Off the ball: Reality is restored - thank goodness!

By CHRIS RATTUE

The silence was deafening. As South Korea and Germany did battle in soccer's World Cup semifinal, most viewers were locked in their own internal battle - wondering which team they least wanted to lose.

One Aucklander in particular would have been cheering loudly for South Korea.

For the six weeks leading up to the tournament, he put a few dollars each day on the Koreans capturing the world crown at 100-1. By kickoff, he was up to win $50,000.

But the suspicion is that most sports fans were cheering very, very quietly for the Germans.

In some ways, the credibility of the cup was on the line as the prospect of South Korea making the grand final, and heaven forbid winning the tournament, loomed.

The only possible reason that such outsiders could contemplate this was through unfair home advantage.

This "taking football to the world" thing had gone far enough. Okay, it's been a good laugh. Now can South Korea please step aside and let the real soccer superpowers do their stuff.

While location, location, location is significant in producing World Cup winners, it would have overwhelmed the trustworthiness of the greatest single sports festival if South Korea had progressed further.

We can probably rule out the influence of crooked bookmakers in persuading officials to give the Koreans a leg up on the way to the semifinals, even though nothing would surprise after parts of cricket were revealed to be rotten to the core.

Portugal, Italy and Spain all had dubious decisions against them while playing the Koreans, including players sent off and goals and a penalty disallowed.

We can only live in hope, and it is reasonable hope, that the well-documented and scientifically studied effects of home advantage - and not something more sinister - led officials to cluster these decisions in favour of one team (although on the subject of home advantage, in rugby's latest Super 12 the home side received more penalties just 53 per cent of the time, down nine percentage points on the previous season).

There were even those prepared to imply that the political aspirations of the head of the Korean Football Federation and co-chairman of their World Cup committee, Chung Mong-Joon, might have somehow brought pressure to bear on the officials as he set out to ride a soccer wave to his country's presidency.

Who knows, but one thing is for sure - the love of the underdog flew out of the window when South Korea took their place in the semifinals, which was even more remarkable considering that their opponents were Germany.

As commentators endlessly remind us, the Germans win even when they are not at their best.

Many of the great European teams over the years have combined the best of South American flair with English efficiency, but the Germans don't usually allow flamboyance to get in the way of a good game of football.

Their goalkeepers look as though they'd happily go a few rounds with Lennox Lewis, and they can safely squeeze the life out of games knowing that their system often brings results.

But despite a lack of charm, the Germans remain a yardstick and their history of success lends credibility to tournaments.

And their stodgy march into tomorrow's final against Brazil has at least made it easy this time to cheer, and know whom to cheer for.

Brazil remain the people's choice and can still be a delight to watch, although they notched a black mark through Rivaldo's shameful Hollywood - which led to a Turkish player being sent off - and a coach who encourages, almost demands, this behaviour from his players.

As a television comments man said so well, play-acting is a blight on soccer, an embarrassment, and should be eliminated.

Since the grown men who indulge in this grotesque cheating earn the sort of money that could run a small nation, the present level of fines is pointless.

Long suspensions may be the answer, and the first thing Fifa should do after this tournament is make sure that the sham-artists take a really long dive.

So we have been left with a reasonable final at the end of a tournament which has had its exciting moments but has lacked some flair, especially in players willing and able to beat defenders.

It has also lacked an iconic figure of Pele or Maradona proportions.

The talent of Brazil can now put the dour and limited Germans in their place, a more comfortable prospect than Korea versus Turkey, or anyone else for that matter.

* It would be impossible to write a sports column this week without mentioning the magnificent effort by the New Zealand cricket team in scoring this country's first test win in the West Indies.

Captain Stephen Fleming was a class act not only on the field but also off it with his comments acknowledging previous NZ teams and their sometimes physically painful battles in the Caribbean.

What a pity we couldn't get to see this historic achievement on television. But the powers-that-be have seen the light and the second test, which started this morning, is being shown live on Sky Sport. Howzat!