Thursday, May 22, 2008

Three cheers for Chelsea!

Since shifting to the hostel three years ago, one thing that I have really missed is watching football. Even though my favourite club is no longer in the EPL, I still like to watch a few games, and since almost all my friends support Man U, it turns out that I end up watching a lot of Man U games. But unlike all my friends, I am not a Man U supporter. So let me try to analyse yesterdays game from the POV of a Chelsea supporter.
Yesterday's match was one I really wanted to see. I had missed the champions league final for 3 years in succession and was not going to miss this one. Especially since this was between two teams with an intense rivalry of late.
As you all know by now, Man U won on penalties. They did outplay Chelsea in the 1st half but Chelsea fought back superbly and managed to dominate the rest of the game. They created some great chances, with Lampard & Drogba both rattling the frame of the goal. Petr Cech as usual was outstanding and was the chief reason why the Londoners were only a goal down before they scored. Even Lampard and the two Coles - Joe & Ashley - turned in brilliant performances.
But my heart goes out to John Terry. He made an outstanding reflex save to deny Ryan Giggs in his record breaking 759th appearance for Man U. He was great throughout the game and led by example. But as it so often happens, the hero of the match is the villain of the shootout. So it is a great tragedy that he ended up missing the penalty that could have won Chelsea the title especially because he lost his lost his footing while taking the kick (despite that he didn't send the ball high into the stands which an ex-Man U player infamously did). He certainly did not deserve this.
Most people will argue that Man U have been better this season than Chelsea but we must acknowledge the spirit of the Chelsea team. They got over the sacking of Mourinho and out of nowhere re-entered the title race very late into the season and almost snatched it from Man U. And they also finally managed to enter the Champions League final. It has been a good season for them, despite the fact that they have no silverware to show for it. I really hope that Avram Grant stays on as he has done a very good job. Same for players like. This season Chelsea might have been denied by a Man U team that was on a dream run seemingly throughout but next year might just be Chelsea's year.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Grant has been sacked.
With Rijkard being the most talked about replacement