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World Cup: Just four coaches left standing

A combo of pictures taken during the World Cup shows Brazilian head coach of the Portugal team Luiz Felipe Scolari, left, and France head coach Raymond Domenech. France and Portugal will meet in the World Cup semi-final in Munich tomorrow. PHOTO: AFP

Napoleon said that all he wanted from his generals was that they were lucky -- the four coaches still standing in the World Cup will need that and more.

Two of the quartet -- Luiz Felipe Scolari and Jurgen Klinsmann -- may feel they already have had their luck with Portugal and Germany winning their quarter-finals on penalties.

Italy's Marcello Lippi may also count his blessings that someone up there likes him after his Azzurri won their second round match against the Australians with a penalty five minutes into injury-time.

France's Raymond Domenech could also surmise that the blessing for him was the second yellow card of the group stage that ruled out playmaker Zinedine Zidane from the final first round match against Togo.

Having looked jaded and every inch his 34 years, the former Real Madrid star returned for the 3-1 win over Spain reinvigorated and outplayed the superstars of Brazil to a man.

Aside from luck, the four men, with whom the buck ultimately stops with success or failure, also need qualities of their own to inspire their troops to victory.

A combo of pictures taken during the World Cup shows Italy head coach Marcello Lippi, top, and Germany head coach Juergen Klinsmann. Germany will play against Italy in a semi-final in Dortmund today. PHOTO: AFP

All four have very different ways of going about it, owing of course to their contrasting characters.

Scolari is as he is on the sidelines of the pitch -- animated, charismatic and a brilliant mind-games manipulator -- and Brazil may well be rueing the fact one World Cup was enough for him.

"This is a new Portugal team and it's a new spirit. It's a warrior spirit. This is what we were missing in the past," the 57-year-old said of his squad.

"I made every tackle, I jumped up and down, I kicked every ball along with the team."

Raymond Domenech, France coach

Domenech by contrast cuts a different character entirely.

A dormouse to Scolari's bulldog he may be, but both his coaching and motivational powers are just what his squad needed after the uninspiring reigns of Roger Lemerre and Jacques Santini.

"I made every tackle, I jumped up and down, I kicked every ball along with the team. I am exhausted but immensely happy," Domenech said after the Brazil match.

Lippi is very much the classy-looking, smooth-talking Italian.

Not for him the pre big match superstitions of predecessor Giovanni Trapattoni of sprinkling holy water on the turf, but that has come as a refreshing change for hardman midfielder Gennaro Gattuso.

"Nothing against Trapattoni but Lippi has his own way of preparation which has made us a more solid squad," he said.

"Also as a man he is always able to tell us things straight to our faces. I hope that he stays with us as long as possible," the 28-year-old AC Milan stalwart said.

Whether the 58-year-old Champions League winning coach does renew his contract rather than leave and return to his favorite past-time of fishing on his boat remains to be seen.

The same question can be posed about Klinsmann, as the 41-year-old US-based former star striker has not yet decided whether he will stay on.

However, the free-spirited rookie coach's sceptics have been won over after watching a German side playing for the first time in years with enterprise and joy.

"Klinsmann has installed a philosophy in this team and that needs to continue as we owe it to the fans -- even if there is the risk it sometimes doesn't work," German Football Federation president Theo Zwanziger said. "Klinsmann's way is the right one and we want to continue with it."
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