Soccer, football, footie from an American perspective by kaidez

Ex-pro basketballer and current TNT Network NBA analyst Kenny Smith used to write this fascinating column called Post-Game for SLAM!, a well-written basketball publication strongly influenced by Hip-Hop culture. Smith used Post-Game to provide insightful stories on any and all things b-ball related. One story, “Who’s The Man” in late 1999(?) was the first story I read and it not only made me a faithful SLAM! reader (until the column stopped) but it’s pretty much one of the greatest pieces of sports-writing I’ve every read. The story scientifically broke down what classifies a pro basketballer as the League’s best player, or “the Man.” Along the way, he applied his methodology to about ten of the top ballers of the time and concluded that the there were only four that earned this “Man” title: “Shaq (Shaquille O’Neal), Zo (Alonozo Mourning), [Tim] Duncan, [Karl] Malone. That’s it…no more, no less.” He used a bunch of various equations to get this solution, save for one notable one: how many points the players scored. Kenny stated that this factor didn’t mean much in the end because “even on lousy teams, someone’s putting up numbers,” or, scoring points.

Kenny’s scoring comment came back to me during the this weekend’s Manchester Derby, where Manchester United took down Manchester City 1-0. This match promised to be a good one because 1) it’s one of the most high profile rivalries in football, and 2) United’s Cristiano Ronaldo and City’s Robinho supposedly have have some kind of beef, about which I can’t find any information. Robinho praised Ronaldo not too long ago so I don’t really know if said beef really exists. But I do know that I learned a valuable footie lesson watching this game.

A few minutes after getting heckled by Man City fans during a corner kick, Wayne Rooney scored in the 42nd minute. I knew, along with many others, that City had a good chance to, at the very least, level the score. The chance bettered itself when Cristiano Ronaldo committed one of the most blatant handballs I’ve every seen, earning him a second yellow card and an automatic ejection from the match.

Now let’s look at this situation from a birds-eye view: along with Robinho, Man City had both Benjani Mwaruwari and Elano: two guys that can score with the latter being a great assist man. Although Pretty Boy Ronaldo is having a somewhat hit-or-miss season, he’s still an important piece of the United puzzle and he’s missed when he’s not on the pitch. For all the remaining scoring power on the Red Devil side (Rooney and Dimitar Berbatov), they were still down a man. The three key City scorers had the opportunity to put at least one ball in the back of the net.

But as Kenny Smith said, someone on the team is always putting up numbers, and that factor alone doesn’t make someone “the Man of the league” let alone “the Man of the match.” Man City spectacular failed to convert a goal due to, from what I saw, lousy teamwork. Lousy assists, horrible ball control, pointless formation adjustments. United, however, adjusted their formation to make sure that at least four defenders were in front of their goal when they had to. Their passing game was awesome throughout the entire match and it got better when Ronaldo got kicked out, developing into tactical game of keep-away. How each team adjusted their formation while one team was short a man determined the outcome of the match.

That’s pretty much sums up my footie lesson: that the amount of high profile scorers within one club have little to do with a club’s success in the long run. All those goals that Ronaldinho scored in the 06/07 season, those 40+ goals that Cristiano Ronaldo racked up last year…stuff like that doesn’t happen every season. Although a having a bunch of scorers on your team is a plus, it’s tactical decisions made by the club managers that determine the outcome of a match. And Sir Alex Ferguson’s decisions prevented the game from getting away from his team when it came down to it.

I left this game with a profound respect for football and realized what it means to support the club and not the player, which at times is a polar opposite approach from that of the average American sports fan. See, supporting a specific high-scoring player instead of the player’s entire team is common practice in the States. Case point point: it was practically impossible to find a Chicago Bulls fan outside of Chicago before Michael Jordan, and it was just as impossible to find one after he left the team. But try to find a Dennis Rodman fan that ignored his low scoring (and off-court antics) and loved his lock-em-down defensive style instead. Few and far between.

Don’t get me wrong here: there are die-hard American sports fans that are do-or-die for their teams. Among both my immediate family and in-laws, I can point to long-term Laker fans, Redskin fans, Philliy fans and Dolphin fans. But the do-or-die sports fan is, without a doubt, much more prevalent in soccer, which is not that popular in the U.S.

With 20/20 hindsight, the support-the-player-not-the-team approach might be how I ended up supporting Chelsea, with Didier Drogba being my Michael Jordan in this case. However, I’ve grown to bleed blue for my Blues in the past 18 or so months and will continue to do so, along with Real Madrid. I’ve learned to support my club regardless of when they break my heart…and MAN did all my clubs break my heart this weekend!!!

I’ll conclude this post by also saying that the Manchester Derby made me show much more respect for club managers than before…I view many of them as “the Man” right now. Who are they currently? Ferguson, Scolari (Chelsea), Benitez (Liverpool), Wenger (Arsenal). That’s it…no more, no less.