By Myles Palmer
Real Mallorca 0 Arsenal 2
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I wanted to see Bergkamp play with Jeffers, but Arsene Wenger fielded a completely different team after half time.
Both Arsenals beat Mallorca 1-0. They might meet again in the Champions League if the Spanish club beat Ferencvaros in their third qualifying round.
The starting X1 was Wright; Lauren, Keown, Adams, Upson; Parlour,Inamoto, Vieira, Pires; Bergkamp, Henry.
Inamoto made two good passes and ran about a lot. Lauren looked very solid at right back. Adams was deeply tanned, as were Upson and Pires.
Don’t know where Pires went on his holidays but it was nowhere near a barber shop. Only kidding Bob, I like long hair.
Henry tried an outrageous pop from a wide angle, dipping a shot just under the bar which the keeper tipped over. There was nothing else on,so it was worth a try. If it had gone in it would have been better than his dipper against Manchester United.
Soon after that came a slick move for the first goal, typical Arsenal,good early football down the middle, Pires on the ball in his own half,forward quickly into Vieira’s run, tasty first time pass into Bergkamp’s stride, took one touch and the panicking defender Fatith Akyel, racing back, prodded past the keeper.Good move, good finish by the Turk.
It was one of those situations where the keeper is coming out and hoping nothing nasty will happen. Because if it does there is probably nothing he can do.This time something horrible happened and the ball went just inside the post and there was no way he could get anywhere near it and Mallorca were 1-0 down.
Ashley Cole came on for Upson, who had been injured early on. Then an elbow split Keown’s nose and Luzhny replaced him after 43 minutes.
At half time Bergkamp was interviewed by commentator Gerry
Armstrong, whose interview was like a commentary. His questions were five times longer than Dennis’s answers.
DB just said that they had trained hard that morning, and that Thierry was working on making runs behind the defence, so that Dennis’s passes could find him.
Second half, the team was : Manninger ; Dixon, Luzhny, Stepanovs,Cole; Pennant, Grimandi, van Bronckhorst, Ljungberg; Jeffers,Wiltord.
Francis Jeffers dribbled in his own half once and lost the ball. He also completely miscontrolled one promising long pass. Is this what they teach them at the Everton School of Science?
Jeffers will soon improve, especially when he plays with Dennis.
Alvaro Nova was booked for a vicious boot into Gio’s knee. Jeffers had a decent shot saved.
Then came another slick move after 71 minutes : Luzhny-van Bronckhorst,Dixon, Pennant, first time cross into the six yard box,Jeffers raced in, Carlos Roa slapped the ball out to van Bronckhorst.
His first shot hit a defender but he buried the rebound, stroking it into the bottom corner for 2-0.
As I figured, the Dutchman is more of a technician than a power player.
His game is based on accuracy, not athleticism. He looks a bit one-paced,but that should be OK because there is plenty of pace in the rest of the team.
Van Bronckhorst’s job will be to release that pace when the score is 0-0, and then, at times, to keep possession with neat passes. He will be a good player, but not an exciting player. It could work well because he will have exciting players all round him.
Nort much else to report. Pennant played well. The Alps behind the Grensland Stadium, Kufstein, were as spectacular as Thierry’s big dipper and Arsenal’s Alp, Sol Campbell, came on for the last ten minutes, replacing Stepanovs.
Nobody knows what Wenger’s team will be against Middlesbrough on August 18th.
Or if he will again field two teams against Roma on Wednesday night.
Roma, clearly, are better than Mallorca, so they won’t gift the Gunners an own goal.
If Arsenal score in the third game of this Austrian tour they will have to kick the ball into the net themselves, or head it in.
It’s on C5 and even if Roma are scrappy it will be fun to see Capello fuming and gesticulating.
30th July 2001.