There have been a few cases of coaches qualifying their teams to the World Cup before and then not being the one to lead them through the group stage for various reasons. I remember Iran sacking its coach in 98 weeks before the tournament for example. So which of these will not make it to Germany? We can eventually turn this into a poll. Zico - Japan Guus Hiddink - Australia Dick Avocaat - South Korea Branko Ivankovic - Iran Gabriel Calderon - Saudi Arabia Sven-Goran Eriksson - England Jurgen Klinsmann - Germany Sergio Aragones - Spain Luiz Felipe Scolari - Portugal Jakob Kuhn - Switzerland Marcello Lippi - Italy Marco van Basten - Holland Raymond Domenech - France Pawel Janas - Poland Karel Bruckner - Czech Republic Lars Lagerback - Sweden Zlatko Kranjcar - Croatia Ilija Petkovic - Serbia and Montenegro Oleg Bolokin - Ukraine Anibal Ruiz - Paraguay Luis Fernandez Suarez - Ecuador Carlos Alberto Parreira - Brazil Jose Pekerman - Argentina Luis Oliveira Goncalves - Angola Henri Michel - Cote D'Ivoire Ratomir Djukovic - Ghana Stephen Keshi - Togo Roger Lemerre - Tunisia Ricardo La Volpe - Mexico Bruce Arena - USA Alexandre Guimaraes - Costa Rica Leo Beenhakker - Trinidad and Tobago
This is a summary of each coach's position as i see it... Zico - Japan (no real pressure right now) Guus Hiddink - Australia (Just started, getting them past Uruguay earned him enough brownie points until june) Dick Avocaat - South Korea (has had good results in the friendlies since he's started) Branko Ivankovic - Iran (no real pressure right now) Gabriel Calderon - Saudi Arabia (Saudi Arabia had an awful asian games. Granted it was a B side, but still...it makes the Ghana loss look worse) Sven-Goran Eriksson - England (always under pressure, but for the moment critcs are quiet) Jurgen Klinsmann - Germany (been under pressure for a while but things seem to be calm) Sergio Aragones - Spain (under pressure since going through the playoffs, can' afford more slipups) Luiz Felipe Scolari - Portugal (no real pressure) Jakob Kuhn - Switzerland (can rest on his laurels) Marcello Lippi - Italy (no real pressure for the moment) Marco van Basten - Holland (his player choices are constantly called into question) Raymond Domenech - France (under pressure since august 2004, can't afford slipups) Pawel Janas - Poland (no real pressure) Karel Bruckner - Czech Republic (no real pressure) Lars Lagerback - Sweden (no pressure for the moment) Zlatko Kranjcar - Croatia (no pressure for the moment) Ilija Petkovic - Serbia and Montenegro (no pressure for the moment) Oleg Bolokin - Ukraine (no pressure for the moment) Anibal Ruiz - Paraguay (no pressure for the moment) Luis Fernandez Suarez - Ecuador (no real pressure) Carlos Alberto Parreira - Brazil (no real pressure for the moment) Jose Pekerman - Argentina (under mounting pressure since beating Brazil 3-1 back in june. since then they've lost to paraguay, uruguay and england, struggled against peru, lost 1-4 to Brazil in the Confed Cup final etc) Luis Oliveira Goncalves - Angola (no real pressure) Henri Michel - Cote D'Ivoire (no real pressure) Ratomir Djukovic - Ghana (no real pressure) Stephen Keshi - Togo (concern rising following the debacles in iran...) Roger Lemerre - Tunisia (no real pressure) Ricardo La Volpe - Mexico (been under pressure since not selecting blanco after the gold cup - the Trinidad, US and Bulagaria losses haven't helped) Bruce Arena - USA (no real pressure - he's been there since 1998, they aren' going to fire him before the World Cup)) Alexandre Guimaraes - Costa Rica (no real pressure for the moment) Leo Beenhakker - Trinidad and Tobago (no pressure - he's a god until the world cup starts)
Yeah I can see a terrible CAN performance possibly rattling some federation executives enough to think about dismissing the coach.
Isn't it difficult to select a player who is currently injured? Or is it because van Basten didn't select a healthy van Bommel? As for which coach gets the boot before Germany? There's some speculation that an Asian country will select Wanderly Luxemburgo as their national team coach. Being Korean and knowing the nation's new found comfort in Dick Advocaat, he's not likely going anywhere anytime soon (although we desperaetly hope he does not make the same mistake as he did in Euro'2004 by substituting Robben off while leading the Czechs). The rumor mill has Luxemburgo as replacing either Zico or Ivankovic (Japan and Iran respectively). Just a rumor mind you. IMHO, replacing a coach before a World Cup is completely disruptive and unnecessary. I still remember back in 1994 when the Dutch federation worked out a plot having Advocaat help Holland qualify and then have Cruyff take over once USA'94 would start. Cruyff's heart problems helped him make the decision not to go and Advocaat stayed, but if memory serves me correct, that episode led to Gullit walking out on the national team and then the spiral thereafter..even then, the Dutch were only piped to a semi-final spot by Brasil in Orlando. Overall, it's stupid to sack a coach in the months leading up to a World Cup unless the coach is picking a completely new team for each match.
Actually he's under quite a lot of pressure. There are certain Teheran newspaper who demand his sacking. I wouldn't be at all surprise if he doesn't make the WC. He's absolutely secure until Euro '08...
This is one of the reasons i started this thread. I don't have my finger on the pulse of the press in all 32 countries. Can you explain on what basis they want him sacked?
Gabriel Calderon - Saudi Arabia Saudis want to replace him with the current manager of Al Ittihad, Anghel Iordanescu.
Yes, Van Basten thinks that Van Bommel made too many tactical mistakes so he wasn't selected. He'll be back though. That had nothing to do with hartproblems and everything to do with some financial conflicts between Johan Cruijff and the Dutch FA.
12/15/2005 Calderon asked to explain Saudi's World Cup build-up The Saudi Football Federation (SFF) has given national coach Gabriel Calderon until end of next week to explain his build-up plans for the 2006 World Cup finals in Germany. The body is also concerned about Saudi Arabia's relatively poor showing at the recent West Asian Games in Doha, although SFF head Prince Nawaf Bin Faisal insisted the Argentine's job was not under threat. "We have asked Calderon to explain and allay our concerns," Prince Nawaf was quoted as saying on the Asian Football Confederation's (AFC) website on Thursday. "This was regarding the changes in technical and administrative staff which have been carried out four times so far and the constant changes he makes in his plans. "We also wanted to know the wisdom behind holding a training camp for two weeks before the finals without playing a single friendly match during the camp. We will soon know his answer." <snip>
Newspaper don't need some serious basis, especially in Iran (Ivić was sacked before the '98 Wc in a similar situation). As I understand there is a certain group of Iranian coaches who can't live with the fact that a foreigner leads their NT and some papers support them.
Diego is the greatest talent to ever play the game...but this would indicate that the AFA, Grondona in particular, are not interested in winning the World Cup. Argentina has not played well since thrashing Brazil in BA 3-1; however, that is also the last time that they had a full strength team. After qualifying for the World Cup finals and losing Mascherano and Heinze, it is understandable that they would not play to their full potential in the Confed Cup and the remaining qualifiers. Pekerman has done a good job by experimenting with additional players, contrary to Bielsa's approach...it would be a shame to see him go without the chance to prove himself in a major competition with the NT (after all, he did very well with the youth teams).
iran going after luxemburgo i read..the ex coach of real madrid,but thats just stupid 5 months away from wc
Well you've got your answer. Saudi Arabia just sacked their Argentinian coach after the West Asian games tournament. Calderon's last game in charge of KSA was a 2-1 defeat against Iran's olympic team
you posted this before fifa got it up...i couldn't even find it using google...i guess the time difference helps lol One down...31 to go
He has been doing bad lately, we lost to Japan in the last game of qualifications , and then lost to South Korea in Soul , and then we lost to QPR ( Queens Park Rangers) which is a 2nd class club team in the UK, we lost with our B team. And in Tehran we lost to Macedonia B team , and we best Togo. As you can see there are plenty of good reasons for him to be under pressure. And ivoconic got fired after Iran lost to Behran in game where Iran had to eaither win or tie to make it to the world cup, so he was also fired for a good reason.