Friendly Fire

It had to happen. A major injury in a friendly or warm-uo game to ruin the chances of some team. The term "friendly" in football is a misquote. There is no end reward for the players in these games apart from much needed match practice. So there are no two footed tackles  with the intent to dislocate the ankle of the opponents or no elbow on the face in these games. Also players generally don't give their 100%  for the fear injury. But when they are fighting for places in a highly talented side, there is the danger of over doing oneself. Also in the heat of the moment of the game mistempered tackles and fouls do occur regularly.
    That exactly is what  seemed to have happened in the last warm -up game between Holland and Australia. The Dutch have injured three of their key first team players, namely, Philip Cocu, Wesley Sneijder and Giovanni van
Bronckhorst. The game ended in a 1-1 draw with Tim Cahill scoring the rebound of  a Mark Viduka penalty hit the crossbar. Sneijder injury is said to be more serious than other two. I am favoring Holland  to go all the way in this World cup as they are not under too much pressure unlike the hosts, Brazil or Argentina. They have a very very tough group, with any of the 4 capable of beating the other. So this injury has come at a really bad time for the Dutch. Next  week this time Holland will be playing their first game against Serbia and Montenegro. The major worry should be with injury for van Bronckhorst, as per my  knowledge,  Dutch have very good backup players in the midfield  but are a bit short on defence. Van Bronckhorst is a class act as proven by him for FC Barcelona. In Cocu, they will lose an experienced player. He is 35 year old plying his trade for PSV Eindhoven and instrumental in the domination of the club in the Dutch league and their great run in the 2004-05 Champions league season. Wesley Sneijder is a 22 year old dynamic meidfielder from Ajax who is seen as one for the future of Holland.
    Hope they recover soon and are ready to weave their magic next week. But this brings to question the use of these warm up games so close to the real competition. It is a very difficult decision to make for the team administrators and coaches. On one hand they need to see how players from diverse clubs gel together as a team. The pace, co-ordination and attitude of all the players of the team must be in sync with what is expected by the coach. But like mentioned earlier, the fight for the place in the first team might push the players to take unwarranted risks and cause problems for the team as a whole.