Football Amnesia with Captain Hindsight
foot·ball am·ne·sia
Noun: Inability to form a rational opinion by remembering beyond the previous week of football.
It’s growing. To the football fan the saturation of football coverage is a joy. However, this does seem to create the need to sensationalise every result and revelation to the extent that immediate conclusions must be drawn. But like watching the final game of the season and picking the league champions – it’s a bit foolish if you don’t consider the previous 37 games.
The last week has seen Barcelona dethroned as Spanish and European Champions in front of their own fans. Following Chelsea‘s progression in the Champions League semi-final, journalists across this footballing nation were queing up to praise Chelsea’s ‘impenetrable defence’ [only impenetrable if you exclude the two goals for which they were penetrated] – the immediate aftermath sounded like the South Park character Captain Hindsight, who in this case seemed to be suffering from an English pandemic called ‘football amnesia’.
In need of fresh legs Guardiola turned to youth; Thiago Alcântara, Isaac Cuenca and Cristian Tello each started either against Madrid or Chelsea and Barcelona stuck to ‘Plan A: Posession’. Messi‘s penalty miss, Messi hitting the post, Busquets stoppage time sitter in the first leg after Pedro hit the post, Sanchez missing two clear cut chances, as did Cesc Fabregas. Barcelona didn’t lose to Chelsea because they didn’t have a Plan B, they lost because they didn’t convert the chances created through Plan A. Guardiola took a chance, the players stuck to their game plan, it paid off in ’09 and ’11, it didn’t in ’12.
How many English football fans were supporting Chelsea for the night? There were no English prospects on the pitch. Scared of failure, scared of Captain Hindsight and his conclusions. Roll on the Euros and the World Cup, where England will under perform and Captain Hindsight will tell you we can’t keep posession, we don’t have the technique and we can’t produce players like the Spanish, like that young Thiago fellow.
Thanks Captain Hindsight.
Interesting football piece from local football fanatic, Very amusing.
Haha!! Clearly written by a fan of the game. Very informed and entertaining.
Very enjoyable, thanks. I wrote a similar piece on the ‘Chelsea Juggernaut’ and the role that luck has played in their recent run. People forget the 2 offside goals against Wigan, the dodgy penalty against Fulham, the goal that wasn’t against spurs, the fact that their FA cup run up until the semi final was against teams from lower divisions (they needed a replay against Birmingham and conceded 2 to leicester at home).
That they were lucky against Barcelona is not their fault, it remains to be seen if they can translate their lucky run into form and pull of something similar to the last time Liverpool won the CL.
http://www.footballbubble.blogspot.com
Indeed not. Growing up I watched a lot of Italian football.
(Any football fan who says that ALL Italian football is boring and defensive should be hit over the head with a shovel.)
I have no vendetta against counter-attacking tactics or Chelsea.
‘That they were lucky against Barcelona is not their fault’
- I agree. But the fact they needed luck IS their fault. The fact Chelsea don’t have players capable of competing with Barcelona in an open football match is all down to Chelsea. They have the money and the opportunity to produce youth talent if they wanted to, but they’ve stuck with the veterans and I respect that. However, if you play that way repeatedly your luck will run out.
We can chose to celebrate teams who play this way, but we can’t then complain when England’s younger players don’t develop to the level in which they are able to compete. With the resources at the disposal of our national game – competing is the least we should expect.
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