The
Good – The first
30 minutes of tonight’s match was excellent. You really felt like this was going to be a
classic match from an attacking point of view.
Arsenal came out the gates strong, and really took it to the Bayern. It took a little bit of time for Bayern to
get into the match, and at one point Bayern looked rattled and eventually gave
away a penalty. As an Arsenal supporter,
I was instantly optimistic, watching the first 30 minutes. I started believing Arsenal would not only
get a result but they could actually win.
Arsenal’s
defense when they went a man down and then one goal down was
tremendous. I commend them, they worked
hard for each other, and the whole team was switched on and down for the cause.
You could actually feel and see that “good
team spirit” Wenger’s always bloviating about after losses.
The
Bad – Ozil’s attitude
after the missed penalty was so disheartening.
You could see it in his “lizard boy” eyes the disappointment and I don’t
think he ever recovered from the miss. I
thought Wenger should have taken Ozil off instead of Santi because Ozil was
crushed mentally after the miss. I felt
Santi would’ve help out poor poor Monreal on that right side more effectively
than Ozil. I like Ozil, I still think he’s
world class, but the poor guy looks completely drained physically, and its
clearly starting to effect is play.
The Red
Card
was a bit harsh, and ruined what could’ve been a classic match. I thought Robben’s touch was heavy and Sagna
would have got to it. Was it a clear
goal scoring opportunity? What if Robben
scores with that touch, does the ref wave off the goal, and still give the penalty
and red card? Can we make an argument that Ozil had a clear goal scoring opportunity?
The
Ugly - Arsenal’s Naivety was again on display
late in the second half. Jack took an
early free kick from damn near the center circle; after his team had just been
ran ragged for the whole 2nd half.
Jack proceeds to kick the ball to the only person on the team crazy
enough to go after it and take on Bayern defense by himself (Koscielny). The worst part about this free kick is that
Jack kicked the ball straight to Bayern’s Keeper (Neuer). Koscielny is now out of position, running
around like a mad man trying to win the ball back by himself, instead of
getting back into position. Bayern then
simply avoid Koscielny’s one man press, and calmly and methodically pass the
ball around and score that crucial 2nd away goal. Its déjà vu all over again, Arsenal give up a
needless goal late in a Champions League knockout match trying to score a goal
they didn't need. Losing 1 nil to the
defending champions with 10 men would’ve been a great moral victory for
Arsenal, especially after what happen last year in Munich (Munich 0 – 2 Arsenal). It was naïve for any Arsenal player at that
stage in the match, after what happen last year, to think about anything else
other than defending.
Final
thoughts if you watched the first 30 minutes of tonight’s
match, then you know how good Arsenal can be at times. At times Arsenal can be extraordinarily scintillating,
a joy to watch, and then at times Arsenal press the proverbial self-destruct
button, usually in big matches against big clubs. The gap in talent between Arsenal and Bayern
is not wide. Arsenal can match up with
any team in the world physically, it’s mentally where Arsenal are still having
the hardest times breaking through and winning things. The difference in mentality between the clubs
is Arsenal was naïve and switched off for about 2 minutes and gave up the 2nd
away goal. Whereas Bayern knew it would’ve
been naïve to think a 1 goal lead was safe to take back to Munich. Bayern knew it would be naïve to attack recklessly
and potentially give up a counter attack goal to Arsenal, so Bayern probed and
prodded, kept the ball and calmly and patiently waited for an Arsenal mistake
to pounce on and score the precious 2nd away goal.
Peace Out,
Blanco
Peace Out,
Blanco
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