Germany-Argentina Post-Match Fight (Video & Analysis)
Update: The ‘Frings punch’ clip has been added - please see the link at the end of this article.
By now everyone has probably either seen or heard or read about the confrontation after the Argentina-Germany World Cup quarter-final between the two sets of players. After watching the video (link at the end) and read reports on the matter, here are some details on what actually happened.
According to Michael Ballack (Chelsea’s summer signing and Germany’s captain): “The first provocation came from Argentina. They were shouting at strikers as they walked up to take the penalties. They were trying to interfere with them.”
“When Tim Borowski scored the winning penalty, he turned around and put his finger over his lips as if to say ‘Shut up.’ That made them mad.�?
After Cambiasso’s miss, things got out of hand as unused Argentina sub Leandro Cufre had an argument with German defender Per Mertesacker and, perhaps in response to verbal provocation, kicked Mertesacker. That sparked a melee, with Oliver Bierhoff (now part of the German team setup) stepping on the match (presumably to stop the nonsense), and Argentina’s players taking serious objection to this intervention.
The post-match celebrations turn into a melee
Gabriel Heinze, Manchester United’s celebrated left-back, was at the centre of the melee as he tried to round the growing crowd to argue with Bierhoff. Officials managed to keep him away but if you see the video you can pretty much guess what Heinze was saying to Bierhoff (or you can read The Sun’s version of it). Later on Ayala was also seen telling Bierhoff to get off the pitch as it was not his place to be here, while Frings was not far away from the action either (read the Sun article).
And as you see in the image above, Maxi Rodriguez was part of the entertainment as well, running up and launching a punch at Bastian Shweinsteiger (in the middle) before the Argentina goalkeeper dragged him away. What prompted him to do so is not clear, but my guess is he saw Shweinsteiger in the centre of the melee and totally lost his head.
In the end, Leandro Cufre was red carded by the ref (really, what’s the point?) and Mertesacker was quoted as saying that:
“One of their players attacked me even though I did not do anything. I have three or four red marks on my thigh and then he kicked me again in the groin.”
Torsten Frings weighed in too with the following gems:
“They are bad losers. They lost their minds.”
“It just shows they are bad sports and are badly behaved. I hope their players get suspended.”
Both coaches tried to play down the incident, putting it on emotions running over. This World Cup has been fantastic in atmosphere and to be fair if the Argentina players had not been crying and so pissed off at the end of the match I’d be questioning their commitment. They had the match in their pockets and they lost it. Cambiasso - poor Cambiasso. The man was disconsolate and his tears embodied the emotions of what all Argentina fans must be feeling right now…
“How the fuck did we lose this one?”
What really happened?
I want to know what was said between Mertesacker and Cufre, and what Bierhoff exactly did that led Heinze and Ayala and Sorin and Rodriguez to lose their temper.
A word on Heinze. It would be extremely convenient of me to say that as these actions were carried out in Argentina’s shirt Manchester United’s name should not be brought in (as some Arsenal fans have done in the wake of the France-Spain match - see discussion here), but I see that as an excuse and nothing more. Heinze is a Manchester United player, and as such this sort of behaviour gives us a very bad name. I would prefer to know the full facts before judging him, but seeing him shout at Bierhoff did his image (and United’s) no favours.
Having said that, one should also remember that football is a highly emotional sport. That alone should give us insight into why players sometimes lose their heads, although that’s no excuse.
FIFA have announced that they will be investigating the incident, with Argentina’s players most likely to be implicated. However, we should remember that we get our news primarily from English media and currently all the news points to a slight German bias. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Argentina players were completely at fault, but I’d like to hear both sides before making any judgments.
And now for the video of the incident. I wasn’t able to edit this, so I’m just going to point you to the link where I got it from. Note that this is a clip of the post-match celebrations, starting from Cambiasso’s missed penalty. The commentary is in French, which I understand a bit so I was able to figure out most of the discussion (nothing much to be gleaned from it that hasn’t already been reported, but I will go through it again tomorrow).
The incident happens in the second minute (see 1:10 to 1:50).
The Frings Incident
This happened before the general melee started. Shows Cruz and Frings going at each other. If you have just scrolled down, the video of the melee is the link above.
Cruz vs Frings (Download via zSHARE)
(All clips are courtesy of the fine folks at the SoccerPulse Forums).
[tags]2006 World Cup, Germany, Argentina, Torsten Frings, Bierhoff, Heinze, Ayala, Cruz[/tags]
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Discussion - 9 Responses
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I have to tell you guys….being an Argentine/American, as I watched the game, I unbiasedly, and undoubtedly know that Argentina was the better of the two teams, although they lost, the passion and love for the sport is now excuse to do what they did, understandably, I would have done the same thing knowing that we were the better team, we had ball posession most of the time, had more shots at goal, and we lost it over the gamble, that is the penalty kicks! How frustrating is that. Oh well. We will see the rest of the world in the final 2010!!
Ciao
ALDO
Frings got the worst out of it, he’s suspended for the semifinals against Italy and fined 5000 euro. Someone knows or has the footage of his “punch against Julio Cruz”.
http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/06/en/060703/1/8izd.html
http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/wireStory?id=2148743
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/world_cup_2006/teams/germany/5138652.stm
In minute 95 Cruz got a yellow card for fouling Frings hard.
This is something bad for Germany since he is central in the German midfield, but they can still play good with Borowski.
It is I think unfair, Argentina got what they wanted with their fight.
That brawl is typical behavior of Argentines and Uruguayans. They are bad losers and in the case of Argentina they wanted to drag Germany into the melee hoping to crash their chances in the semifinals. Partly successful since Frings won’t play, they argue that “they are winners” and are not used to lose (??) funny hu?.
Thugs should be eliminated from the footballing world. Some of the Argentinians behaved unpardonably. THat they are bad losers is not an excuse. They should be banned from soccer for the rest of their lives. And ban Frings too as there are proper channels to address the thuggery as displayed by Argentina. Soccer must take precedence and it will be for the good of the game that these players are sacrificed and the soccer world will be a better place.
http://www.zshare.net/download/cruz-vs-frings-h264-avi.html
what really happend was that one of the German players went up to Heinz and told him to take himself and his gypsies back home. Heinz’s parents are German but he himself was born in Argentina. This is what started the fight.
mmmmm….when it comes to soccer…and every other sport it’s always the other teams faul…but seriously..it’s surprising how u guys r makin abig deal out of that fight…it’s not the first fight ever!!!…i think u guys are trying to blame the fight for your lost against Italy…which it has nothing to do with it…cuz it didn’t depend on Frings to win the world-cup…seriously..thats what i’m understanding of all this comments…and what the hell…why are you guysthalkin g trash about the argetinians that play in europe…seriously…they were pissed…like i’m sure…Germany was when they lost against Italy…which i know…they didn’t react like the argentinians did cuz its our “typical behavior of Argentines” serioulsy…
todavia me dan bronca los alemanes!teniamos que haber ganado nosootros ese partido,para mi todo fue arreglado,AGUANTE HEINZE Y ARGENTINA!!!!
I find it surprising that no one even mentioned the reason why the Argentine team was extremely irritated. It all began way before the penalty shoot-out. Did Abbondanzieri (Arg GK) just get injured because he’s dumb and fell? No. As you might remember, he had to be replaced since he had an unbearable pain in his side. This was right after a corner kick in which Miroslav Klose kicked him in the hip. There is footage of this, which will appear if you look some place other than BBC sports.
I am argentinean and I admit that we don’t always know how to lose, but we rarely react because of that. Who would? No reasonable human would just go “Oh, you beat me, so now I’m gonna kick your ass” Nevertheless, it will happen at the first sign of mockery from the winning side (there have been examples of this against Brazil, Copa America 2004, a player from Brazil’s bench gets up and grabs his crotch and screams something in front of the Argentinean bench when Brazil scores the last-minute goal).
I’m not saying Germany cheated, they won fair and square and that’s beautiful for them, and if it kept poor scared and sorry Klinsman on the coach podium an extra 2 minutes I’m glad for them too, but I really feel the whole match should be analyzed. Controversy aside, I think it shows 2 tremendously different playing styles: Argentina’s more euphoria-oriented style, and Germany’s calculating “stay calm” robot-like playing.
And by the way, since we’re discussing suspensions or banning players from football, what about materazzi on the final game, since we all know he managed to get Zidane expelled with a racist remark?
For the record, I believe any kind of memorable playing disappeared from that world cup after Argentina lost, and you can be sure of it if you look at the previous games. Germany couldn’t beat Italy because they didn’t have what it takes. They didn’t even have what it takes to beat Argentina, in my opinion, but somehow did. And Italy definitely didn’t have what it takes to win the cup, they were just an average team in need but they played right the only matches that really mattered, and somehow also won it.
P.S: The fact that you focus on Heinze’s behaviour at a World Cup match, and wether that makes Man U look good or not is ridiculous. Do you honestly believe he will stop and think about the english team he plays for, while he’s playing for his country on a MUCH more important level? Never mind the team he plays for, no team will come between an argentine player and his visceral playing at the World Cup. In Germany they find it strange that Demichelis would rather play with Argentina at Beijing instead of playing with Bayern Munich. Well of course he would rather do that!