5 Things we learnt from the Champions League this week
1. Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes – First off, I don’t like this new Champions League set up. 2 games a piece on the Tuesday and Wednesday and then rinse and repeat the following week, it feels light to me, a little cheap. Like arriving on a lads holiday in Tenerife all excited only to find we’ve got to share double beds. I like my European Cup midweeks to be choc a bloc full of world-class football. Like a carnival or a fair ground – Sure, you might not go on all the rides, you might just want to play the ring toss all night, but it makes it all so much more exciting to have all the other stuff flashing about around you. Just to know you can dip into them if you want. If it was just a ring toss and that one where you throw darts at cards to win a fish in bag, on their own in a field it’d be rubbish. It wouldn’t feel as special or as grand. It also makes it much harder to write these, as I have to actually pretend I’ve watched them all rather than just cherry pick things from the highlights package. See? They just aren’t really considering me in all this, humbug!
2.Reffin’ and Blinding – Refereeing controversies were the order of the day. An inconsistent and rather haphazard performance in the previous day’s AC Milan – Manchester United encounter was made to look astutely professional by the goings on in Wednesday’s measly two matches. Arsene Wenger thought it was one of the most ridiculous and “laughable” things he’d seen in his long career in football, and from a man who managed Pascal Cygan, that’s saying something. Referee Martin Hansson’s decision to let Porto pull a fast one (in both senses of the word) from an indirect free kick to score the winner in the Gunners 2-1 defeat at the Dragao, was certainly a bizarre one but technically a correct one. Jamie Redknapp on Sky blamed Sol Campbell and Lukasz Fabianski for “not being alive”, though thankfully not “literally” for once, and David Platt thought the referee “shouldn’t have got involved” which is surely the point of the referee in the first place? Excellent punditry aside, Hansson didn’t marshal the situation well at all in my view and his worst error was not booking himself for obstruction since he was clearly standing in big Sol’s way preventing him from doing any kind of defending at all. If only he’d had that kind of excuse at Stoke. Oh yeah, and he was the same guy who failed to spot Thierry Henry’s hand of god part deux against Ireland. Who’d be a ref? No seriously…I’ve never understood it.
3. Norwegian Wood – Even more farcical goings on in the Bayern Munich vs. Fiorentina game where the 3rd Mitchell brother, Tom Henning Ovrebro, the man famously chased furiously by Michael Ballack, like a deleted scene from the Bourne Identity, during Chelsea’s controversial defeat to Barcelona in the semi’s last year, put in another disastrous performance at the Allianz Arena. In addition to missing several nasty fouls, a blatant dive and a clear offside for Bayern’s winner, he also disallowed a goal for the German side to pull play back for a penalty. Former Premier League ref Dermot Gallagher decided it was “a Norwegian thing”, like salmon and suicide presumably, since the referee who’d done the same thing in Barca’s final win over Arsenal (incidentally the last time big Sol scored for Arsenal, to bring a nice symmetry to this article) was also a Noggie. And guess who the forth official was that night? Yep, you guessed it, Tom Henning Overbro/Mitchell. Fortunately Bayern (and Barca) scored, preventing lengthy discussions about the merit of such ridiculously officious decisions, the refereeing equivalent of traffic wardening, but the suitability of Norwegian officials for such important top flight games was brought up again, literally, by Redknapp and crew on Sky after the game. “They’re just not up to it” apparently. If only we had such high standards for punditry.
4. Iron, Lyon, Zion – Real Madrid escaped an embarrassment at the Stade Gerland on Tuesday, by only losing to Lyon by one goal. Despite Ronaldo’s heel clicking they were fortunate to not concede at least 3 and as such go into the return in a fairly promising position. However with Madrid, who knows? They’re a baffling team and always have been, prone to capitulation at any minute if their Decepticon’s, sorry Galactico’s, don’t show up. They’re just as likely to win 4-0 of course, but I’ve got a sneaking suspicion Lyon will lose 2-1 and go through.
5. Any Dream Will Do – The aftermath of Manchester United’s first win over AC Milan at the San Siro has seen the Rossoneri’s Clarence Seedorf, David Beckham and manager Leonardo, as well as sections of the Italian press, down play the disaster of loosing the first leg at home whilst conceding 3 goals by proclaiming they will certainly score at Old Trafford now they know they can rattle United’s back line. This may well be true, however what’s also true is that they’re unlikely to get any younger in the intervening days and as such, by 70 odd minutes United will be able to walk the ball into their net at will, as they practically did for Rooney’s second on Tuesday. Johnny Evans, the man who seemed most terrified of the red and black stream coming towards him is unlikely to play after Sir Alex Ferguson demonstrated his willingness to unpack his hairdryer outside of the dressing room, but it’s not a cert, as new England captain Rio Ferdinand will have almost certainly gotten himself injured or slept with a team mates wife by the time the match rolls round.
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And that….David Beckham has once again confirmed all suspicions that hes famous for being famous and little else. A boy in a mans world, a player so artificial, so hyped up beyond his ability via the modern XFACTOR “celebrity” style pandering that so-called serious people lose all perspective of reality. Praise to the Fotball Gods who reminded us once again what it is to be a great player in our game. Ronaldhino is, Rooney is, Beckham isnt fit to spit their boots clean. Well done Beckham, you have celebrity and a huge bank balance but you dont have any genuine place in football history other than as the ultimate representation of an age of spin and image over substance. David 2becks” Beckham- the ultimate footballer for people who dont really like or understand football. Footballs very own James Blunt.
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Definitely don’t want to be on the receiving end of the “hairdryer”, Jeez!!!! Can you imagine the dressing room after the Leeds game?!!!
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…. it’s good to know that Alex Ferguson, Fabio Capello and Carlo Ancelotti all don’t understand football rob. I was labouring stupidly under the opposite assumption
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Inspired post! Back to the good days then
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Fergie never rated beckham other than a limited player who could do a job as a minor member of his team. Ferguson was so desperate to offload beckham in his mid 20s that he accepted what was a poor price in relation to beckhams celebnrity commercial value. Fergie released his list of elite players hes worked with during his career and beckham was nowhere near it. This is the man Beckham calls his “father figure”. Milan made no secret they got beckham as a commercial tool. Milans fans, look at their forums, are at one in condemning beckham as a nothing figure v both United and Inter. Capello has chosen Walcott and then Lennon over Beckham in every major game during his england reign. I suggest him wrong to indulge beckham as a glorified mascot/ last 5 minute player but at least hes proven he regards beckham as nothing more than an understudy to the likes of Lennon. And this at 34 when the likes of Zidane were driving France to world cup finals and dominating nations like Brazil in world cups. Beckham a “great” player? Thats the funniest thing ive heard in my entire existance on this planet.
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rob, you make a great argument there. That is, if that was in fact an argument. **sighs
“Ferguson was “Desperate to offload Beckham” in his mid 20′s that…” (sorry for the double quotes), but wow.
Maybe the Franco’s got a steal on that one due to the ‘commercial value’. However, at the same time they got an amazing (yes AMAZING) value for the player.
Yes, David “Goldenballs” Beckham has always had commercial value, but what you are completely and utterly underestimating, is his footballing ability.
No one – minus the MLS because they know no better – has signed him for his perceived ‘commercial value’. He isn’t and has never been a glorified mascot.
He was a key cog in the United team that won the treble as well as finishing second in the European Player of the year in that period. Now I think that award is somewhat a joke (see World cup years), but the point is that he had world wide recognition and still does for something other than his ‘good looks’.
Walcott and Lennon. You are a spastic. Do you follow football? Both Walcott and Lennon are Wingers, where as Beckham is in fact a true right midfielder. The reason he can come in at the ripe old age of 34 and make an impact is because of his ability to pick people out, read the game, and deliver brilliant set pieces. By brilliant, I mean – some of the best the world has ever seen. Possibly the best in the last 20 years.
And your Zidane argument holds merit, but what did he do that England’s Beckham didn’t do at the club level on the world stage?
Zidane played Juventus and the Franco’s for 306 games or somewhat. He scored 61 goals in that period. That is a ten year period at the top club level where he scored roughly one in 5. No slouch, for a CM. Or, in this case, an AM. However you want to look at it, Zidane solidified his ‘greatness’ – and I do believe he is up there amongst the all time best – at the national stage not the club stage.
It isn’t a knock on him, but you using him as a direct comparison to Beckham is lazy, at best. You check the stats.
I would never say that Becks is one of the top ten, or even 20 of the last 2 decades, but for people to write him off as some sort of ‘average’ is ignorant at best. More likely it is the result of being unfairly biased against a certain English midfielder.
**I’m not English either.
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Becks has his haters and supporters, Yes, he may be commercial, and all the teams he has played for, benefited from that, including Man U, as he brought more fans around the world for current day Man U. Galaticos is all about fame and fortune, Milan? a city of fashion and flash, Lets not talk about LA…That being said, the man also is a good footballer, Walcott or Lennon cannot do what he does consistently. The man is a right sided assist machine and can do wonderful things with the ball. So Rob, i suggest you rethink your opinion about Beckham, he adds value no matter who he plays for, either commercial or football-wise. The AC Milan goal against Man U was as a result of a Beckham assist.
And I’m not English either, I’m American.
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