What to make of the tonight’s slate of friendlies?
Not much.
The friendly match, once a source of both pride and revenue, has sunk to the level of a necessary evil. Clubs and players alike hate them for obvious reasons.
National team coaches pretend they are useful, despite the fact they know their players rarely play full-tilt. The federations? They’re only interested in the money, though they’d like to have all of us believe otherwise.
Knowing this, why do so many of us continue to tune in to them? We realize in our heads that Wayne Rooney isn’t going to risk a shattered ankle in a meaningless match when he has a Champions League fixture just over the horizon.
We love watching the Americans play well, yet even though our hearts may say different, that voice in the back of our skulls chirps the truth, that teams like ours are taking a match in Amsterdam far more seriously then our competition is.
And even those of us who yearn for any sort of “step forward” — such as our beloved Scots getting a win over a set of past-their-prime Czechs — the cold truth remains that friendlies lie. When teams win, they artificially inflate their importance. When they lose, they tend to discount their lessons.
Tonight, we can take away a few things from the key matchups — but not much that rates as truly significant. Those truths will be uncovered next week when the players return to their clubs and the Champions League, and when the whole shooting match kicks off in South Africa.
In Munich, Germany fell 1-0 to Argentina in what was perhaps the most compelling match of the night. Both teams competed for the ball, did a bit of tackling (but not too much) and showed, ultimately, that they are going to be very hard to beat this summer.
Germany remains a predictable side, in many ways a clone of the team that finished third in 2006. They are well-organized, tough to dispossess and can close down space with an enviable efficiency. What was most remarkable about Germany tonight, however, was how their players seem to be a half-step out of sync with the national team as opposed to their clubs.
Michael Ballack might be Exhibit A.
Ballack has lost a bit of speed and a bit of flair, but he is such a vital component on Chelsea that it is hard not to be puzzled by his inability to fully impose himself on an international game.
Tonight, the usual suspects performed admirably — you know what you are getting with Miroslav Klose, Per Mertesacker and Lukas Podolski — but the little extra spark that might take the Germans over the hump remains lacking.
That spark used to come from Ballack, who instead seems to be more comfortable fouling to break plays up than when putting himself in positions to keep them from being started in the first place. It’s puzzling, and you have to wonder if manager Joachim Loew has any answers.
In contrast Argentina is a team coached by perhaps the greatest single playmaker of all-time, who now finds himself unable to find a consummate playmaker to knit together an otherwise talented bunch. The irony is delicious.
While Juan Veron had a solid outing and the partnership of Gonzalo Higuain and Lionel Messi — so potent individually — might be dynamite up top, you have to wonder just who the heck is going to get those two the ball. Javier Mascherano never seems really willing or able to accept the responsibility (which shouldn’t come as a shock to Liverpool fans) and as a result, the Argentines look so good on paper and yet so weird and unpredictable when they take the field.
After this win, Maradona is likely going to have to do some damage control just to manage the wild expectations of what is truly a ravenous Argentine public and media. This was a fine win, right enough, but it came in a game that meant nothing, and as such, predicts nothing except to reinforce the idea that if the little master has any secrets to impart to his midfielders now might be a good time to start.
In truth, this Argentina looks nothing like to one that Juan Roman Riquelme ran with such lethal efficiency earlier in the decade.
A game that might have a bit more legs was Spain’s humbling of France in Saint-Denis.
Spain hadn’t won a game in France in 42 years, but the side the European champs beat was hardly of the class we came to admire for two decades of French excellence.
In fact, the most illuminating moment of the night came when Thierry Henry exited the field in the 65th minute. After doing nothing all night long, Henry smiled and exchanged high-fives with his teammates on the bench — when Les Bleus were down two goals. The message? The homers didn’t care about this game, and it showed.
To be blunt, France is coasting on fumes. Only Franck Ribery was a threat but the fact that the former champs cannot even get the ball down the heart of the field is a deeply troubling sign. Nicolas Anelka isn’t useless, but he was rendered so by a midfield that repeatedly declined to get him the ball. This is a side that looks set to crash and burn, something that the Irish, no doubt, will take great delight in.
Spain, of course, look like champions. That’s because they already are the rulers of Europe.
Solid and compact, Spain had four gentlemen around the ball every time France tried to do something about escaping its own half of the field. The real beauty is that Spain never has to hurry. Their players, led by Cesc Fabregas, Andres Iniesta and Xabi Alonso, know where they are supposed to be and get there.
And if you needed any more lessons about just how quickly Spain can link up and blow past you, you needed to see no more than David Villa’s fine, first goal, which came out of nothing more than a ball out of the back, and ended up with Villa alone against Hugo Lloris.
He made the 'keeper and his slack defense pay. That counter-attack is so deadly it’s hard to see right now an effective way for opponents to manage it. Certainly, that task was beyond a French side that has not only seen better days, but is managing to soil those memories to boot.
England got a rude wakeup from Egypt early on, when Mohamed Zidan impetuously scored, but after the half, it was all on cruise. The English walked through a great deal of this game, a fact which should made clearer when you learn that Peter Crouch scored two goals for them … with his feet.
It was all in all a pleasant evening for the home side, and it came against an African champion side that clearly wanted the game more than the English did. Egypt failed, losing 3-1.
This result, however, could be the most misleading of all.
Yes, England rather cooly handled the best in Africa. No, that doesn't mean the Africans who did qualify — Egypt, of course, flopped again in that department — won't be real trouble in World Cup 2010. As hosts, African teams will look very different; there's a long way between Wembley and Soccer City and not just in terms of kilometers.
Elsewhere, the most notable results were Turkey serving notice to Honduras, 2-0, that the Central Americans need to step up their game. Austria humbled Denmark 2-1 in a surprisingly competitive match that will not please Danish fans. The aforementioned Scots, clinging to any shred of former glory, are already making hay of a 1-0 win over the Czechs.
The Scots are not in the World Cup. Most of the other key teams who played tonight are. That’s the difference in meaning - Germany, Spain, Argentina, England, and yes, even France, have already proven their mettle.
Watch the reaction in the Austrian, Scottish or Turkish media tomorrow, then ask yourself this - what’s better? To be in the World Cup and play these friendlies? Or to have to win a friendly in order to gain attention?
The answer should be clear.
Jamie Trecker is a senior writer for FoxSoccer.com covering the Champions League and European football.
