Football..The Ultimate Loser
Whoever wins in Athens tonight part of me believes that football is the loser in a match that pits the disgraced Rossineri v the winning half of the 'shit on a stick' semi-final.
Milan have been the Italian team of choice for the European football cognoscenti for more than twenty years. The good and the great of Italian and European football have worn the famous red and black stripes: Baresi, Maldini, Ancelotti, Guillit, Rijykard, Van Basten, Weah, Shevchenko, Vieri, Nesta, Kaka and Seedorf – the only player to win the European Champions League with three different clubs.
Last year however the club was found to be at the centre of the biggest match fixing and bribery scandal to hit Italian football since the previous one, which incidentally resulted in Milan being relegated for one season. The fact that of the four ‘big’ clubs: Lazio, Fiorentina, Milan and Juventus, only the old lady of Turin were relegated to Serie B left a bad taste in the mouths of many football fans. Tonight will probably be the last chance for Nesta, Maldini and Seedorf on the biggest stage in world club football – but whether or not they should be there in the first place is now irrelevant, Milan play football the way it should be played. They are well organised at the back, solid in midfield and they are direct when they go forward – if they had held onto Andrei Shevchenko they would be clear favourites to win the ‘funny looking cup with the big ears’ for a seventh time.
Liverpool are going for number six. No doubt some Scouse songsmith has already shoehorned ‘Six times and Athens’ into a terrace song for next season. Liverpool and Chelsea served up one of the most excruciatingly awful semi finals ever, that didn’t involve Steaua Bucharest, and quite rightly drew the ‘shit on a stick’ quote from one of football’s true greats Jorge Valdano. Not that it came as a complete surprise, Chelsea do after all hold the Premiership record for both the number of clean sheets in a season and the fewest number of wins by more than two goals in the history of English Premiership football, whilst Liverpool have developed a knack of leaving their most attack minded players on the bench on the big occasion. Liverpool have always been a team that put success before flair, something they share with Chelsea rather than say Real Madrid or Barcelona or Milan and given the choice as a neutral there’s no doubt who I would pay to watch.
It comes down to sport v entertainment. Ray Houghton who was a member of a very successful yet fairly ordinary Liverpool side – the 1988-89 Barnes, Beardsley, Aldridge vintage aside – said that Liverpool were never concerned with entertainment and were prepared to be boring if they had to be, it was about winning. If you want entertainment from sport go and watch Rocky or Chariots of Fire.
Tonight we will see an attack minded side keen on revenge against a very ordinary side that got very lucky two years ago. I don't believe all this bollocks about supporting Liverpool to win because they are English, they have 3 English players in their squad, the Italians have eight Italians - nationality is irrelevant in England, except in the summer months. But I do hope that Milan win tonight and win by playing attacking football from the first minute.
Last year however the club was found to be at the centre of the biggest match fixing and bribery scandal to hit Italian football since the previous one, which incidentally resulted in Milan being relegated for one season. The fact that of the four ‘big’ clubs: Lazio, Fiorentina, Milan and Juventus, only the old lady of Turin were relegated to Serie B left a bad taste in the mouths of many football fans. Tonight will probably be the last chance for Nesta, Maldini and Seedorf on the biggest stage in world club football – but whether or not they should be there in the first place is now irrelevant, Milan play football the way it should be played. They are well organised at the back, solid in midfield and they are direct when they go forward – if they had held onto Andrei Shevchenko they would be clear favourites to win the ‘funny looking cup with the big ears’ for a seventh time.
Liverpool are going for number six. No doubt some Scouse songsmith has already shoehorned ‘Six times and Athens’ into a terrace song for next season. Liverpool and Chelsea served up one of the most excruciatingly awful semi finals ever, that didn’t involve Steaua Bucharest, and quite rightly drew the ‘shit on a stick’ quote from one of football’s true greats Jorge Valdano. Not that it came as a complete surprise, Chelsea do after all hold the Premiership record for both the number of clean sheets in a season and the fewest number of wins by more than two goals in the history of English Premiership football, whilst Liverpool have developed a knack of leaving their most attack minded players on the bench on the big occasion. Liverpool have always been a team that put success before flair, something they share with Chelsea rather than say Real Madrid or Barcelona or Milan and given the choice as a neutral there’s no doubt who I would pay to watch.
It comes down to sport v entertainment. Ray Houghton who was a member of a very successful yet fairly ordinary Liverpool side – the 1988-89 Barnes, Beardsley, Aldridge vintage aside – said that Liverpool were never concerned with entertainment and were prepared to be boring if they had to be, it was about winning. If you want entertainment from sport go and watch Rocky or Chariots of Fire.
Tonight we will see an attack minded side keen on revenge against a very ordinary side that got very lucky two years ago. I don't believe all this bollocks about supporting Liverpool to win because they are English, they have 3 English players in their squad, the Italians have eight Italians - nationality is irrelevant in England, except in the summer months. But I do hope that Milan win tonight and win by playing attacking football from the first minute.
3 comments:
Well, Paul, I agree with you about not "supporting" any English team if they play in Europe. It's often the case where an English team that I can't stand play in Eurpoe against a team I know nothing about. There are some English teams I will never "support". No, I'll not give you a list but I expect you can guess 90% of them!
"But I do hope that Milan win tonight and win by playing attacking football from the first minute."...well they won...one free kick from a non-foul that deflected off an arm and went in...then up tp minute 82 for the second attack...after 2-1 (min 89) the game picked up.
Crap final, expected result.
Agree with LPJ and Span.
I can't tell you just how many text messages I got when Milan scored their first goal - bloody loads all saying "yesss!" or "gooaall".
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