Browse > Home / Sport / European Championship Semi Finals: Nothing To Cheer About

European Championship Semi Finals: Nothing To Cheer About

April 24, 2008

So what was so great about the first leg semi-final matches of the European Championship between Liverpool and Chelsea and Barcelona and Manchester United? Where was all that excitement and tension that we’ve been promised during the build up? Considering that these are top European teams with some of the highest paid players in the world the spectacle in both cases was, quite frankly, pathetic.

Let’s look at the first semi-final match at Anfield with its 1:1 result. To listen to all those football commentators before the game we were all in for a big treat. Liverpool was supposed be in top form and Chelsea players were allegedly roaring to show what they were made off. Well, guess what? It was a disappointment. The first goal by Dirk Kuyt was scruffy, to say the least, and was made possible simply because Frank Lampard decided to demonstrate some fancy ball control outside his own penalty area and, as a result, lost it. The second goal by Arne Riise was a stunning header but, alas, directed past his own goalkeeper. Why on earth he had to dive for a low header, I have no idea at all. I also have no idea why the ref added five minutes of injury time to the match when the own goal was scored as all the so-called injuries were acted out by Didier Drogba and later turned out to be nothing serious at all. Drogba has now developed his own unmistakable pattern of play – get a long pass from behind and, if you can’t control the ball or lose it, then simply dive and hope for a penalty or at least a free kick. He tried desperately that night to win a penalty after a tackle by Jamie Carragher, but even though it was a great performance by the Chelsea forward he couldn’t convince the referee that it was a foul and trotted off, probably thinking that taking drama lessons this summer might be good for his future career on the pitch.

Conclusion: both Liverpool and Chelsea weren’t impressive on the night at all. If that is the best these two teams can do at such a crucial stage of the tournament then they might just as well decide the outcome of the next leg by throwing a coin and sparring us all the boredom and the disappointment.

And now for the Barcelona Manchester United match at Nou Camp with its stunning result: a goalless draw.  The day before the match Wayne Rooney announced that, ‘We want to go down as the best United team in history.’ So many words were said and written how Man U was going to really go for it and play some of its best football ever that I for one was expecting to see a serious battle on the pitch.

But nothing exciting happened, and Rooney didn’t play well, and was eventually substituted because, well, because he didn’t play well. I personally think that Rooney is spoiled rotten by all that attention he’d been getting and should be brought to earth more often from that pedestal of a football genius that he’d been put on. I still remember one mad woman shouting, ‘Rooney, he’s a genius, and if he plays well, he plays like a god!’ Yeah sure, and what happens if he doesn’t play well, like against Barcelona?

And Cristiano Ronaldo seriously let the team down that night when he missed a penalty in the first half. Tricked the goalkeeper, you see, to dive to the left and then hit the right goal post. I loved the comment made after the match by one of the pundits who said, ‘It wasn’t a bad penalty. It just hit the post, but it wasn’t a bad penalty.’

And that Park Ji-Sung didn’t produce anything. Does anyone know why is he playing for Man U at all? Is he sponsored by any chance by some huge Asian corporation that pays the club millions in sponsorship money? Owen Hargreaves was, as usual, very average on the night. His main strength is to run all over the pitch and be seen everywhere and always have an expression of firm determination. That is nowadays considered to be great football. Has he actually ever scored for United?

Rio Ferdinand, that overrated defender, got away with another bad performance simply because Barcelona’s players had obviously decided not to score at all. You know, just play in midfield brilliantly, as one commentator explained afterwards, but ‘ignore the last third of the pitch’. A new era in football has arrived, folks: you demonstrate great skills on your half, defending, and you keep possession of the ball in midfield, but you avoid the other team’s penalty area at all costs. Just stay away from it. As if it’s not there.

I’ll let you in on a secret. You probably don’t know this but there is a reason why the Barca team is not in top form. You see, 10 players from the team have gone through a divorce in the past 12 months. Yes, just imagine all that pain and anguish of parting with their money. It takes time to get over things like that. It can make anyone lose concentration and the ability to score. In a non-sexual way I mean.
The really funny bit in the match or, rather in the commenting of it came in the last few minutes when one of the commentators snapped out of his trance and started saying things to cheer up the TV audience. It is like a game of chess with all its tension, he said in a serious voice. Manchester United have played and excellent game. They showed steel and discipline.

Was he watching something else, I remember thinking. Because chess it certainly wasn’t, not even a game of chequers. And no steel and discipline had been visible because United’s players were actually giving the ball away all the time in a casual, relaxed sort of  way.

But at least Sir Alex Ferguson was in good form that night. How this man manages to chew energetically through 90 minutes of each match, I honestly don’t know. It’s always a joy to see his jaws working hard and, judging by the amount of gum he usually has in his mouth, it must be great to talk to him and catch a whiff of that clean fresh breath of his. I must say something now which will probably upset some people: I really find it odd when football managers are knighted. No, honestly, I have nothing against Sir Alex as a football manager and as a person but I could never understand that knighthood thing of his. Honestly, just like all those Sir Pauls and Sir Micks from the world of pop. It just sounds odd to me.

So there you have it; two uneventful first leg Champions League semi-final matches. We can, of course, comfort ourselves with the thought that the second leg games will be more exciting because an element of a knock out would be introduced into them. But my point is this: top European football clubs shouldn’t be allowed to play so badly on this level; divorce or no divorce.

Related posts:

  1. On The English Premiership League: A View From Afar

    Anton Goryunov writes from Moscow: Pardon me for asking, but does anyone in England treats the Premiership football league seriously anymore? Mind you, I’m...

  2. Russia Lost To Spain In The Semi-Final Of Euro-2008. I Told You So

    Didn’t I tell you that the Russian football team had won the quarter final of Euro-2008 against Holland because Holland played like a Mongolian...

  3. Clash Of The Titans In Moscow? Hardly, But I’m Happy With The Result

    Well, that was a disappointment, the Champions League final in Moscow, that is. Two best football clubs in Europe would battle it out to the...

  4. A Bad Day For English Football? Get In Some Real Talent For a Change

    Embarrassing, wasn’t it? I mean the football friendly between England and France in Paris on Wednesday, March 26. There was David ‘goldenballs’ Beckham, pretending to...

  5. Football Referees: They Are The Ones To Watch

    So, Arsenal was kicked out of the Champions League by Liverpool and in both matches of the quarter final the Reds got a vital referee’s...

Category: Sport  · No Comments »
Tags:

Would you like to add a comment?