Days of Wonder

Giv

en their long history of choking in the crunch, it's fitting that the most elegant euphemism for sporting failure was invented by the English. You used to hear it all the time on BBC radio, when an England side was beaten, at Wembley or Twickenham or Lord's; at the final whistle, or wicket, a commentator would put the defeat down to "the glorious uncertainty of the game."

The phrase has fallen out of use in recent years. These days, aggressive journalists—and impatient fans—won't take inexplicability as an excuse. So much emotion and money is invested in sports, blame must be apportioned, scapegoats identified: the referee was incompetent, the other side cheated, the coach was clueless or, if nothing else is plausible, one of "our boys" let the team down. Last week, all these anguished complaints were being aired in newspaper columns, TV talk shows and coffeehouse conversations in Paris, Buenos Aires and Lisbon.

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But for most, the shock events of the World Cup defied explanation. "An incomprehensible fiasco," is how L'Humanité described France's ignominious exit. Argentina's failure to qualify for the second round had former team coach Carlos Bilardo, now a television commentator, sputtering into his microphone: "The impossible just happened." But as fans and experts calm down over the next few days, they may find some solace, and more sense, in the old cliché.

The humiliation of the holders, the South American champions and fancied Portugal certainly marks the end of certainties. Not since Brazil in 1966 has the reigning champion been eliminated in the first round. Not since 1962 has Argentina failed to progress to the knockout stage. And when was the last time three possible semifinalists went home this early? Try never. After last week, only a reckless fool would predict safe passage for the big names in future tournaments.

Let's hold off declaring this a new world order, though. After all, European hegemony remains essentially intact: nine sides from the continent made the second round, just one fewer than in the previous five Cups. Yes, there were two North American teams; but we saw that in the U.S. in 1994. South America had just two representatives, a weak showing, but not unprecedented; and it's worth remembering that the previous time that happened, '94 again, one of the two went on to win. Two Asian teams have progressed, a genuine and welcome novelty. But at week's end, the favorite to take home the Cup was the oldest member of the old order: Brazil. And England's demolishing on Saturday of Denmark reminded us that other traditional powers remain formidable contenders.

Yet, after the upheavals of last week, it is entirely conceivable that even teams featuring Ronaldo and Rivaldo or Beckham and Owen can be bested. Spanish coach José Antonio Camacho put it simply: "Anybody can beat anybody." And this may be the best thing that could have happened to this World Cup and the ones to come. No longer assured of victory by virtue of their star power, the glamour teams will henceforth be obliged to play their best in every game, making for a great spectacle.

France, Argentina and Portugal are not the only sides to have provided insufficient entertainment. Overshadowed by the fall of the European and South American giants was the dismal showing by the principal African challengers. Cameroon and Nigeria came into the tournament fully expecting to make the last eight, and perhaps go even further. Nigerian coach Adegboye Onigbinde and Cameroonian captain Rigobert Song each boasted that his side would fulfill, if belatedly, PelE's old prophesy that an African team would win the cup in the 20th century. Instead, both sides suffered early shocks and then exited with bad grace, Cameroon kicking at shins rather than the ball in a bruising encounter with Germany and Nigeria playing out a lethargic draw with England.

England's coach Sven-Göran Eriksson and German great Franz Beckenbauer, among others, suggested that the dull performances by hotly favored teams were down to Europe-based players being just plain knackered from a long season of club football. But the teams that excelled in the first two weeks of the World Cup—Brazil, Spain, Germany, Denmark, Sweden—were full of Europe-based players. Nobody clocked more hours in the pro season than Spain's Real Madrid contingent: in addition to the closely contested domestic league, their club went the full distance in the Spanish King's Cup and the European Champions League. And yet, Madrid stars Raul, Fernando Hierro and Ivan Helguera were able to do the business in their national colors. Raul wasn't complaining of exhaustion after a grueling opening game against Slovenia in the humidity of Kwangju. The striker was hungry for more. "If we carry on working as hard as that, we can achieve something great," he said. Indeed, hard running was the key to Spain's three-for-three performance. And yet, as his team prepared for its second-round game against the Irish on Sunday night, coach Camacho, mindful of the hubris that felled more fancied teams, was making no predictions. "There are no easy teams anymore."

His counterparts in the French, Argentine and Portuguese squads learned that lesson the painful way. It will be a while before the hurt subsides and reasoned analysis of their failure begins. "We can't understand what happened," Argentine captain Juan Sebastian Veron told journalists as he and other players caught a train to Tokyo, where their families awaited them. "It still hasn't sunk in." Perhaps he and his mates might consider the advice of another former Argentine national coach: Carlos Bianchi warned against too much head-scratching over last week's events. "It makes no sense to search for explanations where you won't find them," he told the sports daily Olé. "This is what the game is all about: you win, you draw or you lose." And that, he might have added, is theglorious uncertainty of the game.