot about a player's mental strength and their commitment to the game," he observed. "It is very important to find out what their personality is like." In this respect, his Australia players are unlikely to disappoint.

As they showed in June's FIFA Confederations Cup the Socceroos have a spirit and competitive edge to match anyone. There they fought back against both Germany and Argentina before losing those games 4-3 and 4-2, and displayed an impressive attacking threat through the likes of striker John Aloisi and midfielder Tim Cahill. It was the way they conceded goals cheaply that was the problem, and the FFA will hope Australia can benefit from Hiddink?s undoubted tactical expertise. Playing a counterattacking style, the Korea Republic conceded just one goal in five outings en route to the 2002 semi-final.
The words of South Korean international Park Ji-Sung, who also played under him at PSV, summed up Hiddink's contribution to the Asian nation: "He helped us so much. He made our country strong and our team strong and he showed us a brighter future." Australia are now seeking more of the same.

Enter the Soccer Forum
>Sport Board<

Scoreboard

Asian Zone
FT Bahrain 0:0 Uzbekistan

North, Central American and Caribbean Zone
FT USA 2:0 Panama
FT Trinidad and Tobago 2:1 Mexico
FT Guatemala 3:1 Costa Rica

European Zone
FT San Marino 0:6 Spain
FT Slovenia 0:3 Scotland
FT Luxembourg 0:2 Estonia
FT Slovakia 0:0 Russia
FT Italy 2:1 Moldova
FT France 4:0 Cyprus
FT Kazakhstan 1:2 Denmark
FT Belarus 0:1 Norway
FT Lithuania 1:1 Belgium
FT Austria 2:0 Northern Ireland
FT Serbia & Montenegro 1:0 Bosnia-Herzegovina
FT Wales 2:0 Azerbaijan
FT Ireland Republic 0:0 Switzerland
FT Finland 0:3 Czech Republic
FT Albania 0:1 Turkey
FT Andorra 0:3 Armenia
FT Greece 1:0 Georgia
FT Malta 1:1 Bulgaria
FT Sweden 3:1 Iceland
FT Netherlands 0:0 Macedonia FYR
FT England 2:1 Poland
FT Hungary 0:0 Croatia
FT Portugal 3:0 Latvia

South American Zone
FT Brazil 3:0 Venezuela
FT Uruguay 1:0 Argentina
FT Paraguay 0:1 Colombia
FT Peru 4:1 Bolivia
FT Chile 0:0 Ecuador
Ergebnisse World Cup / Weltmeisterschaft

As many as 7,000 troops will be on call in case of emergency at the World Cup, the German defense minister said in remarks released Saturday.

Officials have said troops could be called in to help deal with major incidents such as a terrorist attack during the June 9-July 9 event.

"The army will keep up to 7,000 ready in case they are needed to protect our population and our guests," Franz Josef Jung said in an interview to appear in Sunday's Bild am Sonntag newspaper.

Officials have said the army could provide assistance such as medical services and explosives teams. However, only police are to provide security at stadiums and team headquarters.