Mr. Bora

Day -791. WorldCup2018

Mr. Bora. That's what they call him in Qatar these days where he is an ambassador for Qatar 2022, and an adviser at Aspire Athletics, a centre of excellence for develoing elite athletes. Or, as Mr. Bora himself said when asked in a New York Times interview what he does: "I don’t have a role. Only I share my experience." When he was coach of the United States (USMNT to be precise) he was simply Bora. In all 5 countries he coached at a World Cup he was a legend.

Mexico reached the quarter finals in 1986 where they lost to West Germany on penalties. In 1990 Bora led Costa Rica to the second round after wins against Sweden and Scotland. Next he was on to the U.S. and took the USMNT to the second round where they lost 1-0 to the eventual champions, Brazil. Nowadays, it would be seen as a failure if Jurgen Klinsmann's Americans didn't get beyond the second round. Bora was not done yet. After being sacked by the Americans for allegedly not wanting to take on more administrative responsibilities on top of coaching the team, he was off to Nigeria. Bora, the coach, not the administrator, saw his team top their first round group and he became the first coach to lead  four teams into the second round. But there was more. He was China's coach at their first ever, and only, appearance at a World Cup in 2002. The naysayer in me would like to point out that Japan and South Korea, as co-hosts, didn't have to qualify for this World Cup. Seeing as they are two of Asia's strongest teams it opened up qualification to more teams. This doesn't take away from Bora's previous achievements, but after China he seemed to lose his magic touch. Short spells with Honduras, Jamaica and Iraq were miserable and ended abruptly.

Bora was a World Cup character. He contributed to memories through his mad scientist look,  his ability to make unfashionable teams look good and his reported unorthodox style. Alexi Lalas, himself quite the demonstration of eccentric footballer, when asked about Bora before the 1994 tournament said: "You really have to put all your faith and believe in what he’s doing.  A lot of times, it’s hard, because I have no idea what he’s doing."

And my memories of the Bora World Cup sequence? 1986: next day highlights of West Germany only beating Mexico after penalties. Mexico? Didn't think were much good. Must have been that altitude thing everybody was talking about. 1990: Costa Rica? Really? Beating Scotland? Oh no, not really a surprise. Scotland always seem to find a way to not get out of the first round at a World Cup. And Costa Rica livened up the most boring World Cup in my living memory. 1994: The Americans, with their crazy coach and wacky defender Lalas, defended like that's all they knew how to do against Brazil (even though Brazil had a player sent off) and were delighted to only lose 1-0. 1998: Spain looked like they might finally be good, but lost against a team of Nigerians who looked like Bora didn't tell them they were at World Cup, but that they were guests at a football exhibition and, oops, you just beat Spain; you were not supposed to do that. 2002: China. There was just something weird about China playing Brazil, probably because China had never played at a World Cup before and Brazil, well, they kind of were the World Cup. It felt like today's Barcelona (OK, maybe not today's but let's say last week's....no, no two weeks ago Barcelona) playing against Leicester in the Champions' League. They qualified, earned the right, but, really, how did they get there? Brazil won 4-0 and poor China didn't even score a goal in their three loses. If there was any consolation for Mr. Bora it was that Costa Rica, in the same group, fared worse than when he was their coach and were eliminated in the first round.

So who's next? Rivalling Bora would have to be Big Phil Scolari. I'm not sure I can go back to him again after him being the near daily subject of my humorous admiration in 2014. But maybe I can find something new.