Monday, February 01, 2010
AS ONLY Sky can, they blasted yesterday’s big match coverage to, well, the sky.
Live football on 3D! First time in the history of the world, ever! It’ll be like nothing you’ve ever seen before!
And then they only went and showed us a bloomin’ repeat.
Your correspondent was in the Emirates for the Champions’ League semi last May – for that full three-dimensional, high-definition, surround-sound effect, it’s hard to beat actually going to a match, you know – and, if I wasn’t the conscientious professional that I am, I could handily recycle my match report from that night and pass it off as a fresh piece of work this morning.
The identical 1-3 scoreline only tells part of an eerily familiar tale. Even the build-up was a case of déjà vu. After the first leg at Old Trafford last year, Arsene Wenger had promised a different Arsenal on their home turf. And he was right – they were worse. This time, he spoke about his team being a different animal – but, after succumbing to yet another Manchester United counter-attacking blitz, the rest of us are left to ponder that wisdom about leopards and spots.
Last May, Alex Ferguson left Carlos Tevez on the bench and played Ji Sung Park – and he scored. This time, Park got the nod ahead of Valencia and the outcome was the same. And while Ronaldo was the two-goal hero nine months ago, his countryman Nani weighed in with a passable impersonation yesterday, even if he needed a big helping hand from Manuel Almunia to finish off his inspired contribution to the opening goal.
For Arsenal, the re-run was painfully familiar from beginning to end: at two goals down, it was game over, at three, it was verging on the embarrassing. And even though their consolation goal came earlier this time, it would have been a travesty if United’s lead was pegged back in the dying moments.
Things might have been different had Arsenal built on a promising start. Last May, they were denied the services of the cup-tied Andrei Arshavin but, yesterday, they could have been forgiven for ruing his availability. As we saw at Euro 2008, he’s a hugely gifted talent but, when things go wrong for him, they go badly wrong. A couple of wasted chances early in the game set the tone for a personal display characterised by bad judgment and visibly dwindling confidence, even if he did have the honesty not to shy away from the ball.
However, the contrast with the performance of the man of the match could not have been more acute.
Even if you’d watched Wayne Rooney in grainy old black and white yesterday, the evidence of a player in his prime would have shone through. The goal of the game summed him up, a one-two which, again, recalled his devastating double act with Ronaldo at the Emirates last May.
This time, Rooney both provided the ammunition and supplied the killer blow, setting Nani on his way with a lancing pass from inside his own half and, then after sprinting through the middle, not even having to break stride as he swept the return ball to the corner of the net.
Rooney has all the qualities needed to be a top striker, though recent comparisons with Pele ought to be taken with a pinch of salt.
This sort of stuff comes with the territory – especially when it’s an English player generating the hype. In the world of music, folk used to be obsessed with identifying the new Bob Dylan. Even the emerging Bruce Springsteen wore the tag for a while. But, of course, he wasn’t the new Bob Dylan, just a great talent in his own right.
So maybe Wayne Rooney is the new Springsteen. Certainly, at Old Trafford these days, he’s The Boss.
© Examiner Publications (Cork) Limited, City Quarter, Lapps Quay, Cork. Registered in Ireland: 73385.
