It’s that time of year again when the classic old chestnut of “luck” will be used time and time again by coaches and players rumbled by their own inadequacies. In a week that saw Bayern Munich held to a somewhat embarrassing home draw by Getafe in the UEFA Cup, I’m reminded of their reaction to similar adversity three years ago…
Bayern Munich have crashed out of Europe feeling hard done-by. In his weekly Bundesliga editorial from Berlin, Brian O’Driscoll senses a touch of self-delusion in Bavaria.
Luck – The Last Refuge Of Scoundrels
Luck is a residue of design, so the old saying goes. If that’s the case, then Felix Magath had better get back to the drawing board because his Bayern Munich side is in need of a few fundamental tweaks.
On Tuesday night, Bayern officials and players explained two-legged defeat to Chelsea in the Champions’ League by fingering Lady Luck. Michael Ballack was blunt: “We were definitely unlucky today. We’ve seen two extremely tight games. We probably deserved it, but Chelsea were a tiny shade better and took their chances clinically. They were superbly disciplined today. It’s devastating when you play so well and still get knocked out.” Defender Willy Sagnol played the same card, saying: “We were unlucky for their opener. Drogba and Lampard are quality players and I just wonder if we didn’t pay Drogba a shade too much respect.”
It didn’t stop there. Franz Beckenbauer opined: “We basically don’t deserve to be out. You have to say we were unlucky. We’re on a par with them. If we’d focused harder in front of goal we could have done it. It wasn’t meant to be, simple as that. It’s a crying shame.” Karl-Heinz Rummenigge chimed in too, adding: “We were a shade unlucky at the decisive moments.”
Even coach Felix Magath couldn’t resist a swipe at Dame Fortune: “We didn’t get the breaks at the start – and then we were unlucky too,” before coming slowly back to reality: “Obviously it was about more than bad luck. We had three or four clear-cut openings in the first half, but we lost sight of the ultimate goal.”
Only Oliver Kahn saw it for what it was: “We have to face the facts and accept we’ve played well but we’ve still been knocked out, which is the ultimate punishment,” before ruining it all with this caveat: “We couldn’t do anything about their second. The cross was perfect and Drogba got up really well, so it was impossible for the defenders.”
Yet, honest reflection shows the party line to be disingenuous. Lucio’s own goals were not cruel examples of misfortune, but the punishment of incompetent defending. Furthermore, Didier Drogba’s aerial dominance exposed the inability of Robert Kovac to cope with the high ball. The only genuine gripe Bayern may have had was with the loss through injury of their two main strikers for the first-leg in London. Yet, in the absence of Roy Makaay and Claudio Pizarro, they scored twice. Conceding four undid that. In essence, the Bayern thesis holds little water.
On Tuesday, Joe Cole was a pivotal player for Chelsea, involved in the goals that ended the Bayern dream. First, he cut inside the home defence and rolled a square ball for Frank Lampard to drive. At that very moment, the 31st minute of the second-leg, Bayern had eight men plus goalkeeper Kahn behind the ball, yet no player stood within five yards of the England international. Lucio, marking space, was 10 yards from his own goal line, the most withdrawn of all outfield players. His positional sense – often flawed – was fatal. Obscuring Kahn’s view of proceedings, he was in no position to deal with any attack. The question to be asked is why was the Brazilian stationed so deeply?
The answer lies further upfield. The Bayern midfield quartet failed to defend adequately, and allowed Lampard an unobstructed run and drive. Lucio and Kovac, the central defenders, could claim that Ballack and Martin Demichelis had failed in their duty of protection. If so, why were they allowed to? Where was the leadership at the back to compel the midfield players to push on up the field and prevent the terminal squeeze that compressed the defence to the edge of their own six-yard box?
With no pressure applied to the English midfield, Bayern retracted towards their own goal, Lucio was driven into his own box, and Lampard had carte blanche to smash his off-target shot into the Brazilian’s jurisdiction. The result was fatal. Bad luck? Not really. Bayern had allowed themselves to be squeezed into a position of vulnerability. The deflection was the residue of bad design. 1-0 Chelsea.
Cole was again involved in the killer second goal. Willy Sagnol broke forward, drove a tame shot at Petr Cech, and then found himself out of position once the goalkeeper had launched the ball towards the former West Ham player. Exploiting Sagnol’s vacant stomping ground, Cole was able to clip the perfect cross into the box for the onrushing Drogba to power past Kahn. Kovac was exposed one final time. There would be no new contract at the Olympiastadion for the Croatian. In truth, he could look to Sagnol to share some of the responsibility, but he had been negligent over both legs, and his spiteful kick at the former Marseille man early in the game summed up his fear and frustration. A brave fightback mattered little, merely allowing the players to claim that the vicissitudes of fortune had conspired against them. However, the truth was clear to those who wanted to see it.
Using ill fortune as an excuse might be tolerated once. However, Uli Hoeness, Rummenigge, and Beckenbauer – happy to accept it and use if for deflection this time – are likely to take the Napoleonic route if Magath is deemed similarly “unlucky” in the future. The Bundesliga title should console the former Stuttgart boss next month, but expect to hear dark mutterings from on high if that is somehow surrendered. Bonaparte appointed generals if their luck was deemed positive. By the same token, generals can also be sacked if it’s of the less helpful hue.
Brian A. O’Driscoll
Originally posted at Goal.com: 14/04/2005 18:29
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