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Soccer Break Wednesday
A fine Wednesday to you all, and a few statistics to begin with. Attendance at the Nou Camp: 95,486. Estimated crowd noise (in decibels): 121.8. Estimated noise of a referee’s whistle (in decibels): 121.8.
The operative word above is estimated, because of course we have no idea, but a quick dig around on the internet shows some debate about whether Robin van Persie could have heard Massimo Busacca’s whistle despite the defeaning noise at the Nou Camp.
Sending-off or no sending-off, here’s another statistic for you from the Champions League thriller. Completed passes: Barcelona – 738 ; Arsenal – 199. The Londoners did mighty well to hang in there and can be proud of their efforts, but the Catalan team’s superiority told in the end. Few teams could touch them in that mood.
Do you think 11 against 11 would have seen Arsenal through? Or was the red card just a mere sideshow?
In Tuesday’s other action, Shakhtar Donetsk eased past AS Roma 3-0 to book their quarter-final place to become the first Ukrainian side to reach the last eight since Dynamo Kiev in 1999.
So now all eyes will be on another north London team hoping to reach the quarters. Tottenham Hotspur take a one-goal advantage into their clash with AC Milan at White Hart Lane.
Schalke 04, whose manager Felix Magath could leave at the end of the season according to German media, host La Liga side Valencia after former Real Madrid striker Raul salvaged a 1-1 draw for the Bundesliga club in the first leg in Spain.
What now for wondrous Wolfsburg?
Wolfsburg are only 90 minutes away from winning their first German championship and they have equalled or broken several records in achieving that.
No other team have ever had two strikers score 20 goals or more in a Bundesliga season. Grafite has 26, Edin Dzeko 25.
Wolfsburg equalled the longest winning streak in one season in the Bundesliga with 10 consecutive victories after the winter break. They have a near perfect home record, dropping only two points in 16 matches this term.
What can they improve on after such a season?
Coach Felix Magath will not be there next term, having signed with Schalke 04. Grafite has said he will stay on but Dzeko looks unlikely to partner him up front next season with big European clubs including Arsenal rumoured to be eyeing the Bosnian and team mates.
But don’t expect Volkswagen-backed Wolfsburg to be a one-off thing.
I think anyone outside Bavaria would agree with the last post.
Can Magath wake Germany’s sleeping giant?
It was clear from the start that Felix Magath’s move to VfL Wolfsburg in 2007, after winning consecutive league and cup doubles with Bayern Munich, was a step backwards before another big step forward.
No one really expected them to be top of the table with three matches left this season. Magath himself said the team had met their targets earlier than expected.
His next big step now turns out to be Schalke 04, one of the most fervently supported clubs in the country — as opposed to Volkswagen-sponsored Wolfsburg — but also a club that has long failed to live up to its potential.
Without a championship for 51 years, Schalke have come agonisingly close many times. Magath must change that. He has to reorganise a team that includes several key players on their way out, like formidable central defenders Mladen Krstajic and Marcelo Bordon, expensive signings that have failed to deliver like Orlando Engelaar and Jefferson Farfan and volatile striker Kevin Kuranyi, who is still undecided about his future.
Magath, who will have complete control over the team, has to change all that without playing in any European competition next season.
It’s a much bigger job than he’s done at Wolfsburg. Everyone in Gelsenkirchen expects to get what they have been missing out for the past half century. All the second-place finishes, all the last-gasp failures have left fans hungry for lots of silverware and they will want to taste success under Magath sooner rather than later.
PHOTO: VfL Wolfsburg’s coach Felix Magath gestures during their Bundesliga game at VfB Stuttgart, May 9, 2009. REUTERS/Thomas Bohlen
One thing which struck me is according to what I read, it is a four-year contract Felix Magath is having at Schalke.
Schalke chairman Clemens Toennies had said something about Magath will be given that time frame to develop the team. If Magath does not produce anything during that time frame, I don’t think the fans will appreciate him. Much less about coming in second in the league, again.
Bearing in mind Schalke’s title ambitions will always be faced with competition from Bayern Munich. And the coaching search at Bayern seemed to be hitting a roadblock at the moment. Louis van Gaal being not sure whether will he go to Germany after all, despite what was also quoted with him saying that Bayern is a ‘dream club’ for him.
