Author Archives: Benjamin

My 2012-13 EPL Wrap-Up

1. Three teams went down. But hey, three new teams are coming up, so don’t worry about it. It’s an endless cycle, like the seasons.

2. Amusingly, one of those teams, Wigan, also won the FA Cup, and so will get to play next year in both England’s second division and in the Europa League.

3. ManU won the title for the 600th time. Ran away with it, in fact, which must have a group of oil sheikhs from the Middle East rather pissed off.

4. Related: One gazillion dollars spent on a team that failed to qualify for the Champions League knockout rounds, lost to lowly Wigan in the FA Cup final, and finished second in the league, well behind ManU? Bye-bye Roberto Mancini. (Would he have kept his job had they won the FA Cup?)

5. Goddamn Chelsea. 3rd place is pretty good for a team that yet again fired a coach mid-season and is in the middle of a major transition personnel-wise.

6. Arsenal in the Champion’s League, Spurs out, again. Like I said Monday: Goddammit. I’ll have more to say about this in another post.

7. Everton finished one spot ahead of Liverpool, which I mention mostly because I’m sure it made my friend Ruari happy.

8. Alex Ferguson retired, to be replaced by David Moyes. I’ll have more to say about this, as well.

Why I Want Spurs to Win and Arsenal to Drop Points Today (Besides That I’m a Spurs Fan)

If Arsenal fail to make the Champions League, after a 15-year run, maybe that will be the last straw, and they’ll finally let Arsene Wenger go. Fans have been calling for his head for years: “We haven’t won a trophy in eight years!” they say. And they add: “He sells off our best players!”

Well, that’s sort of true. Arsene Wenger is obviously a very smart man. He’s watched what Chelsea under Abramovich, ManU under the Glazers, and Man City under Abu Dhabi United have done. He can’t have any illusions. Money buys the best soccer teams–to suggest otherwise is crazy. The idea that Wenger chose Arsenal’s transfer policy–buy low, sell high–is silly. Clearly he has been instructed to run the club the way he has, and so he’s had to watch as his best players have consistently left for more money and therefore better opportunities elsewhere.

(Don’t believe it? It should be noted that Stan Kroenke, Arsenal’s majority shareholder, also owns the Colorado Rapids of the MLS, the only team, last time I checked, that doesn’t take advantage of MLS’s Designated Player rule. In other words, from a fan’s perspective, he’s kind of a cheap bastard.)

So all the cries for Wenger’s head tell me that Arsenal fans have no idea how good they have it. Wenger’s ability to get top-four results out of a team of youngsters, second-rate players, and cast-offs past their prime has been profoundly amazing. That Arsenal fans are unable to see this surprises me. I guess they actually believe that Theo Walcott and Jack Wilshere and the others are world-class talents.

I lived in Madrid for a semester in college, and ever since I have always to some degree rooted for Real Madrid. I have watched the parade of managers in and out, and wondered what would happen if they hired someone who actually fit the team’s personality. For years I’ve been thinking that Arsene Wenger is exactly that person.

So it is my devout hope that Arsenal will part ways with Arsene Wenger after the season, and that Real Madrid will snap him up after Mourinho leaves. What Wenger–who seems as devoted to making the beautiful game actually beautiful as anyone in soccer–would do with that squad, and with Real Madrid’s credit card, intrigues me to my core as a soccer fan. It could be simply amazing. Of course, Real Madrid have a way of destroying even the best situations, so you can’t be sure it would be a success, but I’d love to see it.

And when as Arsenal hire whoever’s available and finish in 8th or 9th for the next five years, as the quality of their squad dictates they should, then maybe all those won’t-shut-up Arsenal fans will be forced to reflect that they chased away exactly who it was that brought them the success they enjoyed.

Thoughts on the Real Madrid-Borussia Dortmund 2nd Leg

It’s funny how soccer sometimes works. In the first 15 minutes of the match, Real had three great chances to score. Higuain received a pass from Özil in the 4th minute but took two touches before getting his shot away, giving Weidenfeller time to close the angle. In the 13th minute, Angel Di Maria hit a streaking Cristiano Ronaldo with an amazing long ball behind the defense; Ronaldo took it on his chest and then fired it straight at Weidenfeller. Not an easy shot by any stretch, but you get so accustomed to Cristiano Ronaldo scoring goals exactly like that. And then in the 15th minute an Higuaín flick put Özil through on goal, but he pulled his near-post shot wide.

If Real scores on two of those three opportunities–and on another day, they would have–then it’s a very different game the rest of the way. Up 2-0 with 75 minutes to play, you’d be hard pressed to bet against them closing the gap and going on to win.

Similarly, in the first leg, it seemed Lewandowski couldn’t help but score. In the second, he had four solid chances: the one in the 13th minute that he hit straight at Diego López, and then three in the second half, two of which he missed badly and the other he put off the underside of the bar. A Lewandowski in first leg’s form scores at least two of those and puts the tie to bed; in the return leg he can’t manage it.

And so the score remained 0-0 until the match was nearly over.
Then, somehow, in the 82nd, Benzema scored from close range, a goal that was more difficult than it probably appeared, and then Ramos gave Real a second in the 88th, and suddenly it was 2-0 with two minutes left in regulation and an expected four or five minutes of stoppage time. Suddenly the game became a subset of the game of soccer, a situation that occurs only at the end of two-legged cup ties: with so little time remaining, there will be no draw. Either Real scores and they win, or they do not and they lose. All of the possible scenarios narrow down to just this: Real will do everything to try to score, Dortmund will do everything to stop them.

It was a thrilling finale, but Real came up short. For the third year in a row they exit the Champions League in the semi-finals. Mourinho looks to be leaving the club this off-season. He was brought in to win the Champions League and failed. My question: is the fault Real Madrid’s, or his?

Real Madrid – Borussia Dormund Preview

The only possible narrative going into this game is: Are Real Madrid capable of winning 3-0 or 4-1 (or 5-1, or 6-1…)?

Certainly they are. Imagine something like this: an early defensive mistake, let’s just randomly say a misplayed Mats Hummels backpass, leads to a Madrid goal. Dortmund, shaken, let Madrid dominate for ten minutes, during which time Madrid gets a second. Imagine there are 70 minutes left to play. Would you say Real Madrid–a team with the attacking firepower of Cristiano Ronaldo, Mesut Özil, Angel Di Maria, et al., are incapable of scoring one or two more?

That it’s possible doesn’t mean it’s likely, however. I don’t expect Real Madrid to look quite as toothless as they did in the away leg. But with a 4-1 advantage, Dortmund don’t have to be amazing to win the tie. They just have to be okay. And they’re much, much better than okay.

I’m hoping for an entertaining match. Let Real get a goal relatively early and not stupidly give one up. Let there be something to play for. Either that, or let Real make a couple of stupid defensive mistakes early (I’m looking at you, Sergio Ramos) so that I can shrug my shoulders, call it over, and go do something else with my afternoon.

Wigan 2 – Tottenham 2: Of Course

I’m hardly the first person to note that there’s something kind of nutty about rooting for a team (as opposed to rooting for a person). Today this guy is your star player and you love him, you cheer every time he touches the ball, you buy a shirt with his name on it. Next month he plays for another team and you hate him, you boo every time he touches the ball, he’s a goddamn traitor. So in a sense you are rooting for clothing. That’s crazy.

And that whole notion that the guy who leaves your team to go get more money or playing time or better coaching somewhere else is doing something wrong: in no other sphere of life would we look askance at someone who took a better job when one was offered. Would you hate a banker who left Citigroup for a bigger paycheck at Goldman Sachs? The correct answer is yes. But that’s because bankers are awful people; the job change is immaterial. Sports stars don’t bring down entire economies and throw millions of people out of work when they fuck up, but from the way we act when they put on a different team’s shirt, you’d think it was the other way around.

Now, of course I recognize that rooting for your team is more complicated than what I just said. The shirts are symbols, obviously, and the whole “us vs. them” thing is essentially tribal and (ask me on a day when I’m feeling optimistic about humankind) maybe even atavistic. But when you are truly a fan, who you root for speaks to issues of identity and self-narrative. Do you root for a team because they play where you live? Because the team stands for a certain philosophy of play (e.g. in American football, how the Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens are known for their defenses)? Maybe your fandom started because you just like their uniforms. Whatever it is: all these things do say something about you.

Now, the place where the crazy really starts to shine is when you start to use tribal memory to filter events in the real world. But I also propose that this behavior is at the heart of true fandom. If your team is seen as constantly embattled (e.g. the Chicago Cubs), you will see events through that filter. “Of course Steve Bartman interfered with the ball and ruined everything. Of course he did.”

So it is with me and Tottenham Hotspur. It started my first year rooting for the club, 2005-06. Going into the final game of the season, sitting in fourth place, one point above archrival Arsenal, ten Spurs players came down with what was believed to be food poisoning. They lost to not-very-good West Ham and ended up fifth and outside the Champions League.

(Indeed, I’d initially suspected that the food poisoning was intentional, a clever-yet-hideous ploy by some die-hard Arsenal fan. I never heard anything confirming my suspicions. I figured that sort of thing would be talked about a great deal if, you know, it had actually happened, so I decided the incident was just freak bad luck–but why did so many players have to eat the same food? But to give you an idea how deep the cultural narrative can run, it wasn’t until just now when I did a little research on the incident that I learned that it wasn’t food poisoning at all but a norovirus. That part of the story doesn’t fit the narrative, so it isn’t mentioned.)

With all that in mind, here’s how I felt about this weekend’s salient matches:
1) After getting a gift goal off a horrible mistake by the defense and goalkeeper, of course Spurs immediately gave the goal back.

2) Of course they found themselves down 2-1.

3) Of course the guy who scored Wigan’s second goal, Callum McManaman, scored his first ever Premier League goal, after having failed to score in 22 prior appearances. Of course his first goal came against Spurs.

4) Of course Spurs can only get the equalizer off what had to be the scrappiest own-goal of all time.

5) Of course Arsenal take the lead off a Theo Walcott goal in which he was clearly offside.
(I’d like to thank Robin van Persie for taking advantage of a Bacary Sagna mistake and forcing the penalty kick. I’d like to thank ManU for at least getting a draw. But of course I’m mostly ignoring this aspect of the match. It doesn’t fit the narrative.)

6) Of course Chelsea comfortably handle their business with a 2-0 win over Swansea.

7) Of course Spurs collapse again at the end of the season and look like they’re gonna fail to make the Champions League. Of course this is what’s happening.

All of this is crazy. But of course I think this way. I’m a fan.

Thoughts on This Weekend’s Premier League

Let me first of all be very clear about something: when it comes to Tottenham Hotspur, I am the furthest thing from objective. I discovered, sometime in the latter part of the ’05-’06 season, that I had fallen in love with the club; I have enjoyed and suffered, in relatively equal portions, ever since.

So you’ll please forgive that I can only talk about the Prem from the perspective of a totally besotted fan. I can speak objectively about the other leagues, but my main perspective on the Prem is, “How are Tottenham doing?”

So when I look ahead to this weekend’s fixtures, I see only three matches that matter: Spurs @ Wigan, ManU @ Arsenal, and Swansea @ Chelsea. Yes, I understand that I’m supposed to care about Aston Villa vs. Sunderland, as a win for Villa would really help move them away from the drop zone, but really, for me, it’s all about the battle for third and fourth place and those coveted Champions League spots.

Arsenal-ManU on Sunday would normally be the weekend’s glamour fixture, but after ManU’s demolishing of Villa on Monday to claim the Prem title with four games to spare, I have to assume that ManU will field a side composed of 16-year-olds from the reserve squad and players still hungover from Monday’s celebrations. Assuming Spurs manage to win at 18th-place Wigan, which they must, the edge has to go to a desperately-needing-the-win Arsenal over a ManU with literally nothing to play for. It’s likely to be worth watching for entertainment purposes, as a ManU with nothing to either win or lose will (I hope) go out and play their best attacking football, at least within the limitations I mentioned above.

Wigan-Spurs will be interesting, if only because there’s so much at stake. Of the three teams in the bottom three (Wigan, QPR and Reading), only Wigan realistically have a chance of escaping, and so for them a home win is crucial. Spurs currently sit 5th in the table, and if they fail to get to a Champions League spot this season, we’ll almost certainly see Gareth Bale follow in Luka Modric’s footsteps and head out the door.

Of course the question regarding Spurs is: Which team will show up, the one we’ve mostly seen since they threw away a lead at Liverpool on March 10th, or the team that played the last half-hour against Manchester City last weekend? As a Spurs fan who’s been burned many times before, I’m reluctant to take too much away from last weekend’s final half-hour. Spurs looked dreadful for the first hour, and while it’s true that they certainly shifted up a couple of gears, they did so against a team with little left to play for in the Prem: City sit five points clear of Arsenal (with a game in hand), six ahead of Chelsea and seven ahead of Spurs. Barring a complete collapse–and they have too much talent on hand for that to happen, don’t they?–they’ll be in the Champions League again next year.

I’m certainly not gonna watch Chelsea-Swansea–two matches per weekend is usually my limit–but I’ll sure be rooting hard for 9th-place Swansea to steal at least a point from the match. Chelsea currently sit one point ahead of Spurs in the table, and every slip-up they make brings me joy.

Lewandowski 4 – Real Madrid 1

I thought of this headline Wednesday at what I have to imagine was the same time as probably at least 10 million other people around the world.

And while Lewandowski was brilliant–none of his three non-penalty goals were simple–I don’t think giving Lewandowski all the credit really begins to explain just what Dortmund did to Real Madrid.

It’s true, Lewandsowski’s three goals from open play demonstrate clearly that Real’s centerbacks were overwhelmed in dealing with him. It’s easy enough to heap criticism on them, but Lewandowski has 23 goals in 27 games in the Bundesliga this season and had six in the Champions League before Wednesday. He’s at the top of his form, and I can think of few if any centerback pairings that could hold him in check.

But in attack Lewandowski operates as a pure striker, which means that he primarily does his work in the box. To excel in this role requires an extremely deft touch, supreme quickness and otherworldly reaction times. This suggests a couple of things:

  1. At 24-years-old, he’s probably at or very near his career peak. Quickness peaks early and is one of the first attributes to decline. (From that perspective, Dortmund should probably be considering cashing in.)
  2. He is highly dependent on the quality of service he receives. Clearly he can pounce on half-chances, as he did for both the second and third goals Wednesday, but to do so, someone needs to first //get// those chances. And it was there that Dortmund really shone.

The attacking midfield three, Marco Reus, Mario Götze, and Jakub Blaszczykowski, left the other four Real defenders completely at sea. Götze’s cross from the left for the first goal was impeccable and clearly untroubled by Sergio Ramos’ attempt at defending. But it was what Reus, Götze and Blaszczykowski did to Xabi Alonso and Sami Khedira that was most amazing. There was a shot of Alonso and Khedira sometime in the second half in which both of them had their mouths open, presumably panting, with a look of near-panic in their eyes. Reus’, Götze’s and Blaszczykowski’s motion through the midfield, along with the attacking support provided by Sven Bender and, especially, Ilkay Gündogan, left Khedira and Alonso totally overwhelmed. By dominating that portion of the midfield, Dortmund were able to completely dominate the match.

What’s most remarkable is that, until Wednesday, I probably would have said that Alonso and Khedira were the top defensive midfield pairing of any team playing the 4-2-3-1 that’s become so popular since the 2010 World Cup. After Wednesday, I’m not so sure. It’s possible that the torch has been passed either to Bender and Gündogan or Bastian Schweinsteiger and Javi Martínez. It’s also possible that currently no midfield in the world that can stop the attacking brilliance on display from Dortmund Wednesday and Bayern Munich the day before. We’ll know if that’s the case, assuming we end up with a Munich-Dortmund final, if the score is something like 5-4. And if that’s the case, then we have, also, seen the beginning of the end of the 4-2-3-1, because someone out there right now has set his mind to figuring out how to solve the problem that Jose Mourinho, supposedly one of the greatest tactical minds in modern soccer, so totally failed to solve in Dortmund on Wednesday.

Bayern Munich 4 – Barcelona 0: Is It Over?

So is it over?

Probably. Let’s be honest. Even under the best of circumstances, Barça play one style, that of possession and attack, and being down 0-4 means they don’t have time to play it safe. Bayern forcefully demonstrated yesterday that they are more than capable of leveraging counterattacks into both direct threats on goal and forcing set pieces [and then taking advantage of those set pieces]. It seems unlikely that Bayern won’t score in the leg at the Camp Nou, and then Barça would have to score six. Not likely.

But is it possible to imagine 4-0? Barça did it to AC Milan in the Round of 16, and in that same round Bayern took a 1-3 win at Arsenal back home and lost 0-2, a score that certainly indicated a mental letdown on their part, so we know they’re capable of such a thing. Let down against Barcelona, even a three-quarter-strength Barcelona like we saw yesterday, and you’ll be picking the ball out of your net many times.

I wouldn’t bet money on it, however. Bayern are too strong and Barcelona are simply suffering more from too many injuries.

And speaking of: I can understand the pressure on a coach to field his best player, even at less than 100%. But what I cannot understand is the choice to stick by that decision once it has proved to not be working. I think back to the playoff game between the Washington R******* and Seattle Seahawks. Remember how RGIII reinjured his knee early in the game and became totally ineffectual? Yet Mike Shanahan left him in until he really got hurt.

Tito Vilanova and Barcelona were fortunate that Messi didn’t suffer a similar fate, but nevertheless, Messi was clearly way off his best yesterday. He lacked the mobility to make the off-the-ball runs he usually does that are so effective in moving the defense around, and with the ball at his feet he didn’t have the thrust that usually forces the defense into the panicked adjustments that open up opportunities for other players. With Messi so far from his best, Barça were playing with closer to ten men than eleven. I could see it. Martin Tyler and Tony Gale could see it. Certainly Tito Vilanova could see it. So why not make the substitution?

I feel like the answer given would be, “Well, he’s my best player.” But not at 90% he’s not. In fact, I think a top player at 90% is worse than a healthy player who operates at the level of 90% of the top player, because a player sense the game from the perspective of the peak of his abilities. It’s impossible to adapt to being substantially less than your best. It just leaves the player feeling something like confused: “Why can’t I do what I normally can?”

One wonders what Messi might have done off the bench, just as he did against PSG two weeks ago. Against a defense already worn down by chasing Barcelona’s possession for 60 or 65 minutes, Messi with fresh legs might have been a spark.

But Vilanova took a risk and it didn’t pay off at all. Barcelona now face a nearly impossible task.

The Obvious Talking Point

It’s the obvious talking point ahead of today’s match, but one has to wonder just how much the news that Mario Götze is heading to Bayern during the summer will affect the team. There’s no way around it, it’s just got to be a distraction. If the fans turn against him, it could get ugly. But one has to hope that Dortmund will be able to tune out the distraction, that Götze will be at his playmaking best, and that together they will bring the entertaining attacking play we’ve come to expect.

But yo, whattup with the famous German discipline?