Finals Week Over – Time To Look Forward
May 31st, 2009 by 'holic
This time last week I was wondering if I could, never mind would, watch the two Finals we thought we might have been involved in. In the end the answer was, by and large, yes.
I did manage to survive the opening ten minutes of the Champions League Final. Had United scored that early goal I would have turned off. Not because of any deep lying hatred for them, but because the sight of Thierry Henry, and particularly Sylvinho, in a Champions League Final was bound to determine where my sympathies lay.
Once Barca had scored that first goal the game turned rather surprisingly into a damp squib with the Catalans thoroughly deserving an impressive second from Messi. What happened to the Manchester United who had overpowered us in the semi-final? Surely Fletcher wasn’t that big a miss? I think they left the best of themselves at the Grove, thought the job was done, and paid the ultimate penalty.
Still, the sight of a sobbing Sylvinho at the end was one that will remain in the memory for a wee while. What a shame his *ahem* passport difficulties *cough* meant that we lost a top notch player and spared one A.Cole from not getting shipped out to Crystal Palace on a permanent deal.
In truth it is hard to argue we would have beaten Barca had we not stumbled at the last hurdle, but at the same time I have to believe we would have put up more of a fight than United, who appeared to end as a disheartened collection of individuals, rather than the team that had deservedly landed the Premiership.
The FA Cup Final was a different kettle of fish. Everton, I suspect, would have struggled to beat Chipping Sodbury reserves, even with the benefit of the fastest opening goal in Cup Final history. Chelsea won the trophy when they beat us, and the decision to not play Arshavin in that game looks increasingly like it denied us the chance to stop all of the ‘not won anything for four years’ bleaters.
I couldn’t watch it all, so painful was it. I kept switching over to Rangers and Falkirk in the Scottish version. Falkirk is close to the birthplace of the late ‘holicmum, and they included a former Gunner in Patrick Cregg. It wasn’t their day either, Rangers grabbing the only goal and shutting up shop in a desperately dull affair, from what I could see.
It wasn’t all bad news this weekend though. The ‘second teams’ of good friends at the Grove provide essential viewing for me as well. Sadly there was no stream to be found of Bohemians return to the top of the Eircom League with a win at Cork on Friday night. Better fortune though with coverage of Bordeaux securing the French championship by virtue of a single goal triumph at Caen. Two top Gooners will be nursing hangovers this morning!
So that’s it then. Now it’s time to look ahead to a summer of speculation, and probably little else, unless you follow Irish football as well. No, wait. I’m looking forward to a lunchtime session in the sunshine in a pub garden somewhere, and a mighty roast dinner to follow. Longer term there is the sound of leather on willow, chasing a silly little white ball around the English countryside with a heavy bag of metal sticks, and lots of decent music festivals. Life is good!
Enjoy the break, ‘holics.
12 Responses to “Finals Week Over – Time To Look Forward”
First Drink
Pint of the black velvety stuff barkeep
2nd yea
Cup finals seem to be such drab affairs.
So that’s one licquorice julep for Jackster.
Anybody else?
Thanks for a great read all season. I have enjoyed the measured and insightful commentary. Can’t wait for next year.
Nice touch, ‘holic.
I’ll share another Black Bush with you tonight 🙂
Elderflower cordial for me ‘holic.
*waves*
“Not because of any deep lying hatred for them,”
Why not? That’s as good a reason as any! 🙂 For me, that was definitely part of it.
“but because the sight of Thierry Henry, and particularly Sylvinho, in a Champions League Final was bound to determine where my sympathies lay.”
Agreed, absolutely wonderful to see those two get their CL medals.
“What happened to the Manchester United who had overpowered us in the semi-final?”
The same exact thing that happened to us in the semifinal: they dominated for the 1st 10 mins., got sucker-punched by a goal because of a silly mistake and then dropped their heads (for the most part) for the next 80+ mins., looking lost and ordinary.
What angered me about the 2nd leg semifinal was how our players just dropped their heads, felt sorry for themselves and gave up. If Parlour, Adams, Campbell, Vieira/Petit had been there, they would’ve shouted at our baby players to wake the hell up and fight like hell. But we have no leaders or fighters (except Bendnter and Nasri) willing to do that.
So it shocked me to see Man Utd do the same exact thing. They’re a team with leaders and experience (unlike us), with “English grit” and all those “tough manly virtues,” dontcha know. Yet they couldn’t handle a midfield of small, short, skinny Spanish “fancy dans.”
Ferguson’s midfield was shown up to be the limited bunch that they are. Also, his CD pair, while world class, don’t pass the ball and keep possession like Barca’s defenders do. The English media’s analysis of Barca’s defenders was all wrong, sneering at their vulnerability. But Barca’s defense is simply different from the usual English notion of two tall hardmen who just dispossess with hard tackles.
“I think they left the best of themselves at the Grove, thought the job was done, and paid the ultimate penalty.”
I think Ferguson learned the wrong lesson from the semifinal tie with Arsenal. His midfield controlled us extremely well in both legs. He may have equated us to a weaker Barca and underestimated them. But Barca are not like this Arsenal team (we were Barca-like last season), they just don’t pass the ball around and then are clueless off the ball.
Utd’s midfield are way behind Barca’s — which doesn’t say much for our own quality that they ran rings around us.
“In truth it is hard to argue we would have beaten Barca had we not stumbled at the last hurdle, but at the same time I have to believe we would have put up more of a fight than United.”
Difficult to say — this team has not put up much of a fight in the big games this season, so frankly I doubt we would’ve.
“Better fortune though with coverage of Bordeaux securing the French championship by virtue of a single goal triumph at Caen.”
Fantastic French and German league campaigns this past season, far more exciting to watch than “the best league in the world” in which the bottom half of the table is full of dreadful, awful teams (far worse than anything in the bottom half of La Liga, Serie A, France or Germany) and where no one puts up a real fight against England’s answer to Lyon, Man Utd (whose season was mostly very poor quality-wise).
“So that’s it then. Now it’s time to look ahead to a summer of speculation”
Well we’ll also have that unmissable tournament, the Confederations Cup! 🙂
As for the FA cup final….I sat there thinking “when will we ever be able to beat a strong Chelsea with an in-form Essien, Drogba and an astute manager?” Very disappointed at the result. I too am still furious about AW’s team selection/formation in the semifinal but frankly, even with Arshavin and Song, I can’t see us beating a strong, motivated Chelsea with a manager like Hiddink — they know how to control games so easily against teams like ours and could very easily have gotten to the CL final the 2nd year in a row.
With the likes of Xavi and Iniesta you can see why Cesc did not hang around. Can you see him developing into the player he is now if he had to displace those two????
And you are right about Chipping Sodbury. Even I have played in a side that beat them. A good 25 years ago I scored the third in a 3 nil win for Tormarton. Got a cracking right up in the Bristol Evening Post. Ahhhhh, those were the days. On to the transfer window madness now then?????
Pedigree for me if you don’t mind???
All the reports say we are about to sign Ajax`s belgian defender Thomas Vermaelen for about £10m. He`s been talked about as a possibility for some weeks now, and while it was interesting to see the video of his goals, I would rather have seen a succession of heroic clearances and instances of perfect positioning. Still, Its nice to know that if we signed him, we would at last have a defender other than Gallas who can find the net. He`s been criticized as being on the short side at 5`11″, but that has never hurt Gallas too much, and height isn`t always such an advantage; witness that talented trio of Senderos, Cygan and Steponovs. Tony Adams says he doubts he is ready for Arsenal, I say shut the f**k up Tone! Much as I love the guy for his exploits in a Arsenal shirt, I find him very annoying at present. Why can`t the man say anything positive about us when he opens his trap.
Interesting report today on clubs debt. 3 billions debt for the EPL, almost as much for the Liga. No wonder those clubs are well ahead and make it hard for German or French clubs to compete with them. When all this will catch up with the likes of Barca, Real, ManU and Liverpool, we will look very very good.
1) Chelsea (net debt £711 million, net interest £2 million)
2) Manchester United (£649 million, £69 milllion)
3) Arsenal (£318 million, £17 million)
4) Liverpool (£300 million, £35million)
5) Newcastle United (£245 million, £7 million)
6) Fulham (£196 million, £2 million)
7) Manchester City (£138 million, £13 million)
8) Middlesbrough (£94 million, £7 million)
9) Aston Villa (£72 million, £6 million)
10) Sunderland (£71 million, £4 million)
Anyway have a nice summer full of speculations 😉 Vermaelen? Or Edin Dzeko? Or Chiellini? Or…