PLAYER FOCUS: BASTIAN SCHWEINSTEIGER

Many German footballers have left their mark on the World Cup; Gerd Muller, Franz Beckenbauer and Jurgen Klinsmann to name but a few. This summer may be the turn of another as Bayern Munich midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger attempts to put his name in the FIFA record books.

At just 25 years old, Schweinsteiger is yet to reach his prime and, after a bright start to his career, has failed to make the impact on the world stage than was perhaps expected of him. However, that’s not to say he’s not tasted his fair amount of success.

Schweinsteiger was a national champion in successive years at under-17 and under-19 level, before winning his first senior honour with Bayern Munich the following season, at the tender age of just 18. Schweinsteiger’s debut season at Bayern saw him pick up both a league and cup winner’s medal and the Kolbermoor born star has since gone on to win an impressive eight major honours, achieving the Bundesliga and German cup double on four occasions.

It’s not just club football where Schweinsteiger has shown his ability, by the time he steps onto a pitch in South Africa he will be amongst the twenty highest cap winners in German football history. With 73 caps, at the age of just 25, he is more experienced on the world stage than many older international stars such as club mate Franck Ribery (42 caps), former England captain John Terry (59) and Real Madrid’s Spanish midfielder Xabi Alonso (66).

Those caps have been earned on the big stage too, after making his international debut at the age of just nineteen, he reached the semi-final of his first major tournament at the 2006 World Cup and then went one step further by making the final of the European Championships in 2008, before losing out to eventual champions Spain. This time around Schweinsteiger will be looking to go one step further again and pick up yet another piece of silverware for his ever expanding trophy cabinet.

According to his player profile on Bayern Munich’s official website Bastian has all the attributes needed to conquer the world. His interests are listed as “travel and new experiences” so he shouldn’t find himself too far out of his comfort zone in South Africa this summer. His personal motto - “Never lose your belief” - will undoubtedly come in handy as his country have been drawn in a tricky group alongside Australia, Serbia and African Nations Cup runners-up, Ghana.

Combine his ‘never-give-up’ attitude with accomplished shooting and passing over great distances and Schweinsteiger could well prove to be Germany’s secret weapon.

TOP FIVE......WORLD CUP GOALSCORERS

Two Brazilians, two Germans - no surprises there. The two most successful nations in the history of the World Cup have produced four of the five all-time top scorers. But what is the nationality of the player third in the list? And who tied for fifth place with the German striker who also managed his country to a third-placed finish four years ago on home soil?

1. RONALDO (Brazil, 15 goals)

Ronaldo scored four goals at France 1998 (including one penalty), top-scored in 2002 with eight goals as Brazil won their fifth World Cup (including both goals in the 2-0 win against Germany in the Final) and added three more at Germany 2006. When he scored Brazil's opening goal in the fifth minute of their second round clash with Ghana, he overtook Gerd Muller's record to become the leading World Cup marksman of all time. Rumours of him returning to the Brazilian squad for South Africa 2010 to try and add to his record tally are surely wide of the mark.



2. GERD MULLER (Germany, 14 goals)

Muller's international goals record makes sensational reading: 62 appearance for his country, and 68 goals. He notched up 10 goals at the 1970 World Cup in Mexico, which included one penalty and two hat-tricks in the group stages. In 1974 in Germany Muller scored another four goals, including the winning goal against Holland in the Final to secure Germany's second World Cup triumph.

3. JUST FONTAINE (France, 13 goals)

The truly extraordinary thing about Just Fontaine is that his 13 goals were all scored at the 1958 World Cup in Sweden. He scored six times in the groups stages, two in the quarter-final and one in the semi-final defeat against Brazil. Leaving the best to last, he then added a further four in the third place match with Germany to create a record for goals in one World Cup tournament which will surely never be broken.

4. PELE (Brazil, 12 goals)

Pele's World Cup goals haul was spread over the four tournaments between 1958 and 1970. In 1958 in Sweden he scored six, setting a host of records in the process. Brazil won the World Cup that year for the first time, and Pele's goal in the quarter-final win over Wales made him the youngest player ever to score in the finals. In the semi-final he became the youngest ever player to score a hat-trick at the World Cup in the 5-2 battering of France. And a goal in the Final made him the youngest player to find the net in a World Cup Final. All three records stand to this day. In 1962 he scored in Brazil's opening group match against Mexico but was injured in the next game and missed the rest of the tournament. Brazil successfully defended their title, and had Pele played throughout it's quite conceivable that his name would be at the top of this list instead of Ronaldo. He added another goal in the 1966 tournament in England, before hitting four in 1970 as Brazil claimed the trophy yet again.




5= JURGEN KLINSMANN (Germany, 11 goals)

The German maestro was an integral member of West Germany's World Cup winning side of 1990, scoring three times, including a vital goal in the second-round win against European neighbours and historical rivals Holland. Five goals at USA 94 was an impressive haul given that the Germans went out in the quarter-finals to Bulgaria, and at France 98, in his last World Cup as a player, Klinsmann added three more goals to take his total to 11 and place him fifth in the list of all-time World Cup goalscorers.

5= SANDOR KOCSIS (Hungary, 11 goals)

A prolific goalscorer from Hungary's golden era. Like Just Fontaine, Kocsis netted all of his 11 goals in one tournament - the 1954 World Cup in Switzerland, which was the only tournament he played in. The 'Magical Magyars' won their two group games 9-0 and 8-3 respectively, with Kocsis scoring seven times in the two matches. He added two more in both the quarter-final and semi-final wins over Brazil and Uruguay. His average of 2.2 goals per game in the tournament remains a record.

SPAIN THE TEAM TO BEAT

World Cup favourites Spain sent out a clear message to the football world last night with a clinical 2-0 victory in Paris against the 2006 runners-up.

Despite Raymond Domenech using the match to experiment with a new central defensive partnership, the class of the Spanish was evident throughout and the European Champions are rightfully favourites to land the 'big one' this summer.

Diego Maradona's Argentina, poor in qualifying, secured a morale-boosting victory against Germany in a heated encounter in Frankfurt thanks to a goal by Real Madrid striker Gonzalo Higuian on the stroke of half-time.

England, dogged in recent weeks by off-the-field scandals, came from a goal behind against African champions Egypt at Wembley to claim a 3-1 win, inspired by a brace from substitute Peter Crouch.

Holland saw off the USA 2-1 in Amsterdam, and World Champions Italy were held to a scoreless draw by African hopefuls Cameroon in Monaco.

The Ivory Coast, considered by many as dark horses for the tournament, suffered a surprise 2-0 reverse against 2002 semi-finalists South Korea.

KEY FRIENDLY RESULTS

France 0-2 Spain
Holland 2-1 USA
Italy 0-0 Cameroon
England 3-1 Egypt
Germany 0-1 Argentina

ONE HUNDRED DAYS UNTIL SOUTH AFRICA 2010

Just 100 days to wait now until the big kick-off...

Brazil have just beaten Ireland 2-0 in a friendly at the Emirates stadium in London. After a poor first half in which Brazil only took the lead via an own goal just before the break, the Samba stars improved in the second period and Robinho scored a fine second goal to wrap up a deserved victory.

Tomorrow most of the other nations who will be present in South Africa will also be in action, giving coaches the chance to further fine-tune their thought processes in the build-up to June 11. Germany play Argentina, England take on African champions Egypt at Wembley, France meet tournament favourites Spain, Holland play the USA and defending World champions Italy face Cameroon.

TRIVIA ANSWERS

See previous post for questions!

Sweden played Romania in Stanford, California, and the side from Scandinavia emerged triumphant in a penalty shootout following a 2-2 draw. In the semi-final the Swedes met Brazil for the second time in the tournament, having qualified for the knock-out stages from the same group as the eventual champions.

Cuba was the nation on the end of that trouncing - way back in 1938. That remains the Caribbean nation's only appearance at the Finals, and to qualify for the dizzy heights of the last eight they only had to beat Romania, which they did in a replay. Their World Cup record therefore reads: played 3, won 1, drawn 1, lost 1.

Italy and Spain, with the former emerging victorious on both occasions. In 1934 the match had to be replayed after a 1-1 draw, and in 1994 Robert Baggio scored a late winner shortly after an incident involving Mauro Tassoti's elbow. Spanish midfielder Luis Enrique was left with a bloody nose, but the incident went totally unnoticed by the referee.

In 1954, in a fiercely contested quarter-final between bitter rivals and central European neighbours, Austria overcame host nation Switzerland 7-5 in the highest scoring match in World Cup Finals history. The Austrian reward? A semi-final with mighty West Germany - and a 6-1 thrashing.

13 of the 18 World Cups have used a format that included a quarter-final stage. The five tournaments that DIDN'T were 1930, 1950, 1974, 1978 and 1982.

Uruguay were beaten 4-0 by West Germany, and Argentina lost out by a single goal to host nation England, who went on to win the World Cup for the first and only time so far in their history.

Peru were beaten 4-2 in Guadalajara by the best Brazil side ever. This was Peru's best showing of their four appearances at the World Cup Finals, the last of which was in 1982.

Three quarter-finals were decided by the dreaded spot-kicks. West Germany put paid to host nation Mexico after a dour 120 minutes of goalless football, France beat Brazil in one of the most riveting World Cup matches ever, and the surprise team of the tournament Belgium progressed to the last four by beating perennial underachievers Spain.

Of the 13 tournaments that used a format including quarter-finals, Germany have only failed to reach them on one occasion. Their 12 appearances in the last eight is two better than the next best team, which - unsurprisingly - is Brazil.

Turkey beat Senegal by a golden goal in 2002 to advance to the semi-finals.

WORLD CUP TRIVIA

Ten Questions On...

The World Cup Quarter-Finals


1. At USA 94, which quarter-final featured a Scandinavian country against an opponent from Eastern Europe?

2. Sweden once won a quarter-final by an 8-0 scoreline. Who were their opponents and in which year did it happen?

3. Which two European giants faced each other at the quarter-final stage in both 1934 and 1994?

4. What is the highest-scoring quarter-final ever?

5. In how many of the 18 World Cup tournaments has the format included a quarter-final stage?

6. Which two South American sides lost in the quarter-finals to the two eventual finalists in the 1966 tournament?

7. Which fellow South American team did Brazil beat in the 1970 quarter-final on the way to winning the trophy?

8. How many of the quarter-finals at Mexico 86 were decided on penalties?

9. Which team has the most number quarter-final appearances?

10. Who is the only team to have won a quarter-final by virtue of a golden goal?

ANSWERS TOMORROW! HAPPY HUNTING!