The World's Game (According To Us): Scolari hits a rough patch with Chelsea

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The resemblance is uncanny.

Remember the plot of Hoosiers? A down-and-out coach, played by Gene Hackman, finds a chance for redemption with a small-town team in Indiana. Well, this year, English soccer club Chelsea has a coach that looks just like Gene Hackman. But that's where the similarities to the film end.

Chelsea is instead the story of a rich London team hiring a big-time manager and doing quite well—just not quite as well as they hoped. It's not exactly Hollywood, but it has its own drama.

The manager, Luiz Filipe Scolari, or "Big Phil," does have something in common with the Hoosiers character besides his moon face and salt-and-pepper moustache: He's got a mean temper. When he coached Portugal, he punched an opposing Serbian player in the face. He was suspended for a couple of games and then continued in his arrogant, tough-guy ways: He scowled and spoke his mind; he turned down the big-money England job because he didn't like the English press; he gave his players copies of The Art of War. Come to think of it, he's more like Hackman's bad-ass cop persona in The French Connection than the soul-searching Hoosier.

Scolari lashed out again the other day. It had been a tough week: Chelsea tied lowly Bordeaux in a key Champions League match and then lost to Arsenal in the Premier League, falling out of first place. In a TV interview after the game, Big Phil unleashed a desperate rage, railing against the referees who had allowed an Arsenal goal that, on replay, looked offside.

"Offside killed my team," he shouted.

Only a month ago, commentators were claiming that Big Phil, who won the World Cup as coach of his native Brazil, had finally brought beautiful soccer to Chelsea. The London club saw enormous success under Jose Mourinho, but they often played frustratingly boring soccer, scoring a quick goal and then asphyxiating the game. Suddenly, under Scolari, they were winning 4-0 or 5-0. They were flying down the wings, making clever passes all over the field and bursting with attacking flair.

Now after a few poor results, pundits are pointing out that Big Phil's tenure has been no better than that of the reviled Avram Grant. Some think he's cracking under the pressure. But it's not just the pressure of big-time football. It's the pressure of the marketplace.

A mediocre team a few years ago, Chelsea skyrocketed upward via Roman Abramovich's billions. Now they're feeling the credit crunch. The team is finally cutting back its player-buying spree in an effort to become financially sound (They currently rely on huge interest-free loans from Abramovich). Chelsea is even considering charging for meals at the training ground. It must make for a depressed mood around the clubhouse.

They're not alone in gloominess. All the top English clubs seem to be going through tough times, at least psychologically: Arsenal yo-yoed up and down the standings as things unraveled in the dressing room; over in Manchester, Cristiano Ronaldo has begun to use his hands instead of his feet, which seems a sure sign of mental illness; and in Liverpool, a few goalless draws have gotten people so worried that Jamie Carragher had to defend the team by essentially saying, "at least we aren't as bad as Chelsea." It seems a bit sad, maybe even paranoid, when a team that has already qualified for the next round of the Champions League, and is now on top of the Premiership, has to reassure everyone.

Then again, these are tough times.

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