Burgos accuses England of cheating
June 2, 2002
Argentina goalkeeper German Burgos has fired the opening salvo in the build-up to his side's next Group F game on Friday by claiming that England have "cheated" by employing a foreign coach, Sven-Goran Eriksson.
Onefootball
The Atletico Madrid No 1 sat out his side's first game against Nigeria, but with Pablo Cavallhero looking vulnerable against crosses, he could feature in Friday's encounter against England.
Burgos has lit the blue touchpaper on what will be an explosive clash in Sapporo with a stunning attack on the English FA's choice of Eriksson as coach. He said: "Why couldn't they find an English coach? If they go on to win the World Cup, which is extremely unlikely, do they have to split the trophy between England and Sweden?
"It makes a mockery of international football. It's no better than allowing a foreigner to play in your side - it amounts to cheating."
Burgos went on to tell the Sunday Mirror that England are an "ordinary" side without David Beckham in the line-up. "Beckham has largely carried the country's expectations on his shoulders," he said. "It is far too much pressure to burden one player with.
"Without him they are fairly ordinary - aside from Michael Owen it's hard to see how they are going to trouble us. That is not being disrespectful to England. I just feel they are short of quality and will struggle to get out of the group ahead of Sweden and Nigeria.
"There is no doubt in my mind that Argentina will qualify in pole position, the others are merely fighting among themselves for the second qualifying place.
"There is a danger that people will get caught up in all the hype that followed the draw. It seems the only talking point was our game against England. But to be honest I think Sweden and Nigeria are a far bigger threat.
"That is not to say we won't beat them because we are single-minded in our quest to win the World Cup. But we know far more about England than we do about the other two and if I was a betting man I would put my money on Nigeria qualifying.
"People only have to look at our record in qualifying, when we finished 12 points clear of our nearest rivals, to see how big a threat we are. With all our players fit we have the strongest squad of the competing 32 nations and on form we can beat anyone.
"It is not arrogance, just pure belief in our own ability. All over the pitch we have world-class performers - but what makes us unique is not the individual ability but the collective one.
"We don't allow teams to breathe - we close sides down and then we pick them off. Being an attack-minded side, we aim to please as well. We will not adopt a cautious approach to games because it's not our style.
"Most of the players are household names like Juan Sebastian Veron, Hernan Crespo, Ariel Ortega, Gabriel Batistuta and Roberto Ayala - and that's enough to frighten the hell out of our opponents before we've even kicked a ball."