Hi all,
Welcome back to my series about UEFA Champions League finals.
If your reaction to the above was "???", check out these links for parts one, two, three, and four.
Tim
2014: Real Madrid 4, Atletico Madrid 1 (Real Madrid wins in extra-time)
This game was like the 2013 final, version 2.0. Real Madrid, the giant of the sport and record-holder for most European championships, was going for an unprecedented tenth title. Atletico, the little brother, was finally taking the inter-city feud with their trophy-laden neighbors to the sport's biggest stage.
Like with the prior year's final, the less prestigious side entered the match as underdogs. This made some sense. Historically speaking, if this was a rocks-paper-scissors game, Real was the rock-hard, er, rock, while Atletico was the dull pair of scissors.
Yet Atletico boasted the credentials of an equal opponent. They had just beaten Madrid for the Spanish league title. In the quarterfinals of this tournament, they eliminated Spain's other giant, Barcelona. Under manager Diego Simeone, Atletico had a knack for throttling opponents and picking them off on the counter-attack.
I was around town for this match and ended up watching the game with a few friends at The Field, one of my favorite bars in Cambridge. It was completely stuffed for the game. I again ran into an acquaintance (coworker) with a German background. This time, I didn't think much of it. He and I had gotten drinks there in the past.
The game was tense throughout. Atletico grabbed a first-half lead but, with their top goalscorer off injured, retreated into a defensive formation far earlier than usual. They hung on for dear life until the ninety-third minute...
Once the extra period started, Atletico's fatigue became evident. They conceded a second, then a third. When Real were awarded a penalty with the chance to make it 4-1, Ronaldo stepping forward to take it was a forgone conclusion. Everyone in the bar knew he would take all steps necessary to ensure he took the kick. His goal finalized the scoreline and a wild celebration ensued on the pitch.
Since the 2009 final, the 'Messi v Ronaldo' thing had subsided a bit. Messi's superior skill set found the perfect team and his five-year run since remains among the greatest in the sport's history. Ronaldo found his niche, though, scoring goals for fun in Madrid and always milking the spotlight whenever he got the chance.
As Atletico's players slumped to the ground in defeat, the question was not if but when Ronaldo would take off his jersey and parade his abs around Lisbon's Estadio da Luz. It was salt in the wound for us neutrals who adopted Atletico over the last 120 minutes. It was possible they would be back, of course, but I knew better.
2015: Barcelona 3, Juventus 1
Barcelona, perhaps motivated by Real Madrid's triumph the prior year, returned to the showpiece final after a brief absence. Big matches featuring Italian teams are always intriguing thanks to their teams' well-earned reputation for tactical excellence. So, I was eagerly anticipating this chess match between the Catalan giants and the Turin-based side.
Things seemed off, though, in the opening minutes. Juventus defended narrowly, ostensibly to clog the center of the pitch, but perhaps too much so. "Barcelona are going to have a lot of room to hit passes wide and in behind the fullbacks," I remarked to my friend watching with me. Sometimes, when a team defends too narrowly, they force themselves to run too far to address a threat on the wings. The effect on the defensive shape is like an accordion being pulled apart and a clever attacking team can exploit the unaccounted spaces between players to create chances.
The comment went largely ignored, or maybe he just didn't have time to respond, because moments later Messi knocked a diagonal ball into the left corner. It found an in-stride Alba who touched it to Neymar. As Juventus scrambled to adjust their defense and retain their compact shape, Neymar found Iniesta darting into the box before he slipped the ball to a waiting Rakitic. The Croatian knocked the ball into the goal from six yards away and it was 1-0, Barcelona. I can't claim to have predicted the goal, of course, but that little comment...you know?
The friend over for this game, Hoa, is the same one who is inexplicably a Manchester United fan and a long-suffering recipient of my half-baked tactical analysis. He came over a little before kickoff and we played FIFA head-to-head to pass the time until the match started (breaking news: I picked Liverpool and he picked United). This is no new thing for us as we have played FIFA regularly since we first met in 2006 (1).
Tactically speaking, my understanding of the sport has come a long way in those ten years. FIFA played a major role in this. Back then, my strategy resembled what eleven rogue (and I suppose, somehow, sentient) rooks set loose on a chessboard might come up with: find open space and run in a straight line forward (2). To be fair, it's a fairly common strategy (but quickly wears out the 'sprint' button on the controller, leading to added expenses).
Over the next decade, I played a lot of FIFA. In the process, I learned about wing play, counter attacks, and through balls. This is, as I've come to learn, not an unusual story at all. The rise of interest in this country tracks with the increase in accessibility to the highest levels of the game. Nowhere is this more evident than in video games. The same type of kid who once learned the nuances of the shotgun formation in the Madden NFL football franchise or honed his full-court press in the NBA Live series is now dribbling his way through hours of FIFA soccer.
On this day, I flexed those strategic muscles honed over many years of FIFA gaming. I knew Hoa too well. His preference to play with just one forward meant my three-man defense was more than prepared to handle his attacker in front of my goal. In fact, with two extra players in defense, I risked leaving my own attack undermanned. I resolved the problem by installing Steven Gerrard, an attack-minded midfielder, as my right-sided defender. Logically, he would step forward into the attack whenever the other defenders were properly positioned to handle the threat posed by the opposing forward.
Virtual Gerrard responded by scoring two goals in a 3-0 rout, mostly after charging forward at will into open space. He's a lot like that rook I described earlier, this Virtual Gerrard, and his reckless charging about made the difference.
Maybe things haven't changed all that much in ten years. It proved true on the real pitch as it was predicted on my virtual one: at the final whistle, Barcelona once again were champions of Europe.
Footnotes / imagined complaints
1. Just stating the facts, part 1
According to TOA, my winning percentage against Hoa is 100%. He contests this figure and cites verified results to make his case. I concede that he makes a decent argument.
2. Just stating the facts, part 2
Hoa, being a hopeless player, still employs this rather blunt strategy, though his pace is more pawn-like.
