FIFA 2010 World Cup: Patrick Vieira tells that pressured leadership and injuries got to most of the African teams and explains that the new African rule will help
It would not be a lie if it is stated that the African players were not in prime condition to face the pressure of the World Cup. If observed carefully and analytically, it will be noticed that many of the African teams were marred by injuries which ultimately made them lag behind other teams. Moreover, they had a much younger and less experienced team in comparison to the football power houses in the tournament.
The power houses of football like France, Italy, England and Spain have so far disappointed the world while teams from South America and Africa have been the surprises of the tournament so far.
The veteran French gun Patrick Vieira has expressed that there was too much pressure on the African stars. He gave the examples of Didier Drogba and Samuel Eto’o and told that the pressure of leading your country’s squad is immense especially when you are the linchpin of your team.
Vieira stated, “It is quite difficult to understand, some of the big names play in Europe and when they come back to their national teams they struggle a lot. Players like Drogba and Eto'o, when they play for their clubs there are other stars who share the pressure but when they come into the national team the people expect them to win games by themselves”.
The Frenchmen who was omitted from the 2010 squad of France told that the leading players actually lacked the support from other team mates. He also said that the pressure to overcome the odds is what took the team down. This eventually led to the dismissal of 5 out of 6 African teams in the tournament.
The former captain of France explained, though the stars make a difference but they cannot win a game by themselves. He told that it is important for other players not to expect one player to make the difference. There are some players that just lay back and expect the big players to make a difference on their own. He clarified that other members of the team must also take up responsibility.
Vieira also gave his comments on the new rule from the African continent which allows players to play from other African countries for instance they can play for countries to which they are linked from the parents or grandparents or even countries which they had represented before at the young age.
This has also given Vieira a chance to represent Senegal, the country where he was born but he preferred France which did not happen to require his services. After their humiliating exit from the World Cup they will definitely think over this aspect again.
The 34 year old player advocated his decision to play from France by saying, “I never had a choice to make, I was in the French youth team and never had contact with the Senegal national team, but I don't have any regrets”.
The star signed in by Manchester City just recently relayed the rule, “… now there is a new rule so that if you got in the youth team (for one country) you can go and play in the senior team (of another)”. He told that though this rule could help many players and countries he would abstain from it and had no regrets about it.
Some teams have in fact taken advantage of this rule. Vieira gave the example of Algeria elucidating, “You can see the Algeria team, some of them played in the French youth team but played for the Algerian (senior) team. This is a good change for African countries, that will make them stronger”.
This rule will help a lot of other African teams and in the future it will be observed that there will be a better performance observed from the African teams.
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