Thursday, May 28, 2009

Thoughts on the Champions League final

I would have been "quite pleased" if Manchester United had won last night. That's all. I don't support them or even like them very much. But for the pals who do, I would have been pleased.

But have you ever heard so much utter tosh as has been spouted over the last day. As United fan Jason Isaacs* said today, suddenly according to the callers to TalkSport and Radio5, and to the papers, United are now terrible. That Anderson is the worst midfielder since Luke Chadwick. It's always one extreme to another. They were beaten by Barcelona. And it was 2-0. Not 10-0.

There's a good antitode to this tidal wave of utter bollocks here, on the When Saturday Comes website.

It brings to mind the thought Ed Smith imparted in his excellent book What Sport Tells Us About Life. Most sport is "chaos upon chaos". Sports journalism seeks to bring meaning to all of this and draw conclusions. OK, Manchester United lost a game. The players weren't able to score, but they could have done on more than one occasion. And what if Eto'o's shot had been saved by Van Der Sar?

Same goes for the drooling over Barcelona. This was a team who were a minute away from being knocked out by Chelsea. Chaos reigned at the Bridge. They got through.

* He's a pal of mine who lives in Marple, not this one.

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