From Philip Brune : the warrior Gallas
Dear Myles,
Saw most of the Spurs Milan game, wherein Gallas was enormous.
He plays so much better with an anchor centre-half, like a Dawson or a Campbell, that lets him roam and anticipate. (Note: Vermaelen, for all his talents, is not an anchor centre-half. Nor is Koscielny. Djourou.)
There was one particular interception that was telling. Ibrahimovic had timed his run and was peeling in behind the defense; I think it was Jankulovski who had played the through ball.
Gallas cranked it up a gear and was just able to stretch himself onto the ball. Saved a probable goal by not even allowing a shooting opportunity. (Note: Arsenal’s lack of shooting opportunities against Barca were not due to such well-timed interventions.)
Gallas is old enough now that he doesn’t have that pace over a long distance, but he isn’t so old, and is still so much of a warrior, that he can reach down and find it for those key few strides.
And his experience and instincts tell him exactly when those few strides need to occur.
Earlier in the game he barged the ball away from a Milan player who looked like a small boy. What a warrior! Nasri is great, egos clash, but what a competitor!
Phil
p.s. I’m an Arsenal fan but not by upbringing. The circumstances are not typical, but would take too long to articulate.
Suffice it to say I don’t mind if Spurs win, except if it’s against Arsenal. There are those who would say that does not make me a real fan, but I say to hell with them!
________________
Myles replies :
Absolutely ! To hell with them.
I enjoyed seeing Gallas interviewed after that game. He has played at the Champions League for years and Spurs needed how know-how and steel
I wanted to watch the Spurs second leg to get Tuesday night out of my system.
Midfielder Sandro had the game of his life against a side fielding three far more celebrated Brazilians than him : Pato, Robinho and centreback Thiago Silva.
Sandro will be 21 next week. He\’s six foot two with a big engine and he covered a helluva lot of ground to win a lot of tackles. He\’s a kid who\’s only had 8 first team starts for Spurs before this.
Of of the things about Harry is that when he needs a player to give a performance, he somehow manages to find a player to do that. At times you’re watching a Spurs team held together by Sellotape, but somehow it holds together.
Harry said, “Nobody knows how far we can go.” I certainly don’t
William Gallas had a stormer and regular readers will know I\’m a big fan of a class defender who played for Arsenal for four years and shares my birthday on August 17.
A great reflex player, always good in a scramble, Gallas kicked a deflected Robinho shot off the line.
Seedorf was phenomenal in a deeper role. What a guy! What a player!
I very rarely watch the post-match interviews with managers or players. I just watch the action and let the Skybox tape the rest of it – and almost never go back and listen to what has been said.
But after the Spurs game, I watched Michael Dawson and his innocent joy was the excitement of a bloke doing things for the first time. Dawson was like a big kid. Referring to Gallas, he said, “It was a hard night for the pair of us.â€
That was the understatement of the week.
Spurs were outplayed and stretched and battered. But they scrapped and tackled and survived to fight another day.
Sometimes in Europe, at the end of a 180-minute football match, it’s only about : can we get through this? Can we hang on?
Some readers think I bang on about defending too much but I do that because I think defence is half of football.
Spurs went through by keeping two clean sheets against Milan, who are top of Serie A but nowhere near Barcelona in talent or teamwork.
After the Round 16 draw in December, the question was asked : What if Spurs go farther in the Champions League than Arsenal? In their first season?
Full disclosure : When Spurs started their campaign, before they played Young Boys on a plastic pitch, I thought it would a steep learning curve for Redknapp, the players, the staff, the club administrators, everybody.
You make big money in the Champions League but it makes big demands and affects your domestic games. I reckoned Tottenham\’s domestic results would dip as they adjusted to the demands of a competition they\’d been trying to get into for 14 years.
On Thursday my Gooner mate Kelvin called, and I said I’d listened to a talkSport clip on the net.
“Matt Scott said Wenger isn’t in charge of his senior players.”
“I heard it,” said Kelvin.
“He said things I’ve been saying for four years.”
“Five years,” said Kelvin.
Matt Scott is a Gooner with more balls than most football reporters.