An Obituary to a Great Career

Michael Ballack Retires from Professional Football

Michael Ballack’s retirement from professional football has gone down without a lot of fanfare. Rather unfair this, as here was a man who bridged across 2 eras of German football and at times held it up solely on his muscular shoulders when the European powerhouses threatened to slip into a chasm of mediocrity. Make no mistake – German football was in a crisis in the early noughties. The era of Klinsman, Mattheus and Bierhoff was over. Bayern Munich lynchpin Effenberg was at odds with the national team. To make matters worse, there was that night of terror in Munich when Michael Owen ripped apart the old enemy in a 5-1 thrashing. At this time, we in India read about a young man from Bayer Leverkusen named Ballack who was scoring an extra-ordinary number of goals from his midfield position. A naturally gifted shooter off both feet , strong in the air and a penchant for the odd tasty challenge in defence, Ballack was to remain the engine room for the German national team for the entire decade. 

2002 was his Annus Mirabilis. His Leverkusen team defied all odds to reach the Uefa Champions league final where they were taking the fight to the aristocrats of European Football, Real Madrid. That is till Zinedine Zidane decided to take matters into his own hands and unleash that left footed volley from the edge of the box. However, the performance of his team had catapulted Ballack to superstar status, and he lived up to his billing in the ensuing world cup. His crowning moment came in the semi-finals against South Korea where he scored the winner however the game would prove bittersweet as just before his goal a yellow card for a tactical foul had ensured that he would miss the final. There is still speculation on how the final would have panned out had his enforcing midfield presence been there – as it happened Brazil cantered home thanks to a Ronaldo brace but German football had found its newest superstar, and essentially the first since the Klinsman-Mattheus days.

A rather injury curtailed latter half of the decade, first with Bayern Munich and then with Chelsea probably denied him from fulfilling all of that early promise of 2002. However, a national team return of 42 goals from 98 international appearances is an outstanding result for a midfielder. Much more acclaimed strikers have poorer strike rates. Add to it a World Cup runners up and a third place finish along with league titles in Germany and England and the baby-faced German easily slots in as one of the classiest players of the previous decade.

The national team of today , with the likes of Schwienstieger, Muller,  Goetze and Ozil have been predicted to accomplish great deeds – however this team might never have been realised had they not emerged through that evolutionary bottleneck of the early noughties, where at times the national team seemed synonymous with the name Ballack. Hats off to a great career!

The Fergie Factor

The English Premiership has had me hooked from the time they started broadcasting it in these parts of the world in the early nineties. Even in those embryonic days of regular club football viewing, the name Alex Ferguson (the ‘Sir’ came after the treble in ’99) stood like a colossus, a larger than life figure, a bigger name than all the big name players in his first team at Manchester United. His words carried greater weight in the footballing world (referees, media, administrators) than those of the Ayatollah in Iran.  Since those days, till last night’s daylight robbery for United over Liverpool, I have watched the Premiership intently, as an Arsenal supporter, but otherwise essentially a neutral student of action on and off the pitch.

They say in football, decisions even themselves out for a team over a season. Somehow, for Fergie’s team, they never seem to do. Over the past few seasons, I have seriously given thought of maintaining a stat sheet over the entire season counting the number of incorrect potentially game changing refereeing decisions that go for and against Man U over the course of the entire season. I have never managed to do so, but a random look at this season and the count stands at 2 incorrect penalties awarded and an incorrect red card (still waiting for a decision to go against them).  Wenger, Mourinho, Ancelotti and Mancini  (the other premiership winning managers that I have seen) have all made claims to their side being short changed, but for their teams the whole ‘decisions even themselves out’ factor probably holds true – if anything Mancini has probably been at short end of the stick more often than others.

What then ticks for Fergie and United- I will not go as far to claim that officials are bought off. That would be puerile. However, the undeniable fact remains that the intimidation factor of Sir Alex far weighs heavily in the mind of an official while having to make a split second, game changing call. Imagine the position of the referee while having to officiate on the Welbeck or Valencia ‘dives’ this season.  Even he is wavering towards the side of a non-call, his sub-conscious probably starts weighing up the implications of a post game Fergie rant vs a Brendan Rogers rant, and within the fraction of decision making time, the damage is done. If I had a dime for every time I’ve seen Paul Scholes go unpunished for the type of challenge Shelvey was sent off, I’d have been a far richer man.  

The other thing to factor in this is that over in the European Competitions, this Fergie intimidation factor is lost and you find a lot less managers bemoaning the refereeing advantage to United in Europe.

Sir Alex has even famously targeted referees before a game making statements in his pre-match interviews about how the gentleman had cost his team points in a previous game -  a gambit that has played havoc in the official’s mind before the starting whistle. Would the man then dare brandish an early card for a cynical foul in the opening few minutes of the game?

These issues are greatly downplayed by the media and the English refereeing association is a bad joke and I fathom ,till the great man stays in the job United will get the rub of refereeing green just that wee bit more often than his rivals. What I’d be really interested in seeing is the first Man U season after Sir Alex hangs his boots. While I’m convinced the decisions will be far more even, there’s even a chance that United may suffer from a few awry ones fuelled, by the sub-conscious relief of officials finally free of the yoke of the Fergie factor.  

Previewing a Marquee Weekend

This is the first real marquee weekend of a still embryonic English football season – at least in England where Arsenal travel to Man City and Manchester United play at Anfield against Liverpool.

Matchday of the Season thus Far

Things appear to have somewhat changed , early though the season is, as compared to May for both the Gunners and City.

Back then, Arsenal were dealing with the impending departure of talisman Robin van Persie and desperately looking around for replacements that would enable them to compete and yet meet their business model at the club. The season began with 2 goalless draws and it portended to be another long and weary season for Arsene Wenger. However, the clinical win at Liverpool, the thrashing of Southampton and the crucial (albeit lucky) win at Montpellier has seen a new wave of Optimism sweep through the Emirates. Lucas Podolski and Santi Carzola have settled into the physical nature of the league like ducks to water – the Spaniard has apparently created an astonishing 18 goal scoring chances in the 4 games thus far. While Podolski’s finishing has been far more clinical than what I expected, even more impressive about the German has been his willingness and not altogether negligible skill in dropping back to defend – a crucial factor considering left back Kieran Gibbs has a tendency to go missing at times. The defence has never looked this solid in years and key players like Wilshere , Sagna and Rosicky are on the verge of a first team return.  There are still many questions to be answered ! Will Giroud turn out to be another Chamakh ? The goalkeeping scenario also appears a bit iffy with Szczesny throwing in that howler last week and then injuring himself. While Manone has been safe , he still has a long way to go before proving himself consistently dependable. All in all, the most promising start to the season for Arsenal in years but Sunday will provide the first real acid test of their title credentials.

City, on the other hand, were conspicuous by their relative inactivity in the transfer window. Javi Garcia, Jack Rodwell and Matija Nastasic were not exactly the first names on the big managers’ shopping lists. Though still unbeaten in the league, City got out of jail against Southampton and have looked indifferent at times through a relatively easy opening 4 games (well, perhaps with the Exception of Stoke away). The crippling blow was provided in the mid-week when Real Madrid came back virtually from the dead to snatch that late win at the Bernabeu. If City are to be counted among the European elite, these are the kind of fixtures they must hit back in. They still have the best squad of players in the league and the game against an upbeat Arsenal should be a real treat for the purists with both continental managers likely to put out attacking sides.

Manchester United have bounced back in typical style after the opening day loss at Goodison Park. The RVP solo show against the desperately unlucky Saints followed by the rather more convincing win against Wigan has got the crowd at Trafford (and millions outside) quite enthused. The Man U midfield and defence still look doubtful at times but the brilliance of their wingers (especially if Nani comes to the party) and the best forward line in the Premiership should , on paper, not have too hard a time at Anfield against a winless Liverpool looking desperately short of squad depth.

But then again – this is Man U against Liverpool – and I do not quite know how, but over the past 2 or 3 seasons , the Reds somehow always manage to turn up for these fixtures (the results notwithstanding). I do not expect anything different this time around. With the backdrop of the recent Hillsborough revelations, there never will be a time for a thin quad to punch above their weight. Another classic in store, though, I hope, there are no more of those dreadful Evra-Suarez – will they-wont they-handshake fiascos.

There is a lot of action on hand this weekend apart from the marquee premiership clashes, with the Singapore GP and the Bayern Munich –Schalke clash being other lip smacking offerings. However , keep an eye on the  PGA Tour championship, which  is already halfway through. All eyes will be on a precocious Northern Irishman to see if he can make an unprecedented hat-trick of Fed-Ex cup playoff tournaments. Also, if the 10-inning game I was any indication, the remainder of the Yankees-Athletics series at the Bronx should be a riveting affair, with both teams still harbouring very realistic playoff ambitions.

Happy Viewing !!!

A Romance in Oranje

Chronicle of an everlasting love affair with Dutch football

International football for me, pretty much for the entire duration of my life has been a romance in orange – a tragic romance, but an overwhelmingly faithful one nevertheless.

The Netherlands ‘so-so-near-yet-so-far’ loss at the 2010 world cup final....and not just a loss...a loss in the 115^th minute , after Arjen Robben had missed a gilt edged one-on-one with the goalkeeper chance which he normally buries nonchalantly with both his feet tied together and his eyes blindfolded...so continued my seemingly everlasting wait for the Oranje to win at a major international competition since Euro ’88, when Van Basten’s outrageous volley converted me to a dutch football fan for life.

International football from that moment on (culminating in WC 2010) has comprised fleeting moments of pure joy interspersed by the rather more plentifully incessant agony. If Dennis Bergkamp’s three touch bamboozlement of Roberto Ayala in 98 remains the favourite footballing moment in my life, it is mired somewhat like hope in pandora’s box amidst Branco’s incredible free kick , the penalty defeats to Brazil in 98 and Italy in Euro 2000 , Arshavin’s wizardry in Euro 2008 and 2 outrageous goals (in Euro 2004 and WC 2006) from an otherwise average Portugese midfielder bearing the Indianised name of Maniche. Truly, when the Dutch undid the Brazil jinx at last in 2010, coming back from a real pasting in the first half , I believed that the time was nigh when my footballing hopes would be realised akin to those in other sports (Aussie cricket, Lakers in the NBA, Schumi in F1 etc). Andreas Iniesta ensured otherwise deep into injury time and my wait to celebrate dutch footballing glory continued.

Marco van Basten : The Volley of Genius

The one thing football has taught me is that no matter how earth shattering the result, there is always the next game around the corner....and so I waited.... for Euro 2012...knowing full well that Spain were still the strongest team in Europe and Germany, the most promising team on the horizon and well what followed, threatened my support for the Oranje to fatal proportions. The signs were there during Van Marwijk’s entire reign- the fluidity and delight of the Dutch game were replaced by a pragmatic , hard tackling no nonsense football. The team was built around midfield enforcers like Van Bommel and De Jong at the expense of that extra creative player. At the front Robin van Persie has long proved that even when fit, he is not half as good a player in international colours as that in those of his club. Even for battle hardened Holland supporters, it will take time to regain faith in the team after the debacle at the Euros. The Dutch need that one inspirational player to capture the imagination but it is difficult to see who that might be. The core group of RVP , Huntelaar, Schneider, Van de Vaart just lack that little something. Arjen Robben, on talent is probably still the best player in orange but fitness, form and confidence have been all too transient in the enigmatic winger. Dutch football is in crisis and under the dictatorial leadership of Louis Van Gaal, the crisis may either be resolved or deepen along the lines of the French in recent years.

Cutting over to the club football scene - once cable TV featured prominently in our lives in the mid-nineties and the European Leagues became an unavoidable weekly commitment favourites developed in this arena as well. Not unsurprisingly all the teams I have grown to support have or have had strong dutch connections....Arsenal of course , as the home of my favourite footballer through the nineties, the incomparable Bergkamp ; Ajax Amsterdam....well simply because they are dutch and in the mid-nineties were the epitome of footballing artistry (not too dissimilar from the modern day Barcelona) and Barcelona, for in the late nineties-early nougthies they fielded teams with more Dutchmen than Spaniards (counting randomly : Kluivert ,Overmars ,de Boer brothers , Riezeger , van Bronckhorst, Cocu)....while my footballing admiration for Messi’s  team is as great as any that I’ve seen play, their recent holier than thou attitude has somewhat cooled my support for them. Merely the name AC Milan excites the pleasure centres in the brain in fond remembrance of the days of the trio of Van Basten , Gullit and Rijkard. Those days are long gone – Inter Milan and Manchester United have more Dutch players than AC or Arsenal but the early associations have strengthened pretty much into eternal support.

Methinks I shall remain a footballing martyr for life – destined to hope , be disappointed and hope again , but as Ernie recently proved in the Open Championship, maybe once, just that once the never-ending hope of seeing the Oranje win international gold will bear fruit.  

Let the words "Dennis Bergkamp" suffice

European Footballing Weekend Summary

If Robin van Persie stays fit and plays over 35 games in the premiership, Manchester United will coast to the title. If the Dutchman could carry a lurching Arsenal to 3^rd place on his shoulders alone, surely this Man U team has that extra bit of pedigree. The defence remains United’s big and surprising worry. However they need to wrap RVP in cotton wool and cross all possible fingers and toes every time he goes away on international duty (and they will come thick and fast given that it is world cup qualifying season).

Arsenal were the English team of the week. A composed defence and a sparkling midfield performance ensured that they took thoroughly deserved honours at Anfield.  The things the Gunners need is to keep that defence fit and to get Olivier Giroud to start scoring. Thus far in the season he’s only managed to look a more refined version of Marouanne Chamakh. If the Frenchman doesn’t heat up soon, Wenger will be enforced to play Lucas Podolski up front instead of the left side, where he’s made such a promising start to his Arsenal career.

In other results of note, City gained a mundane win over QPR while Spurs conceded yet another late equalizer to draw Norwich.

In Spain Real Madrid gained their first la Liga victory of the season while Barcelona maintained their home stranglehold over Valencia thanks to a ripper of a goal from Adriano. The real talking points over the week in Spain were the alleged tears of Christiano Ronaldo after their win. Ronaldo later apparently admitted that there is cause for professional dissatisfaction for his at Madrid. Watch this space - I can already sense Man City and Chelsea reaching for their chequebooks.

European Performance of the Week : Bayern Munich , who after conceding midway through the first half produced at 6 goal blitz in 20 minutes either side of half-time – truly scintillating to watch. 

European Football Season Opening- Roundup

The European Football Season is well and truly under way with all major leagues having played at least one weekend of games. The start to the English season is very much along expected lines with Chelsea (who somehow always manage to garner the easiest of opening fixtures) out to a perfect start. 3 wins  out of 3 , with the Eden hazard-Juan Mata partnership behind a rejuvenated Fernando Torres looking (at least at this early stage) like it’ll be the attacking jewel of the season.

Man City have now essentially become the New Man United with their ability to scrape points out of losing scenario. Despite an iffy start to the season in terms of form , they manage to rescue a point from Anfield , after an opening day injury time victory against newly promoted Southampton. Robin van Persie provided an earlier trailor for what might be another goal glut at Old Trafford as United overcame another defensively uninspiring performance to win against Fulham. Surprisingly , among the top teams, Arsenal have shown the most defensive mettle in the first 2 games. I can’t recall a Gunners team in recent years having visited the Brittania and not conceding a single shot on target. Trouble is , they still haven’t scored and didn’t really look like doing so against Stoke (last season they scored their first goal in the 3^rd game : a certain 8-2 defeat).

In Spain , Real Madrid are off to a horror start with 1 point from 3 games. C-Ron needs to get going early. Lio Messi already has 4 goals from 2 La Liga games. Moneybags PSG played out an uninspiring third consecutive draw , while the only talking point from Italy and Germany was AC Milan’s opening day loss. 

Deconstucting the Gunners

Trying to make sense of yet another wild pre-season transfer saga

This little piece is being written by a long time (and one might say long suffering) Arsenal fan , during a long and tedious flight, even as Arsenal begin yet another season trying to cope with the loss of another talismanic player.

The loss of former skipper Robin van Persie has been bivalently received across all sections of the media. The majority (a significant number of them likely Mancunians) view RVP’s switch from London to Manchester as the potential death knell for Arsene Wenger; a blow that would probably finally ensure the Professor’s unblemished record of qualifying for the Champions League is ended. Of course, these writers do not even consider the Gunner’s chances at the EPL title even worthy of mention. Not a negligible few writers  however , have claimed that though Wenger was undoubtedly held to ransom by his captain , the ultimate result might turn out to be fortuitous for his team , especially considering how he’d already pre-empted the move and struck early in the transfer market to acquire 3 very differently capable players to replace the Dutchman.

Wenger : Furrows Galore

Let us consider the merits of both arguments:

At first sight, the Arsenal-bashing appears to need little debate to vindicate. RVP scored thrice as many goals as any other Gunner last season, and was single handedly responsible for his team either winning or drawing a number of games which could easily have gone the other way (fixtures against Everton and Liverpool readily spring to mind). His passing was first rate , set piece routines , above average at most times , and finishing in front of goal was exemplary. Add to this the fact that he has managed to remain fit for almost a year and half now, easily in longest span in his Arsenal carer.

The latter fact is what would be both United’s great hope and greatest fear. If the dreaded injury strikes , van Persie has shown that he is notoriously slow to recover from it. Add to this the undeniable dip in his performance over the last 2 months of the season, something which culminated in him headlining the dutch horror show at the European Championships. At the Euro’s he scored a sublime goal against Germany, but contrived to miss a hatful, some from positions which made you wonder if it was indeed him or his Arsenal teammate Marouanne Chamakh on the pitch. It is quite possible that rest and recoup since then, his batteries would be fully recharged and playing alongside Wayne Rooney and shepherded by Sir Alex Fergusson, he might proceed to put all doubts to rest. Time will bring out whether this is another historic coup by Sir Alex akin to Ruud van Nistelrooy and Eric Cantona or whether RVP is likely to end up as another failed transfer similar to the likes of Fernando Torres and Andy Carrol.

So all in all- 24 million for a transfer which at the face of it could not be prevented is not a bad deal , but the deal is likely to really rankle if RVP strikes gold at Old Trafford.

In my view , there is a more important transfer saga than RVP which the Gunners have to prevent at all costs – the switch of Alex Song to old nemesis Barcelona (the snatcher in chief of so many of Wenger’s boys before moneybags Man City came along..... Henry, Overmars, Gio , Hleb and of course Cesc). Van Persie may have got all the plaudits last year, but Song contribution was at least equal to the striker’s if not more. Although he still retains the propensity of picking up undesirable yellow card , there is no one better in the premier league in tracking attacking midfielders, and I’ve lost count of the number of last ditch tackles he made last season. Add to it a new found propensity to provide regular assists (especially via raking through balls and long balls) and popping up with the odd goal, and you have an indispensible asset to the arsenal system. Wnger excuse for letting Song go (with 3 years remaining on his contract) is that he has a fit Diaby and a Wilshire nearing fitness. I have not heard worse excuses: Diaby has hardly set the place alight in all of his years at the Emirates, and frankly is a defensive liability. Own goals, red cards , slack defence, letting strikers free on set pieces : he’s done the lot. Wilshere, for all his precocious talent , hasn’t played a minute in anger for more than a year. To expect him to settle down into the frenetic pace of the premier league with both a creative and defensive presence is too much to ask.

Song : More crucial to the Arsenal Setup than RVP

So to summarize my expectations for Arsenal’s season :

(1) EPL title : it’ll snow in hell if they win it.

(2) UCL qualification : probable , but chances likely to be dented if Song departs.

(3) Will they miss RVP : Unquestionably , the combination of Podolksi and Giroud will not even get them close to the 37 that the Dutchman scored last season. Goalscoring is going to be the major problem. Big scoring contributions needed from Walcott (assuming he stays put) , Carzola , Oxlade-Chamberlain, Wilshere, Ramsey and Arteta because the forward line is going to misfire big time.

P.S.: Arsenal managed a goalless draw in their first game against Sunderland after having 70% possession and 23 shots on target. Giroud contrived to miss an open goal. Wenger has sold Song to Barcelona citing Diaby as his number one choice in central midfield. The season is only a day old and I’m wincing already. 

Gunners Transfer Saga – A No Win Situation for All

And so it starts again – The annual North London summer pantomime, which in the past few years has featured headline acts by Emmanuel Adebayor, Cesc Fabregas (2 consecutive years), Samir Nasri and Gael Clichy. The latest duo tussling for the Broadway honours are the Gunners frontmen Robin van Persie and Theo Walcott. While RVP was easily the player of the season in England last year (his horror show in the subsequent European championships notwithstanding) and Walcott had the most consistent of all his inconsistent seasons with the Gunners, a close introspection into the career history of players under Arsene Wenger might suggest that transfers of these latest Arsenal wantaways might not be in the best interest of pretty much any party concerned – unless of course the only interest the player might profess is to garner a bank load of extra cash.

                                    Theo and RVP : Greener Pastures ( really ???)

Throughout the Wenger era the notable names who have left the club for greener pastures (money or trophies or both) include Marc Overmars , Gio van Bronckhorst , Ashley Cole , Mathieu Flamini , Alexander Hleb , Jose Reyes , Fabregas , Kolo Toure , Adebayor , Clichy and Nasri. Of course this list does not include the likes of Robert Pires , Freddy Ljunberg and Sol Campbell who shone for several years with the club before being relieved of their duties (at least in Pires’ case rather dubiously so). Neither do names like Pascal Cygan , Senderos or Jeffers feature as they were horrendous failures at the club.
So, to head back to our first list , of players who left Arsenal at their prime, only Overmars , Gio and Cole can proclaim with any real honour that they tasted success in their future ventures after quitting the Gunners.

Now success is a very gray term. Gael Clichy and Samir Nasri might well jump at my throat claiming they won the EPL trophy in their first season with City. However if success is merely to be measured by medals in the cabinet and not by the actual amount the individual contributes to the medal winning effort , then Robert Horry with 5 NBA championship rings is a greater player than Karl Malone and Tom Moody with 2 cricket world cup wins is more successful than Sachin Tendulkar. Success and greatness in team sport ought to be measured in more than merely by the number of medals and trophies unlike in individual disciplines. Cryuff , Puskas , Zico , Socrates , Bergkamp have no world cup medals to display , but at would any of them have changed their careers with Cristoff Dugarry or Luca Toni. Sometimes medals are merely won by being at the right place at the right time, and can then be hardly be equated with sporting greatness.

Back then to my original point – Nasri had a sub-par season with city and an even worse Euro with France, a far cry from the exalted heights of footballing artistry he displayed in 2010-2011 (especially the first half). Similarly Adebayor , Clichy or Toure haven’t really done anything spectacular in their post Arsenal ventures. Even Gunners Legend Thierry Henry, though he won the Champions League with Barcelona , was pretty much reduced to a bit part player for the Catalans in his years there, a far cry from week after week electric entertainment he used to provide English audiences during his time with Arsenal. As for Flamini and Hleb, average players who seemed much more than that under Wenger’s tutelage and system , sunk without a trace at Milan and Barcelona respectively. Even Fabregas didn’t really steal the show at an embarrassingly rich Barca squad that promptly surrendered their stranglehold on the La Liga to Jose and Ronaldo’s Madrid. The case for him, however, might be different with Xavi getting no younger and Iniesta ever injury prone , he and Leo Messi might well be footballing duo that etches their name in history.

                        Hleb and Flamini : Spectacular failures in Post Arsenal Careers

Van Persie, no doubt is an extremely accomplished striker , but I still think his performances have flattered his own abilities during the past year and a half. Always a feather touch away from an injury, and a failure to match his club performances on the international level should be a warning for the player and potential suitors alike. I personally do not think RVP will ever match the excellence of last season, whether it is for Arsenal or for another club. At Arsenal at least he will be playing a familiar system and under a man who has groomed him from his youth (just ask Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs the importance of the latter). As for Walcott , he is far from the finished product – already cries in the stands have called for the dynamic Alex Oxlade Chamberlain to be promoted over him in terms of first team appearances. He especially should take heed from the fates of Flamini and Hleb as he is in asimilar point in his career and is as likely to vanish out of contention as he is likely to finally fulfil those long prophesies of greatness.

All in all, introspection into the history of Arsenal transfers under Wenger might well forebode that RVP and Theo are best staying put in North London. Podolski is a good player , Giroud I haven’t seen much of, but with a couple of further tweaks , a fit squad and more essentially an early return by Jack Wilshere might just see the Gunners as dark horses to the 3 way challenge predicted between the Manchester clubs and the free spending Chelsea in the forthcoming season