Arsenal v Real Madrid
it was a magnificent contest. football at its best, i dare say. i have never watched another game which so captured my imagination. maybe because i haven't watched a game in a while. if i weren't an Arsenal fan, i suppose i would be really enjoying this game in terms of its football. as in, most of the time, even if two teams which are none of my concern play, after a while, i tend to find myself supporting one more than the other. but this is one game, which given that i were a neutral, i would find it hard to take sides. the quality of football was high.
arsenal started slowly, real started the stronger side. but both teams, in my opinion, played really very well. it's hard to pick a player who hadn't. lehmann was outstanding; frankly, he couldnt have done anything about those two raul shots in the second half. aside from that, he was really commanding and had safe hands. eboue was a joy to watch. his blistering pace, his gungho approach. and most of the time he is defensively solid. of course he still has alot to work on, but i think we have a right back. senderos and toure were superb in the centre. towards the end, they really won all the high balls in the box, which was heartening. flamini played very well as left back, except that period of time when he kept fouling zidane. other than that, he seemed like a natural left back. but his main problem is that he cant really use his left leg. and thats a big problem to me too, because a left winger can be a right footer, but a leftback must be able to clear with his left leg competently. in midfield, hleb took a while to settle, but he was to me, one of the best players of the night. his pace, his dribbling, his elegance. on a few occasions, he made a few stray passes and maybe held the ball too long, but aside from this, i can have no complaints about his play. fabregas was commanding in the centre, his passing was outstanding, to say the least. he is able to play because gilberto was doing a competent job defending. but cesc was there for many challenges too. reyes missed two golden opportunities. i still cant figure out how he hit the crossbar. but he was a constant threat too, but hleb was even more. ljungberg made intelligent runs; he's always had this killer instinct and intelligence. and ljungberg worked very hard to back track. probably helped flamini alot. henry? magnificent too. there was once, when he was surrounded by 3, 4 white shirts and he got the shot in. missed by a bit. amazing. pires was ok, but he gave a ball away and it was almost costly. oh and he almost scored a goal from half way, because casillas was up for a real corner. carlos was there to stop the ball. pires came on for reyes btw. and bergkamp hardly touched the ball after he came on for hleb, which was a pity. in any case, i pray that arsenal will go all the way to the final and bergkamp will start in that game, hopefully against ajax amsterdam. it would be an emotional moment for him, i am sure. now that arsenal has done their part, i am praying that ajax, riding on the back of a fantastic 6-0 drubbing of sparta, can keep the part of their deal and beat inter in san siro next week. they must win, unless you tell me they can draw 3-3 to go through on away goals.
arsenal still need abit of time, but what i have seen is potential. tremendous potential. give this team 2 more years. they can be that Golden Generation. they are after all so young. i thought that a backline with a total age of 91; that means an average of less than 23 btw, performed very well against a team of world class attackers like zidane, raul, ronaldo, robinho, cassano and baptista. although they are sometimes flat and too narrow. and reyes, hleb, fabregas, van persie are special players, who can one day be as brilliant as thierry henry. whenever hleb got the ball, theres just this sense of expectation. and this is only his first season in england. but one thing they must do: stop relying so much on henry. if henry stays, its a plus. if henry leaves, it means they must start anew. but not really. it is THE opportunity to build the golden generation. a team built on a team. not a team built on thierry henry. they already have the foundation in having so many talented young players. maybe that's why i am not so scared about henry leaving.
i already know that the next season(at least) would be a very difficult period. it is a period of transition. firstly, arsenal may finish this season emptyhanded. secondly, they are moving to emirates stadium, which is wider than highbury. people will say arsenal will suffer because the highbury pitch has always been their edge. i say maybe again. if you notice, arsenal players are all very technically inclined. and i feel that skilful players will appreciate space even more, although they will do better in small spaces than less technical players. naturally, it would be harder to defend against most teams used to playing on wide pitches(the highbury advantage was that such teams found it harder and arsenal had an easier time defending). i think the advantage would merely shift from defence to attack. of course it would take time to get used to it. of course you may argue that arsenal's away form is terrible. but i would attribute it more to confidence than to their ability to play a technique-based approach on a large pitch, of which i have confidence in.
once the next season is over, we will rise again. but we must be patient, because it will take alot of tears, blood and sweat. and we will have to bear with the taunting that is sure to come when setbacks occur. but we must be strong. because a crisis is a terrible thing to waste. and in times like this, we can only be strong, have the faith and we will pull through. people are waiting to watch us fall. if you cant bear with trophyless seasons, you can always leave and join the millions of new Chelsea fans. true fans will never walk away. i know, because these two years have been very difficult times for me. watching valencia, arsenal and ajax having everything one season and nothing the next. but never once have i thought of walking away. because i believe in arsenal's style, i believe in ajax's philosophy, and i believe in valencia's system. even if money has turned the football world upside down.
somehow, we will be the ones smiling in the end.
and Barcelona went through at the expense of Chelsea. i think the penalty was a farce. i didnt think terry was fouled. but chelsea got knocked out anyway. and last night, i was thinking: barcelona was a joy to watch. ronaldinho, especially. amazing. the pinpoint balls. the control. the way they stroke the ball around the chelsea box, waiting for that incisive opportunity. wonderful.
until i watch arsenal v real madrid. that was sheer class. you know what? chelsea can never play this kind of football. barcelona can, but they didnt, out of tactical reasons.
but barcelona played a very smart game. they had two men marking robben. one behind the other, so that the otehr can pick up the ball should robben beat the first. and who said ferreira is world class? he had a horrid time. i still dun see whats the fuss about him. just an ordinary player. lampard was nonexistent, frankly. otehr than the penalty, i really forgot about his presence. until he took the penalty. and during the game, we saw alot of fumbles by chelsea's famed defence. sign of things to come. the chinks are showing. or maybe they were always there.
by the way, barcelona has alot of space on the wings to be exploited. somewhat like arsenal. but arsenal's is more due to inexperience whereas barca is more due to their 4-3-3 system. taht's food for thought for the next team playing barca. though i hope it wun be arsenal or ajax( if ajax gets through).
and lyon and milan just won by big margins. lyon 4-0. milan 4-1 against bayern. scary. seems like villareal is the least scary team that has made it so far. juve is always a threat, even if they can lose 3-2 in the first leg and just made it in the second leg. benfica won 2-0 at anfield. not a bad result, not very impressive either, because liverpool is not that good, frankly speaking. nevertheless, people mention anfield with a reverence, so i guess benfica's victory should be pretty impressive to them. but let me say again, i dun think liverpool is fantastic. but benfica is certainly a capable team. of course in the last 8, all teams are sufficiently capable. but i suppose the best draws would be benfica or villareal.
ajax, please win next week, when we play inter milan.
it was a magnificent contest. football at its best, i dare say. i have never watched another game which so captured my imagination. maybe because i haven't watched a game in a while. if i weren't an Arsenal fan, i suppose i would be really enjoying this game in terms of its football. as in, most of the time, even if two teams which are none of my concern play, after a while, i tend to find myself supporting one more than the other. but this is one game, which given that i were a neutral, i would find it hard to take sides. the quality of football was high.
arsenal started slowly, real started the stronger side. but both teams, in my opinion, played really very well. it's hard to pick a player who hadn't. lehmann was outstanding; frankly, he couldnt have done anything about those two raul shots in the second half. aside from that, he was really commanding and had safe hands. eboue was a joy to watch. his blistering pace, his gungho approach. and most of the time he is defensively solid. of course he still has alot to work on, but i think we have a right back. senderos and toure were superb in the centre. towards the end, they really won all the high balls in the box, which was heartening. flamini played very well as left back, except that period of time when he kept fouling zidane. other than that, he seemed like a natural left back. but his main problem is that he cant really use his left leg. and thats a big problem to me too, because a left winger can be a right footer, but a leftback must be able to clear with his left leg competently. in midfield, hleb took a while to settle, but he was to me, one of the best players of the night. his pace, his dribbling, his elegance. on a few occasions, he made a few stray passes and maybe held the ball too long, but aside from this, i can have no complaints about his play. fabregas was commanding in the centre, his passing was outstanding, to say the least. he is able to play because gilberto was doing a competent job defending. but cesc was there for many challenges too. reyes missed two golden opportunities. i still cant figure out how he hit the crossbar. but he was a constant threat too, but hleb was even more. ljungberg made intelligent runs; he's always had this killer instinct and intelligence. and ljungberg worked very hard to back track. probably helped flamini alot. henry? magnificent too. there was once, when he was surrounded by 3, 4 white shirts and he got the shot in. missed by a bit. amazing. pires was ok, but he gave a ball away and it was almost costly. oh and he almost scored a goal from half way, because casillas was up for a real corner. carlos was there to stop the ball. pires came on for reyes btw. and bergkamp hardly touched the ball after he came on for hleb, which was a pity. in any case, i pray that arsenal will go all the way to the final and bergkamp will start in that game, hopefully against ajax amsterdam. it would be an emotional moment for him, i am sure. now that arsenal has done their part, i am praying that ajax, riding on the back of a fantastic 6-0 drubbing of sparta, can keep the part of their deal and beat inter in san siro next week. they must win, unless you tell me they can draw 3-3 to go through on away goals.
arsenal still need abit of time, but what i have seen is potential. tremendous potential. give this team 2 more years. they can be that Golden Generation. they are after all so young. i thought that a backline with a total age of 91; that means an average of less than 23 btw, performed very well against a team of world class attackers like zidane, raul, ronaldo, robinho, cassano and baptista. although they are sometimes flat and too narrow. and reyes, hleb, fabregas, van persie are special players, who can one day be as brilliant as thierry henry. whenever hleb got the ball, theres just this sense of expectation. and this is only his first season in england. but one thing they must do: stop relying so much on henry. if henry stays, its a plus. if henry leaves, it means they must start anew. but not really. it is THE opportunity to build the golden generation. a team built on a team. not a team built on thierry henry. they already have the foundation in having so many talented young players. maybe that's why i am not so scared about henry leaving.
i already know that the next season(at least) would be a very difficult period. it is a period of transition. firstly, arsenal may finish this season emptyhanded. secondly, they are moving to emirates stadium, which is wider than highbury. people will say arsenal will suffer because the highbury pitch has always been their edge. i say maybe again. if you notice, arsenal players are all very technically inclined. and i feel that skilful players will appreciate space even more, although they will do better in small spaces than less technical players. naturally, it would be harder to defend against most teams used to playing on wide pitches(the highbury advantage was that such teams found it harder and arsenal had an easier time defending). i think the advantage would merely shift from defence to attack. of course it would take time to get used to it. of course you may argue that arsenal's away form is terrible. but i would attribute it more to confidence than to their ability to play a technique-based approach on a large pitch, of which i have confidence in.
once the next season is over, we will rise again. but we must be patient, because it will take alot of tears, blood and sweat. and we will have to bear with the taunting that is sure to come when setbacks occur. but we must be strong. because a crisis is a terrible thing to waste. and in times like this, we can only be strong, have the faith and we will pull through. people are waiting to watch us fall. if you cant bear with trophyless seasons, you can always leave and join the millions of new Chelsea fans. true fans will never walk away. i know, because these two years have been very difficult times for me. watching valencia, arsenal and ajax having everything one season and nothing the next. but never once have i thought of walking away. because i believe in arsenal's style, i believe in ajax's philosophy, and i believe in valencia's system. even if money has turned the football world upside down.
somehow, we will be the ones smiling in the end.
and Barcelona went through at the expense of Chelsea. i think the penalty was a farce. i didnt think terry was fouled. but chelsea got knocked out anyway. and last night, i was thinking: barcelona was a joy to watch. ronaldinho, especially. amazing. the pinpoint balls. the control. the way they stroke the ball around the chelsea box, waiting for that incisive opportunity. wonderful.
until i watch arsenal v real madrid. that was sheer class. you know what? chelsea can never play this kind of football. barcelona can, but they didnt, out of tactical reasons.
but barcelona played a very smart game. they had two men marking robben. one behind the other, so that the otehr can pick up the ball should robben beat the first. and who said ferreira is world class? he had a horrid time. i still dun see whats the fuss about him. just an ordinary player. lampard was nonexistent, frankly. otehr than the penalty, i really forgot about his presence. until he took the penalty. and during the game, we saw alot of fumbles by chelsea's famed defence. sign of things to come. the chinks are showing. or maybe they were always there.
by the way, barcelona has alot of space on the wings to be exploited. somewhat like arsenal. but arsenal's is more due to inexperience whereas barca is more due to their 4-3-3 system. taht's food for thought for the next team playing barca. though i hope it wun be arsenal or ajax( if ajax gets through).
and lyon and milan just won by big margins. lyon 4-0. milan 4-1 against bayern. scary. seems like villareal is the least scary team that has made it so far. juve is always a threat, even if they can lose 3-2 in the first leg and just made it in the second leg. benfica won 2-0 at anfield. not a bad result, not very impressive either, because liverpool is not that good, frankly speaking. nevertheless, people mention anfield with a reverence, so i guess benfica's victory should be pretty impressive to them. but let me say again, i dun think liverpool is fantastic. but benfica is certainly a capable team. of course in the last 8, all teams are sufficiently capable. but i suppose the best draws would be benfica or villareal.
ajax, please win next week, when we play inter milan.
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