The Monday Miscellany

So, its to be Chelsea v Everton in the FA Cup Final following their weekend wins over Arsenal and Manchester Utd.  Two very different matches; the first open and chaotic, the latter tactical and strategic but one common element was the criticism of the quality of the pitch by the managers of the beaten teams.

It is not a new notion that the pitch at Wembley resembles a large green trifle sponge, forever offering up divots the size of the Isle of Man and being so rough and bobbly that teams cannot play a natural quick passing game.  There is no question that the playing surface is poor but do these managers excuses stand up to scrutiny?

It should be pointed out that, as always, the pitch is the same for both teams.  And the worst the Wembley pitch has ever been was in November 2007 when England faced Croatia in their crucial final Euro 2008 qualifying match.  A month beforehand, the surface had been churned up by the heavy boots of the New York Giants and the Miami Dolphins; the gridiron markings were still clearly visible in the mud.  But while England played such a befuddled and clumsy game, Croatia passed the ball around quickly, accurately and purposefully without a care in the world.  Wembley’s pitch may be bad by top-end English standards – the surface at the Emirates Stadium is like a snooker table – but there is plenty worse both in the lower leagues in this country and on the continent.

I have seen Stockport County play many times in the last two or three seasons on the potato field that is Edgeley Park, routinely ploughed up by the Sale Sharks rugby club who own the ground, but it did not stop them playing a good, quick passing game, setting a league record for nine wins without conceding a goal in early 2007 and then getting promoted to League One last season.  Furthermore, at Wembley last May, Stockport produced one of their best performances of the season, beating Rochdale 3-2 in the Play-Off Final.

Nevertheless, urgent action is necessary.  Wembley is the best stadium in the northern hemisphere but has a pitch unworthy of that status.  It is staging the UEFA Champions League Final in 2011 and hopes to have the World Cup Final in 2018.

There is an argument that the pitch is tired, but it has been poor since its inception in March 2007 when England and Italy’s Under-21 sides drew 3-3 in the curtain-raising friendly.  It is used far less frequently than, say, the pitch at Reading’s Madejski Stadium, which isn’t just used for all of Reading F.C.’s home games but also those of the London Irish rugby team, but their surface is exemplary.

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Sir Alex Ferguson has obviously acquired a sense of humour in recent weeks.  The irony of him accusing Rafael Benítez of treating Everton with contempt will be lost on few, especially after yesterday’s bizarre team selection.  Did he not want to win the FA Cup?  Or did he simply think Everton would roll over and accept defeat however weak a side he fielded?

If there has been a footballing incident in recent years more overblown that Benítez’s ‘gesture’ following Liverpool’s second goal against Blackburn Rovers last week, it escapes me now.  The most sensible interpretation of his arm movement was a reproach of Liverpool’s set-piece tactics, yet for some reason we are asked to believe he was dismissing Blackburn’s chance of producing a comeback.  But Benítez is a naturally cautious manager who never believes a match is won, even if Liverpool are 5-0 up.

Sam Allardyce also weighed in, though having seen his Blackburn side lose feebly on Saturday at Stoke City, it’s difficult not to think that he has more important things to worry about than the Liverpool manager’s body language.

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The poor pitch has only increased calls for FA Cup semi finals not to be played at Wembley.  The main arguments to this effect are that it devalues the experience of the Final and that it is inconvenient for fans of northern clubs.  Consider, though, that the natural home for Manchester Utd’s semi finals in recent years has been Villa Park, capacity 42,640.  The attendance of yesterday’s match at Wembley, as reported in the Times, was 88,141.  So there were 45,500 fans who could attend on Sunday who would not have been able to go at Villa Park, which is more than adequate counter for any arguments against Wembley being used for such fixtures.

It would be a different story if there were a suitably large stadium in the north of England that isn’t Manchester Utd’s own ground.  An obvious choice would be the new Stanley Park stadium in Liverpool but that appears to be in limbo: who knows when, or even if, it will be completed.  You might worry about Manchester Utd fans going to Liverpool to play, say, Aston Villa but Liverpool played Chelsea in the 2006 semi final at Old Trafford without problem.

There are legitimate complaints about Wembley, mostly to do with the cost.  When I watched England play Hungary at Old Trafford just before the 2006 World Cup, it cost £25, from which, at Wembley, you’ll not get much change after buying a programme, a cheeseburger and a small cup of Bovril.

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AZ Alkmaar, the Dutch provincial side managed by former Barcelona boss Louis van Gaal, won the Eredivisie title without playing yesterday, after Ajax lost 6-2 at PSV Eindhoven.

AZ would have won the title had they beaten Vitesse Arnhem at home on Saturday but they suffered a surprise defeat.  Indeed, with Steve McClaren’s Twente side, sitting in second place, losing 1-0 at Feyenoord to a Roy Makaay penalty, a mere draw would have made AZ champions.

AZ are a modest club built on young, hungry players.  Their star player, and scorer of their goal in the 2-1 defeat to Vitesse on Saturday, is Dutch-born Morocco international striker Mounir El Hamdaoui, technically gifted and a ruthless goalscorer.  They have a number of promising Belgians also: left back Sébastien Pocognoli, defender Gill Swerts, playmaker Maarten Martens and forward Moussa Dembélé.

AZ’s title breaks the stranglehold on the Eredivisie of the Dutch Big Three of Feyenoord, PSV Eindhoven and Ajax.  AZ last won the title in 1981 and you have to go back to 1964 for the last team other than those four to win the Dutch championship.

Indeed, their is change afoot across Europe, with Marseille dethroning Lyon at the top of the French league, winning 2-1 at Lorient yesterday before Lyon lost 1-0 at Bordeaux, who are now second.  In Germany, unfancied Wolfsburg are three points clear of Bayern Munich while Rubin Kazan are the current Russian champions.

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I could not watch more than the first half-hour of Newcastle Utd’s 1-0 loss at Tottenham Hotspur yesterday, but I saw enough to be baffled by Alan Shearer and Iain Dowie’s tactics.  Jonás Gutiérrez moved to the left wing, Michael Owen on the right?  All the problems stemmed from the absence of José Enrique, which necessitated the initial deployment of Damien Duff as a left wing-back.  But all the mid-game tactical switches did was confuse the players.  One of Fabio Capello’s greatest tricks as England manager was to stop treating the players like adults; simple tactics have led to significantly improved results.

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One last thought on the Chelsea-Arsenal match – the crisis in Polish goalkeeping.  Whatever their shortcomings elsewhere, Poland have usually had a reliable keeper between the sticks, right from October 1973 when Jan Tomaszewski’s heroics at Wembley kept England out of the 1974 World Cup.  In Jerzy Dudek, they had one of the world’s most imposing shot-stoppers, especially during his days at Liverpool, and Celtic’s Artur Boruc was the best goalkeeper at Euro 2008; but for him Poland would have suffered an embarrassing defeat to Austria in Vienna.

Now Dudek can’t get a game at Real Madrid, Artur Boruc is dropping clangers such as that against Northern Ireland in March and Tomás Kuszczak and Lukasz Fabianski are hardly proving able deputies to Edwin van der Sar and Manuel Almunia.  Hopes for the future rest with 26-year-old Lukasz Zaluska of Dundee Utd, who will join Celtic in the summer.

The pitch can hardly be blamed for Fabianski’s failure to cover his near post, however precise the shot was from the ever-improving Florent Malouda.  Nor does it explain his brain-fart when entering a foot race he couldn’t hope to win against Didier Drogba for the winning goal, a trick he’d already perfected in the opening minutes only for Kieran Gibbs to clear the Ivorian striker’s header off the line.