Thursday, 1st May 2008
Emotions
For any football fan, Chelsea vs Liverpool was enjoyable. It was less enjoyable for Liverpool fans and much more fun for the Chelsea ones. The Blues won a great game. They were the better side and now they will meet Manchester United, again.
I often read about Italian clubs complaining that Serie A is too long. This is an often evoked as justification for clubs which are not able to be competitive on both the domestic and the international fronts. The Premier League isn’t any shorter. Yet Chelsea and Manchester United have shown that if energies are used well, a team can be a major contender in all competitions.
Yesterday’s match will be remembered by many. Drogba replied in style to the silly comments made in his regard by Benitez.
Benitez, on the other hand will remember the game for other reasons, wrong ones.
The emotions Lampard had to experience will also remain impressed in his memory for ever. He stayed cool as he took the penalty at a crucial time of the match. The decision to play and take a crucial penalty, a few days after the death of his mum, was admirable.
This was also a game to remember for Avram Grant. He has managed to achieve what Mourinho didn’t. Grant has been criticised by almost everyone and he had been seen as a stop-gap until a more reputable replacement for Mourinho was found. Yet he had already done two things which Mourinho failed to do, beat Liverpool in the Champions League and get to the final of the coveted competition. Add to that the fact that Chelsea are still fighting for the league title, and sooner rather than later, we’ll hear of Grant as being one of the brightest managers the soccer world has ever produced.
The day he was appointed manager, one of the UK’s sport commentators said that there was nothing in his professional CV that qualified him for a job as intricate and demanding as this. Seven months on, Grant has enriched his CV and might soon silence his critics.
He’s labelled as being dull. But one might not know what is going on in his head. I guess his comments at the end of the match were pretty revealing. “Today (yesterday) was Holocaust day in my country, and I will be making a visit to Auschwitz tomorrow (today). This was a special day for me. Hard but very special. My father, who survived the Holocaust, buried my grandfather with his own hands.” These are things which go beyond the football glamour that surrounds this world.
The end
This is the end of il Fenomeno (phenomenon). That’s the nick name Luis Nazário de Lima, or simply Brazilian Ronaldo, earned through his performances on the pitch. Off the pitch, it seems the player is trying to replicate another Brazilian, Adriano, who for quite some time now, has been making the news for the wrong reasons.
Ronaldo might have been unlucky in terms of injuries. On the other hand, he was always lucky to find clubs like Inter and Milan which offered their support through those low periods. However I wonder what Milan will do following the latest news where he was allegedly held at ransom by three transvestites.
I am pretty familiar with how the club operates. It gives paramount importance to values, image management and discipline so much that it was reported that senior officials were even monitoring the way Ronaldinho spent his evenings in Cataluña. While Milan might be thinking what to do next, the woman who was close to him in the latest injury blow has now left him. Nike, who invested heavily in him, are also reportedly considering a parting of ways.
Clearly Ronaldo should start to consider a better exit strategy as the current plot won’t necessary reflect the script he might have dreamt of few years back.
How’s that for a statement?
Joseph Lia was banned from football for three years following the incident that led to the clash between Żurrieq and St Andrew's being abandoned. The football governing body has made it clear, there is zero tolerance to violence.
Celebrating friendship through sports
100 days from the opening of the Olympics in Bejing, Malta will be hosting a relatively small event, but which has significance in terms of the role of sports. Around 150 athletes will give life to the Mediterranean Friendship Games. Benvenuti a Malta to the Sicilian athletes who will be giving life to these games. Let sport win.
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Comments
Now we als have the MU clan claiming CFC(Through abramovich) are financing the Final.
What a joke.More excuses to follow you think.
Lets see were silverware at the end of the 90 minutes of the 11th May and the 21st May.Looks like the colour BLUE has been lucky with winning this year.Lets keep the blue flag flying.
I suppose that's the beauty of football, It conjures up all feelings and sacrifices to acclaim success. The setup of a club, the management, the players and most important the fans amalgamate to make football what it really should be, simply enjoyable. So roll on Moscow and hope it would be a night to remember for English football......United to win !!!!